Well, I see that I contributed to some confusion. The two modern texts I
cited use the hands as a horizontal dial, with hours in a sequence on
either hand.
>> use your left hand pointed west in the morning, and right hand
>> ponted east in the afternoon (Northern hemisphere).
>> The stick should make an angle with your palm equal to your latitude. Your
>> palm must be horizontal.
The German drawing of the man holding the stick in his hand does show his
palm vertical, but that appears to be a typical early engraving with
liberties taken in perspective. The numbering sequence for the hours in
the detail engraving of the hand shows the hours from 5 to 12 (AM?) and 12
to 7 (PM), on one hand, different than my modern texts.
I believe the early drawing would work if you keep the stick in the left
hand all day, as shown, with a horizontal palm. Face north (away from the
sun) in the AM, with the left hand outstretched to the west. Face south
(towards the sun) in the PM, with the left hand outstretched to the east.
My imaginary sun works with this model.
Further confusion: the stick gnomon points to the pole in the AM, but away
from the pole in the PM. So, this is two types of dial in one, but
consecutively, not concurrently.
I'm interested in this 'technology', but it does seem to me that you could
get an equally accurate estimate of the time by simply noting the position
of the sun in the sky.
_______________________________________
Peter Abrahams [EMAIL PROTECTED]
the history of the telescope, the microscope,
and the prism binocular
