corrections are added or subtracted to obtain mean solar (or in reverse, sundial) time. I am guessing that most church clocks in 1803 were corrected to local apparent (sundial) time using a nearby sundial, perhaps daily or weekly.
I would appreciate having other comments posted to Sundials (or at least to me).
Gordon
>We are doing a historical research. In an important document we find a >time indication in Matterdorf (then on the Estates of the Count >Eszterhazy in old Hungary, named Nagymarton, today: Mattersburg in >Burgenland, near Eisenstadt, in Austria): on Saturday, June 18, 1803, "5 > >minutes before the bell finished ringing 9 p.m.".. Can somebody tell me, > >how were church clocks calibrated at that place and time, and what does >it mean "end of ringing the bell". Was at this time, ~ 1 h after >sunset, an "Ave Maria" ringing, which lasted a several minutes ? Was >there in Austria/Hungary in 1803 a church, state or local(of the Count >?) regulation how to set public clocks ? > >It was surely not meant to be apparent (=true) solar time, as it is not >conceivable that the clock was set exactly at that date to show 12 at >true noon. > >It was surely not meant to be modern mean time, as this was introduced >only >later (in the first third of the 19 th cent.e.g. Paris in 1816, Zurich >1832 (Ginzel III). When exactly in Austria/Hungary ?). > >It was surely a kind of mean time. But at what date was that mean time >set to be the local true time? Perhaps at Nov. 1-3 (when modern Equation > >of Time was maximal), as the French did, and they used the French >"Equation de l'Horloge" (see in the old French almanacs "Conaissance des > >Temps" of the late 18 th century)? This runs from 0-31 min >this is the old "Equation of Days & Nights" of Ptolemy in his "Handy >Tables" - 0 min on Nov 1-3, 31 min on February 11) which had to be >added to true(=sundial) time, to give mean (=clock) time ? > >Pls. advise! > >Thanks. > > >Yaaqov L o e w i n g e r >mail : P.O.B. 16 229 ; 61 161 Tel Aviv / Israel >tel. : 972-3- 604 61 79; ++ 523 98 33 >fax : 972-3- 546 90 76 >e-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Gordon Uber [EMAIL PROTECTED] San Diego, California USA Webmaster: Clocks and Time: http://www.ubr.com/clocks
