Hi Bill & all, I agree absolutely with you that the digital dial is an essential addition to the art and science of dialing.
Also fiber optics or other means of transforming the usual shadow edge on the dial face into whatever display form, add essentially to this. In my view, however, the most promising development has not yet been mentioned, neither in the BBS article nor on this list: the shadow plane or hour plane sundial. Strictly speaking, it is not a novel invention of the 20th century. The French mathematician Alexandre Pingré designed one in 1764 for the column of De Médicis at the Bourse du Commerce in Paris. (See the article by Denis Savoie in the NASS Compendium vol. 6(1), 1999). However, this principle was forgotten, to be rediscoverd only in the 20th century by Adolf Peitz in 1979 (see fig. 280 in Sonnenuhren, vol. 3 by Schumacher & Peitz, 1981). From there, it was picked up by Marinus Hagen (see Bulletin of the Dutch Sundial Society 1985 nr. 2). Wider dissemination was given, among others, by the articles of Maddux, Oglesby & De Vries (see http://home.iae.nl/users/ferdv/shadow.htm). The idea of liberating the individual hourly shadow planes from their common pole-style and rearranging them in whatever way will certainly lead to a wealth of new, intriguing and pleasing designs, once its full potential is being realized by dial designers and artists. Two other 20th century developments that contributed clearly to the A&S of dialing are noteworthy, I think: 1. The upsurge of interest in sundials. After dials 'went to sleep' in the first half of the century, interest started to grow thereafter, as reflected by the founding of Sundial Societies in Germany (1971), France (1972), The Netherlands (1978), Great Britain (1989) and many others. 2. The shift from graphical methods of dial design and lay-out to arithmetical methods, like log and trig tables (by Waugh, 1973, for instance), slide rules, pocket calculators up to spreadsheet programs. Regards, Frans W. Maes 53.1 N, 6.5 E ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <sundial@rrz.uni-koeln.de> Sent: Sunday, October 20, 2002 2:48 AM Subject: Re: Digital sundial > In a message dated 10/19/2002 4:05:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > She dosn't however consider that the digital sundial should be recorded > > as an entirely new design. It is a read-out of the conventional vertical > > sundial and just a convenient addition to help in the ease and accuracy > > of reading a dial face of an ordinary sundial, she sais > > Please note that she does not say this in her article. She does not mention > digital dials at all, so perhaps this is from a private communication between > Mr. Leenders and Ms Stanier. > > But I do agree that a digital dial deserves recognotion as a new form of > dial. First of all, it is not a vertical dial--The only places on earth that > this design functions in a vertical position is at either pole. Secondly, it > is radically different from any prior sundial design. I heard Robert Kellog > speak about this design at the NASS convention in 2001, and it is clear that > this design is the product of highly original thinking, applied with great > care and effort to modern day materials, and bears little mathematical and no > mechanical relationship to traditional dials. The only thing that a digital > dial has in common with a hoizontal or vertical dial is that they all measure > right ascention--Hardly a disqualifying factor for a distinct type of dial. > > Bill Gottesman > - > -
