Patrick Powers wrote: > > On the matter of the Hawkshead dial I certainly think we have to establish > whether its current orientation is correct or not because if it is correct > (ie as a combined declining and canted dial) then it probably did come > from somewhere else. And that might then be a pointer to where it did come > from.
Robert Sylvester has a large amount of information on the Hawkshead dial. On a CD that he sent out after the Durham conference, there is one image (too large to attach to this email) which is an old photograph of the Grammar School (1880's?) showing a declining dial (the present one or a precursor of it) in the current position but not canted. He also shows handwritten copperplate sheets of astronomical calculations, presumably school work, showing clearly that very advanced work was done at the school. All this supports the position that a simple declining dial was first erected, and a canted one then devised as an exercise, which could well have incorporated the PI Longitude as described by Fer de Vries. PI Longitude (with a different value) could of course equally have been on the original dial in the old photograph. Then the question remains, why was the dial canted? The possibilities seem to be - to incorporate a PI Longitude of a value that had some significance, though we don't seem to have found that yet; - just to show early school hours, as suggested in Robert's original registration of the dial. Going back to Patrick's comment quoted above, I would be surprised (given the expertise at the school) if the delineation proves incorrect for its present position; but I would not now take this as an indication that it was moved from elsewhere. I would say that as a general rule, a canted declining dial will have been relocated, but that the Hawkshead dial is probably the exception that proves the rule. John --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
