Thanks Sara, I thought there might be more than simple "carry aboard" universal dials that may have been used aboard ship in years past. Thanks for your historical perspective.
Perhaps I should explain why I was thinking about this. This past Monday was "Columbus Day" here in the US, and on TV there were several good documentary shows re: Columbus and the famous voyage(s) to the new world. They were away from "civilization" for a long time, and they were at sea, out of sight of land, for a very long time compared to most of the sailor's past experience. Apart from the daily sighting at noon, I began to wonder if time was kept or referenced in any other way other than by using an hourglass until the next sighting. I also remembered seeing a P&G heliochronometer once in a James Bond movie...Goldeneye, I think it was. This would ordinarily not be odd, but the sundial was aboard a yacht. Maybe it was included in the set to look nautical in some way...but then again, I wondered how a P&G came to be in that movie - it was a very interesting choice for a set designer, don't you think? Really, I was just wondering about the use of sundials on ships, and whether any unique dials were ever made specifically for that purpose. Best, Jim Tallman www.artisanindustrials.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sara Schechner wrote: > Hi, > I changed the heading because at first I got to thinking about that > sundial on Mars.... > > Yes, there are quite a few sundials that were designed especially for > their seaworthiness and other timefinding instruments that were > readily adapted for maritime use. > The first that comes to mind is the universal ring dial (URD), which > being suspended from a shackle and self-orienting, was a featured > instrument in numerous manuals written for seaman from the mid-17th > century onward. The large examples for sea use have a nautical > quadrant on the back for finding latitude by the sun at noon. > While the familiar form was invented by William Oughtred in the early > 17th century, the URD was related to the astronomical ring of Gemma > Frisius of a century earlier. This appears on the inventories for > Martin Frobisher's and Sir Humphrey Gilbert's voyages (respectivally > 1576 and 1583) along with a self-orienting universal sundial. > An azimuth compass is also listed on the inventories. This is > essentially a horizontal sundial mounted on a mariner's compass, and > so moves on gimbals. It could be used to find time and check the > sun's azimuth. > > Other timefinding instruments that went to sea are the planispheric > astrolabe (but rarely), the astrolabe quadrant (one form is the > Gunter's quadrant), and the nocturnal (for use at night). > Cheers, > Sara > Lat 42.4N Long -71.1W --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
