Jim and others, I know about a sundial on board of a passengers ship. I posses a photo-copy of small booklet about the dial and its use.
The ship is the MS Oranje, built in 1938/39. About the ship and her history have a look at: www.ssmaritime.com/oranje.htm The ship ended her life in 1979 as Angelina Laouro, when it sunk. On board of MS Oranje was a sundial. The priciple is based on the "universal ring dial" although it is constructed as a "cresent dial". The dial was set to the latitude, the cresent was set to the date. With knobs the dial could be placed level. The foot of the dial was on a compass with a scale of 360 degrees. Turn the dial until the shadow of the endpoint of the cresent falls on the central line of the hourscale. The dial then is north-south oriented and the time and azimut of the ship's course could be read. The time's scale was for local suntime. I don't know if the instrument was placed on a cardanic support like is seen in Mayall page 153, mentioned by Peter Mayer. The dial wasn't meant as an instrument for the sailors but for the passengers to "play" with and wonder about the relations of the course of the sun, of the ship and the time. The dial was designed by W.G. ten Houte de Lange, adjunct director of the Zeiss planetarium in The Hague, now not longer excisting. He also wrote the booklet about the dial in or around 1939. Two black and white photos from the booklet are temporaly placed at: http://www.de-zonnewijzerkring.nl/tijdelijk/photos.htm Best wishes, Fer. Fer J. de Vries De Zonnewijzerkring http://www.de-zonnewijzerkring.nl Molens http://www.collsemolen.dse.nl Eindhoven, Netherlands lat. 51:30 N long. 5:30 E ----- Original Message ----- From: "J. Tallman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sundial List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2007 4:16 PM Subject: Non-terrestrial sundials > Hello All, > > Has anyone ever seen a sundial specifically designed for use on a boat > or ship? > > I realize that there are obvious issues re: movement and variable > location, but I thought it might be an interesting question for the list > to consider from the historical perspective... > > > Best, > > Jim Tallman > www.artisanindustrials.com > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
