Hi All, I think it is just a direct south facing vertical dial for a (low) northerly latitude with a circular chapter ring centred at the foot of the gnomon. The hours above the horizontal never get to see a shadow, but they are marked for artistic reasons. Just like the "140mph" on my car's speedometer! The hour marks are not, I think, equally spaced at 15 degrees. I think they are correctly spaced for a vertical dial. As for the dots between the hours, I can make no sense of them at all. I'm pretty sure they are not Braille, not Morse Code,... Are they an optical illusion, perhaps? Maybe they are all, in truth, the same colour but just look different in the photo.
Chris Lusby Taylor 51.4N 1.3W ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Mayer" <peter.ma...@adelaide.edu.au> To: "J. Tallman" <jtall...@artisanindustrials.com> Cc: "Sundial Mailing List" <sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de> Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 2:36 AM Subject: Re: Interesting sundial in Japan > Hi Jim, > > It is interesting. But in essence, I think, it's really just a variant > armillary dial. If you slice away the night hours and replace the gnomon with a > pole style, it all looks quite familiar. BTW, since the chapter ring isn't at > right angles to the gnomon, I assume that there is a minor error in reading the > time... > > best wishes, > > Peter > > Quoting "J. Tallman" <jtall...@artisanindustrials.com>: > > > Hello All, > > > > Here is a dial in Japan that I thought some of you may find interesting: > > > > http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sundial_bunkanomori_tokushima.jpg > > > > I have seen it a couple times in the past month while casually browsing for > > sundial pictures, but I have never been able to find a good description for > > it. Does anyone know about this dial? I would be interested in what some of > > you think is really going on here, since this is a pretty unique > > configuration. > > > > > > Best, > > > > Jim Tallman > > www.artisanindustrials.com > > jtall...@artisanindustrials.com > > > > > > > -------------------------- > Peter Mayer > Politics Department > The University of Adelaide, AUSTRALIA 5005 > Ph : +61 8 8303 5606 > Fax : +61 8 8303 3443 > e-mail: peter.ma...@adelaide.edu.au > CRICOS Provider Number 00123M > ----------------------------------------------------------- > This email message is intended only for the addressee(s) > and contains information that may be confidential and/or > copyright. If you are not the intended recipient please > notify the sender by reply email and immediately delete > this email. Use, disclosure or reproduction of this email > by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) is strictly > prohibited. No representation is made that this email or > any attachments are free of viruses. Virus scanning is > recommended and is the responsibility of the recipient. > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
