This dam dial reminded me of a similar sort of dial in a silo in Louisa VA. See the NASS Registry #594 or go to this direct link to the dial. http://www.louisasundial.com
The silo sundial was created in 1985, designed by Dr. Larry Kavanagh and painted by family and friends. I believe it is an altitude dial with the gnomon point being the rim at the point in line with the sun. The gnomon point naturally moves with the azimuth of the sun. The lowest point on the shadow tells the time against the time lines. Regards, Roger Bailey From: Bill Gottesman Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 10:13 AM To: Willy Leenders Cc: Sundial List Subject: Re: Translations I, too would like to see the math. I would love to try and work this out, but I don't have the time at present, and I'm not sure I am up to the task anyway. I can imagine that it may involve an "envelope" of line intersections, much the same way an astroid is a curve drawn from intersections of lines strung across a square. Fred Sawyer wrote a British Sundial Society article in 1994, using this type of math as applied to the analemmatic sundial at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. -Bill Willy Leenders wrote: Is there anyone who understand the mathematics behind the sundial concept, i.e. determining the hour lines so that the curved form of the shadow touches this lines in a point at the concerned time ? Willy LEENDERS Hasselt in Flanders (Belgium) www.wijzerweb.be Op 16-jun-2009, om 12:12 heeft Frans W. Maes het volgende geschreven: Dear Steve and all, Three free translators I sometimes use for websites or short texts, are: - Babelfish: http://babelfish.yahoo.com/ - Google: http://translate.google.com/ - Prompt: http://www.online-translator.com/ You may try each on the AFP press release: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gFPjvks3c5EemskZkRWhCB-Fu_IA and judge the quality (when you read French and English) or see whether you get the message. In this case, the photos set the stage for the story, so that makes it easier. For this limited sample, I think Prompt does a slightly better job than Google, and Babelfish is last. What do you think, Joël? Prompt marks the words that were not translated, such as proper names, which is handy. More generally, a simple original, both in terminology and in grammar, leads to a better translation. That's why e-mail messages often translate badly. For me, the most important paragraph in this text is how the sundial should function: "Innovation de ce cadran: c'est l'ombre même du parapet projetée sur la voûte du barrage qui permet de lire l'heure solaire. Chaque heure est matérialisée par une "ligne horaire" confectionnée avec des plaques en lave émaillée: ocres pour les heures du matin, vertes pour celles de l'après-midi. L'heure solaire est connue lorsque l'ombre tangente l'une de ces lignes." which translates into: Babelfish: Innovation of this dial: it is the shade even parapet projected on the vault of the stopping which makes it possible to read the solar hour. Each hour is materialized by a “time line” made with plates in enamelled lava: ochres for the hours of the morning, green for those of the afternoon. The solar hour is known when the tangent shade one of these lines. Google: Innovation of the dial: the very shadow of the parapet onto the arch dam, which allows you to get the solar time. Each hour is marked by a "line timetable" made with plates in enamelled lava: ochers for the morning, green for those in the afternoon. The solar time is known when the shadow tangent one of these lines. Prompt: Innovation of this face: it is the shadow of the breastwork cast on the arch of the dam which allows to read the solar hour. Every hour is fulfilled by a "line per hour" made with plates in interspersed lava: ochres for hours, green for those of afternoon. The solar hour is known when tangent shadow one of these lines. In the original, the most essential word of the entire story is "tangente", which apparently is used as a verb: the shadow of the edge touches (kisses, osculates) an hour line. This may be an uncommon usage, as all three utilities interpret it as an adjective and try to make at least some sense out of it. And I wonder what the lava strips are made of... Best regards, Frans Maes Steve wrote: Confrere: I am interested in translating email and web pages into English. I use as example the note from Joel about the Castillon Dam. The link contained in his email is to a web page in French and so my question. I use Eudora for mail and have receded to FireFox version 2.00.18. However, I have tried various translators with several versions without much success. My question. Does anyone use a translation program for email and the web, with success. Thanks Steve Yorktown VA At 01:13 PM 6/15/2009, robic.joel wrote: Hello Frans and all, It's the Castillon Dam, see this AFP article, you will understand easiler the principle http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gFPjvks3c5EemskZkRWhCB-Fu_IA More information is available in French "Cadran Info" magazine (including modelling by Gérard Baillet and calculations from Denis Savoie). Best regards Joël 48°01'25'' N, 1°45'40" O ---> http://www.cadrans-solaires.fr/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frans W. Maes" <f.w.m...@rug.nl> To: "Josef Pastor" <j.pas...@gmx.de> Cc: ""'Sonnenuhr (Uni Köln)'"" <sundial@uni-koeln.de> Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 4:56 PM Subject: Re: French dam to be world´s biggest sundial Dear all, The audio track of the video is bad, so I was unable to hear which dam this is, and how the sundial would function. Does anyone know more about this intriguing project? Best regards, Frans Maes Josef Pastor wrote: Dear Dialists, Famous French Denis Savoie presents a French dam to be world´s biggest sundial on "You Tube". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-NJIhliZG4 Best regards Josef Pastor ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial E-mail message checked by Internet Security (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12160 http://www.pctools.com/en/internet-security/ --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. 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