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--- Begin Message ---Hi Frank and everyone, Some years I replaced a dial in Cheshire where the thieves had removed a heavy stone pedestal down a steep, twisting and very narrow path. They almost deserved it for the herculean effort involved. My bronze replacement was set as previously described with a profiled gnomon 'tenon' set in mortar PLUS the circular dial plate was set using silicone adhesive into a circular cavity preventing easy access for any kind of lever under the plate. As far as I know this dial is still in place. The rounded tips of bolts showing above the plate can indicate an additional firm fixing from below as a 'thief discouragement' device. Contrast that with an English stately home where the valuable dial was secured with small steel 'hooks' clearly saying "Please steal me!"....so they did. Fred Sawyer sent me a pic of a French?? dial protected by closing 'clam shells??' ( a distant memory and I can't locate the picture). The ultimate deterrent with which I was associated protects my Jamestown Dial which is locked into a stainless steel 'safe' at night. Pic on request. Frank is right of course in that nothing will deter the ultra-determined thief or vandal but, if security is built into the design, theft is unlikely in my experience. Plastic replaceable plates and a ball-pen gnomon don't quite have the aesthetic/romantic appeal which brought me to the craft although I did once design a bronze analemmatic memorial dial for a US cemetery which would not allow a projecting gnomon. Viewers are asked to stand a pencil on the current date. Tony Moss ----Original Message---- From: f...@cl.cam.ac.uk Date: 17/05/2017 9:03 To: <rodwall1...@gmail.com> Cc: <sundial@uni-koeln.de> Subj: Re: Mounting Sundials...securely Dear Roderick, Bill Gottesman notes the Tony Moss method of securing sundials to pedestals. This certainly works but it doesn't stop anyone with a hammer and a cold chisel doing serious damage in an attempt to steal the sundial. Now take a look at this: http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/keep-your-eyes-peeled-plea-after-antique-sundial-st olen-from-blickling-hall-near-aylsham-1-3319691 You will see two photographs taken in the grounds of Blickling Hall, U.K. The first photograph shows a damaged pedestal but with the dial plate still in position. This dial was secured in a Tony Moss fashion and the thieves damaged the pedestal but failed to take the sundial. The second photograph shows what happened next. The thieves simply walked off with the entire pedestal. The pedestal was 18th century and had a much higher value than the sundial (a modern replacement). It would have been much better to have had a simple lift-off sundial and thereby saved the pedestal. OK, so what do you do? I have come to the view that sundials on pedestals or plinths in public places are simply too vulnerable to countenance. You either settle for an analemmatic sundial on the ground or you have a wall dial sufficiently high up that it is hard to get at. BUT there is a third way... You have a plinth and you want a sundial. I would have a nice design which was printed on vinyl and stuck to a prepared surface on the plinth. The replacement cost is about $5 and the scrap value is zero. What about the gnomon? You design the dial for a rod gnomon but don't actually provide a rod. You drill a hole through the Vinyl and the supporting brickwork and arrange for it to be polar oriented. You insert a simple piece of hollow studding and invite users to put a ball-pint pen in the hole. Vinyl is commonly used for advertisements on buses and seems to tolerate wind, rain, snow, ice and loose stones. The design life is about five years, or longer than the mean time between thefts! Your next challenge will be that someone will steal the plaque but let's deal with one problem at a time. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
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