History of sundials

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

World's oldest known sundial, from Egypt's Valley of the Kings (c. 1500 BC), used to measure work hours.[1][2][3]

A sundial is a device that indicates time by using a light spot or shadow cast by the position of the Sun on a reference scale.[4] As the Earth turns on its polar axis, the sun appears to cross the sky from east to west, rising at sun-rise from beneath the horizon to a zenith at mid-day and falling again behind the horizon at sunset. Both the azimuth (direction) and the altitude (height) can be used to create time measuring devices. Sundials have been invented independently in every major culture and became more accurate and sophisticated as the culture developed. [5]

Introduction

A sundial uses

geometric constructions- and the use of computers made dial plate design trivial. The heritage of sundials was recognised and sundial societies were set up worldwide, and certain legislations made studying sundials part of their national school curriculums. [5]

History

Ancient sundials

The earliest household clocks known, from the archaeological finds, are the

Song Dynasty (1000-1400 CE), a compass would sometimes also be constructed on the sundial.[13]

An early reference to sundials from 104 BCE is in an assembly of calendar experts.[14]

The ancient Greeks developed many of the principles and forms of the sundial. Sundials are believed to have been introduced into Greece by Anaximander of Miletus, c. 560 BCE. According to Herodotus, Greek sundials were initially derived from their Babylonian counterparts. The Greeks were well-positioned to develop the science of sundials, having developed the science of geometry, and in particular discovering the conic sections that are traced by a sundial nodus. The mathematician and astronomer Theodosius of Bithynia (c. 160 BCE to c. 100 BCE) is said to have invented a universal sundial that could be used anywhere on Earth.[citation needed]

The Romans adopted the Greek sundials, and the first record of a sundial in Rome is in 293 BCE according to

De Architectura, together with their Greek inventors.[16] All of these are believed to be nodus-type sundials, differing mainly in the surface that receives the shadow of the nodus.[citation needed
]

The Romans built a very large sundial in c. 10 BCE, the Solarium Augusti, which is a classic nodus-based obelisk casting a shadow on a planar pelekinon.[17] The Globe of Matelica is felt to have been part of an Ancient Roman sundial from the 1st or 2nd century.[citation needed]

The custom of measuring time by one's shadow has persisted since ancient times. In

canonical sundials to fix the times of prayers.[citation needed
]

Medieval sundials

In the mediaeval Islamic world, timekeeping technology advanced, both because of the

Persian mathematician al-Khwarizmi) to increase accuracy.[citation needed
]

Advanced technology and knowledge was brought back to Europe from the Islamic world during the

solar hour" being anywhere from 40 to 80 minutes depending on whether it was summer or winter.[citation needed
]

Europe then saw an explosion of new designs. Italian astronomer Giovanni Padovani published a treatise on the sundial in 1570, in which he included instructions for the manufacture and laying out of mural (vertical) and horizontal sundials. Giuseppe Biancani's Constructio instrumenti ad horologia solaria (ca. 1620) discusses how to make a perfect sundial, with accompanying illustrations.[citation needed]

The dials of Giovanni Francesco Zarbula

Painted vertical declining dials in villages around Briançon, Hautes-Alpes, France. At least 400 painted dials are in this one French department, dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. The most famous sundial maker was Giovanni Francesco Zarbula (fr), who created a hundred of them between 1833 and 1881.[citation needed]

Modern dialing

The Greek dials were inherited and developed further by the

Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī (Albategni). Ibn al-Shatir was aware that "using a gnomon that is parallel to the Earth's axis will produce sundials whose hour lines indicate equal hours on any day of the year". His sundial is the oldest polar-axis sundial still in existence, and a replica can still be seen on Madhanat ul-'Urus, one of the minarets of Umayyad Mosque.[19] The concept later appeared in Western sundials from at least 1446.[20][5]

The oldest sundial in England is a tide dial incorporated into the Bewcastle Cross, Cumbria, and dates from the 7th or early 8th century.[citation needed]

20th and 21st century dialing

Designers of the

21st century, brought the ancient tradition forward. The tower, tallest in the world when it opened in Taiwan in 2004, stands over 500 metres (1,600 ft) in height. The design of an adjoining park uses the tower as the style for a huge horizontal sundial.[citation needed
]

Gallery

  • Old sundial located in the Great Mosque of Kairouan also known as the Mosque of Uqba, in Kairouan, Tunisia.
    Old sundial located in the Great Mosque of Kairouan also known as the Mosque of Uqba, in Kairouan, Tunisia.
  • A Scottish gravestone bearing a sundial. The instrument has often doubled as a memento mori.
    A Scottish gravestone bearing a sundial. The instrument has often doubled as a memento mori.
  • A medieval mass dial (minus its gnomon) at St. Mary, Bibury; also known as a scratch dial, it was used to tell the times of Mass.
    A medieval
    mass dial (minus its gnomon) at St. Mary, Bibury; also known as a scratch dial, it was used to tell the times of Mass
    .
  • This sundial displays a likeness of Father Time. Its motto quotes Robert Browning: "Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be."
    This sundial displays a likeness of Father Time. Its motto quotes Robert Browning: "Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be."
  • Marble equatorial sundial in the Europapark of Klagenfurt on Lake Woerth, Carinthia, Austria
    Marble equatorial sundial in the Europapark of Klagenfurt on Lake Woerth,
    Carinthia, Austria
  • The Giant Sundial of Jantar Mantar in Jaipur, India, stands 27m tall. Its shadow moves visibly at 1 mm per second. 26°55′29″N 75°49′29″E / 26.9247°N 75.8248°E / 26.9247; 75.8248 (The Giant Sundial of Jantar Mantar)
    The Giant Sundial of
    Jaipur, India, stands 27m tall. Its shadow moves visibly at 1 mm per second. 26°55′29″N 75°49′29″E / 26.9247°N 75.8248°E / 26.9247; 75.8248 (The Giant Sundial of Jantar Mantar)
  • Several sundials arrayed on the faces of a cube. The styles are all parallel and meant to be aligned with the Earth's rotation axis.
    Several sundials arrayed on the faces of a cube. The styles are all parallel and meant to be aligned with the Earth's rotation axis.
Modern

See also

References

  1. ^ "Preliminary Report on the Work carried out during the season 2013". Archived from the original on 2016-12-28. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
  2. ^ Bickel, S.; Gautschy, R. Eine ramessidische Sonnenuhr im Tal der Könige. Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 2014, Volume 96, Issue 1, pp. 3-14.
  3. ^ Vodolazhskaya, L.N. Reconstruction of ancient Egyptian sundials. Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2014, 2(2), 1-18.
  4. ^ Jones 2005, p. 1.
  5. ^ a b c Jones 2005.
  6. ^ Vodolazhskaya, L.N.; Larenok, P.A.; Nevsky, M.Yu.The ancient astronomical instrument from Srubna burial of kurgan field Tavriya-1 (Northern Black Sea Coast). Archaeologist and Ancient Technologies 2014, 2(2), 31-53.
  7. ^ Vodolazhskaya, L.N. Analemmatic and horizontal sundials of the Bronze Age (Northern Black Sea Coast). Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2013, 1(1), 68-88.
  8. ^ Vodolazhskaya L.N., Larenok P.A., Nevsky M.Yu. The prototype of ancient analemmatic sundials (Rostov Oblast, Russia). Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2016, 4(1), 96-116.
  9. ^ Vodolazhskaya, L.N.; Larenok, P.A.; Nevsky, M.Yu. Solnechnye chasy epokhi bronzy is srubnogo pogrebeniya mogil'nika Tavriya-1. [Sundial of Bronze Age from the Srubna burial of kurgan field Tavriya-1]. Istoriko-arkheologicheskiy al'manakh. [Historical-Archaeological Almanac]. Vol. 13, Armavir, Krasnodar, Moscow, 2015, p. 4-14.
  10. ^ The oldest surviving sundial
  11. JSTOR 3822211
    .
  12. ^ Slayman, Andrew (27 May 1998). "Neolithic Skywatchers". Archaeology Magazine Archive. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  13. ^ "Sundials in China - A brief note". The University of Hong Kong. 1997-07-01. Archived from the original on 2010-03-14. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
  14. ^ Joseph Needham (1959). Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 3. C.U.P. p. 302.
  15. ^ Pliny (79ce): Natural History 7.213
  16. ^ "Marcus Vitruvius Pollio:de Architectura, Book IX". The Latin text is that of the Teubner edition of 1899 by Valentin Rose, transcribed by Bill Thayer. 2007-07-07. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  17. ^ Edmund Buchner, "Solarium Augusti und Ara Pacis", Römische Mitteilungen 83 (1976:319-75); Die Sonnenuhr des Augustus: Kaiser Augustus und die verlorene Republik (Berlin) 1988.
  18. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica: Sundial
  19. ^ "ibn Shatir's Sundial at Umayyad Mosque". Madain Project. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  20. ^ "History of the sundial". National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 2007-10-10. Retrieved 2008-07-02.

Bibliography

External links

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