Time

New sundial for historic garden in Switzerland

Orbdial sundial on marble pedestal

Orbdial is a universal type of sundial that can be set for different latitudes.

In a land renowned for its clocks and watches a Swiss couple have chosen our Orbdial sundial to mark the hours in their historic garden set on a hill above Montreux, overlooking Lac Leman, which they are restoring to former glories. The sundial has a handsome polished pedestal in pink and yellow veined marble from Verona. The couple wanted to see the colours of sunrise and sunset in the sky picked up by the sundial and the stone. In Victorian times this house welcomed figures from music and the arts, including Gertrude Jekyll the influential garden designer. Continue reading

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When Time Stands Still at Winter Solstice

Dihelion sundial captures the equinox in autumn sunshine

The Dihelion sundial casts an exact shadow at equinox and solstice

Three weeks now till Christmas when time stands still for excited children opening their presents. Strangely, also on the twenty-fifth of December, clocks and sundials read the same time as each other, because the equation of time is zero. Winter solstice when the sun stands still is a few days earlier. This year it is on the twenty-second of December.

It seems a while since the sunshine was warm Continue reading

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The sun takes its time for new Dihelion sundial in the Savill Garden

Dihelion sundial sculpture at the Savill Garden, SurreyAfter a time the sun did shine when we were setting up our new Dihelion sundial sculpture at the Savill Garden, Surrey. The sun was out just long enough to align the sundial before we left. Dihelion is now fully installed and ready to view as part of the Savill Garden’s annual sculpture exhibition ‘Sculpture in the Garden’ Continue reading

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Dihelion a new sundial design at the Savill Garden sculpture exhibition

Sunflower inspiration for new sundial designIn a break with previous sundials an original new design has been created that has two shadows, one showing the time of day and another the season of the year. This adds more pleasure to having a sundial in a garden. The design has been named DIHELION meaning ‘dual sun’ after the ancient Greek words. The sundial will be launched to the public on 1 September at ‘Sculpture in the Garden’, the annual sculpture exhibition at The Savill Garden, Windsor, Berkshire.

It is thought the concept of DIHELION having two shadows Continue reading

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NADFAS Scotland Talk on Sundials

Capuchin sundial made in wood

The Capuchin sundial is a very early design, probably from the 1500s. The dial is held by hand and it can find the time from the sun’s altitude.

Telling time through the ages

Sundial expert and student of time Kevin Karney gave another of his fascinating talks on telling time through the ages to the audience of NADFAS members at their monthly meeting held in the Victoria Halls, Helensburgh, on Tuesday this week. NADFAS, the National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts Societies, is a leading arts charity and this was the second group in the Scotland and Northern Ireland area to have invited Kevin to speak recently Continue reading

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Murrayfield garden sundial

Setting up the Solar Time garden sundialWhile North played South in international rugby at Murrayfield stadium, Edinburgh—where Scotland met and won against Argentina on Saturday—we were only a drop-kick’s distance away proudly installing a new south-facing Solar Time sundial in a Murrayfield private garden. This was a special installation for a special person—a 50th birthday present from wife to husband Continue reading

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Do We Know The Time?

Sundial sculpture inspired by orbit of earth around the sun

Sundial sculpture inspired by the orbit of earth around the sun, which renews the seasons of the year and is a time experience.

Do we know the time, I wonder where the time goes, where are you going this time? Writing on 1 October in The Times(!), David Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, talks about different experiences of time—time running, time circling round, time swinging like a pendulum, time staying still. Of course these are real experiences—we think and plan for now and for the time ahead, we’re aware that night and day go round and round, inside ourselves we feel the rhythms and beat of musical time, when we’re absorbed time seems to stop and disappear. These are some of our experiences, do they help us know the time, I wonder? Continue reading

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What is a Noondial?

Noon-mark sundial

Noon-mark dial for setting the time on watches c1760

The noon dial or noon mark is an ancient way for telling the time of midday.  The sun is at its highest and is due south then.

By the eighteenth century, and continuing until the early twentieth century, noon dials and other types of sundial were used for setting clocks and watches.  The method for working out clock time needed the Equation of Time, because clock time is the average of sundial time round the year. Continue reading

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