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Diptych Sundial with
Compass
German, for the English market, circa 1800
Sundials have problems of their own. You have to know true North to set them up, and they should be level. People can guess "level" rather well, but for North it helps to have a compass. This diptych dial folds up to fit in your pocket, and does the job. It's a little under two inches by three, and has a compass for North. There is a string to cast the shadow on the dial; its position can be adjusted for latitude. There is a printed list of cities and their latitude on the back; when you arrived in London you'd look up its latitude, adjust the string, and check the time any sunny moment you wanted. One of the cities mentioned is Washington DC, which was not founded until 1790. 1800 would be a sensible early date for the news to get back to Germany and be included on a list of latitudes. |
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What
if you want to know the time, but the year is 1800? Watches are delicate,
prohibitively expensive, and the size of a turnip. Clocks live in bell
towers, or at best are the size of a small grandfather. Use a sundial!