A portable sundial which, when closed, looks like a leather bound book. I bought this at a craft fair in the Plaza Santa Ana one evening in Madrid after leaving a nearby restaurant called La Trucha shortly after midnight. The craft fair was not there when we went into the restaurant which is not really surprising as the Madrileños never sleep at night, it is a 24/7 city like New York.
This is the sundial over the door of Dial Cottage home of the railway pioneer George Stephenson:
The inscription reads:
"George Stephenson. Engineer. Inventor of the Locomotive Engine. Lived in this cottage from 1805 to 1823; his first locomotive (Blücher) was built at the adjacent colliery wagon shops, and on July 25th 1814 was placed on the wagonway which crosses the road at the east end of this cottage."
The sundial itself was designed by George Stephenson's son Robert Stephenson.
And the daddy of all sundials, the Samrat Yantra, part of the observatory of Jantar Mantar in Jaipur, India:
1 comment:
I guess sundials make no allowance for British Summer Time. I think we shouldn't either.
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