Sundials The Real Time Machine
The concept of Sundial is centuries old when the clocks, measuring time in the frame of day and night were not invented by the ancient man. He didn`t even know the mechanism of his own body clock that worked smoothly within himself. But he observed the movement of Sun rising from the eastern horizon resulting a calm morning and setting down in the western horizon resulting in the peaceful evening. And during the entire period of rising and setting, he was curious to watch his own shadow casted on the ground by the Sun. He noticed that the shadow reduced gradually in the morning and at noon it was lowest and it again increased later but in the opposite direction.
Ultimately disappearing when the sun disappeared in the west. He then thought to measure this movement of shadow primarily on the sandy ground and then precisely on the wood and also on the metal. It got calibrated from 1 to 12. The shadow of the stick fixed precisely on the wooden or metal surface gave a shape of SUNDIAL, the first of its kind. He didn`t stop. He wanted to know how much shadow moved with the movement of sun (as he thought that the sun is moving from east to west). He observed the shadow and the shadow stick and checked the time of the day by length and position of stick`s shadow. This was the first Sundial invented by the Greeks, who gave the technical name for a shadow stick as GNOMON which meant indicator.
How does the sundial works in reference to the movement of earth? The earth rotates on its imaginary vertical axis linking North Pole to South Pole and passing through the centre of the earth in 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds which was called a Day on that particular area of the earth that faced the Sun and got Bright sun rays. The other side opposite to that was called night with utter darkness. The earth also completed one round/rotation around the Sun in its oval shaped orbit bringing northern and southern hemisphere before the sun creating seasons like winter and summer on the earth over and above lengthening and shortening the time-span of the day and night on the earth.
Usage of sundials is not yet out of fashion. On the contrary it’s making a comeback. There are only few ways to use a Sundial. Say for instance, as a show-piece or for your garden or timekeeper. But these are enough reasons to have a Sundial. There are two types of sundials – horizontal and vertical. The horizontal sundials are usually placed in the backyard and gardens. Available in abundance, these add beauty to your place. Vertical sundials are placed on walls; like our new-age watches. There are portable and equatorial sundials too. The equatorial sundials are simplest to create and easy to visualize. The portable sundials combine a compass and a dial with a neat technique and are portable.
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