the.com/sundial
the original clock that runs on a star and never needs charging
means A timekeeping device that tells the hour by casting a shadow from a raised marker (the gnomon) onto a marked surface as the sun moves across the sky.
from A plain English compound, sun + dial, where 'dial' comes from Latin 'dies' (day) by way of Medieval Latin 'diale,' a 'daily' wheel or clock-face — so the word literally means a 'day-marker for the sun.' The notion of 'dial' as a numbered face was so tied to telling the day's hours that it later wandered onto telephones, radios, and gauges.
- oldest known
- Egyptian sundials date back over 3,500 years
- angled gnomon
- the shadow-caster must tilt to match latitude
- slow time
- true sun time drifts up to 16 minutes off clocks
- motto culture
- many bear grim sayings about fleeting hours
- useless at night
- famously clocks out the moment clouds or dark arrive
tower of the winds — ancient greek sundial in athens with 8 faces, built 1st century bce
chatsworth house sundial — english baroque sundial in derbyshire with 26 faces, installed 1694
obelisk of montecitorio — roman obelisk repurposed as sundial in rome's piazza montecitorio, 10 bce