Who invented sundials?

Question

just wondering...

Answer 1

The earliest sundials known from the archaeological record are obelisks (3500 BC) and shadow clocks (1500 BC) from ancient Egypt and Babylon. Presumably, humans were telling time from shadow-lengths at an even earlier date, but this is hard to verify. In roughly 700 BC, the Old Testament describes a sundial — the "dial of Ahaz" mentioned in Isaiah 38:8 and II Kings 20:11 (possibly the earliest account of a Sun-Dial that is anywhere to be found in history) — which was likely of Egyptian or Babylonian design. Sundials are believed to have existed in China since ancient times, but very little is known of their history.

The ancient Greeks developed many of the principles and forms of the sundial. Sundials are believed to have been introduced into Greece by Anaximander of Miletus, c. 560 BC. According to Herodotus, the Greeks sundials were initially derived from the Babylonian counterparts. The Greeks were well-positioned to develop the science of sundials, having founded the science of geometry, and in particular discovering the conic sections that are traced by a sundial nodus. The mathematician and astronomer Theodosius of Bithynia (ca. 160 BC-ca. 100 BC) is said to have invented a universal sundial that could be used anywhere on Earth.

The Romans adopted the Greek sundials, so much so that Plautus complained in one of his plays about his day being "chopped into pieces" by the ubiquitous sundials. Writing in ca. 25 BC, the Roman author Vitruvius listed all the known types of dials in Book IX of his De Architectura, together with their Greek inventors.[64] All of these are believed to be nodus-type sundials, differing mainly in the surface that receives the shadow of the nodus.

the hemicyclium of Berosus the Chaldean: a truncated, concave, hemispherical surface

the hemispherium or scaphe of Aristarchus of Samos: a full, concave, hemispherical surface

the discus (a disc on a plane surface) of Aristarchus of Samos: a fully circular equatorial dial with nodus

the arachne (spiderweb) of Eudoxus of Cnidus or Apollonius of Perga: half a circular equatorial dial with nodus

the plinthium or lacunar of Scopinas of Syracuse: an example in the Circus Flaminius)

the pros ta historoumena (universal dial) of Parmenio

the pros pan klima of Theodosius of Bithynia and Andreas

the pelekinon of Patrocles: the classic double-bladed axe design of hyperbolae on a planar surface

the cone of Dionysodorus: a concave, conical surface

the quiver of Apollonius of Perga

the conarachne

the conical plinthium

the antiboreum: a hemispherium that faces North, with the sunlight entering through a small hole.



The Romans built a very large sundial in 10 BC, the Solarium Augusti, which is a classic nodus-based obelisk casting a shadow on a planar pelekinon.

The Greek dials were inherited and developed further by the Islamic Caliphate cultures and the post-Renaissance Europeans. Since the Greek dials were nodus-based with straight hour-lines, they indicated unequal hours — also called temporary hours — that varied with the seasons, since every day was divided into twelve equal segments; thus, hours were shorter in winter and longer in summer. The idea of using hours of equal time length throughout the year was the innovation of Abu'l-Hasan Ibn al-Shatir in 1371, based on earlier developments in trigonometry by Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī (Albategni). Ibn al-Shatir was aware that "using a gnomon that is parallel to the Earth's axis will produce sundials whose hour lines indicate equal hours on any day of the year." His sundial is the oldest polar-axis sundial still in existence. The concept later appeared in Western sundials from at least 1446.

The onset of the Renaissance saw an explosion of new designs. Italian astronomer Giovanni Padovani published a treatise on the sundial in 1570, in which he included instructions for the manufacture and laying out of mural (vertical) and horizontal sundials. Giuseppe Biancani's Constructio instrumenti ad horologia solaria (ca. 1620) discusses how to make a perfect sundial, with accompanying illustrations.

The oldest sundial in England is incorporated into the Bewcastle Cross ca. 800 AD. The dial is divided into four tides, covering the parts of the working day in areas influenced by the Vikings, a maritime culture which noted the passage of time in the progression of the two high and two low tides each day.

The custom of measuring time by one's shadow has persisted since ancient times. In Aristophanes' play, Assembly of Women, Praxagora asks her husband to return when his shadow reaches 10 feet (3.0 m). The Venerable Bede also gave instructions to his follows, how to interpret their shadow lengths to know what time it is

Answer 2

Norrcotts garden centre they have loads.

Answer 3

I think it is such an old invention, that the identity of its inventor(s) is lost in the mists of time!

Answer 4

As far as anyone knows, the Egyptians came up with the idea of the first sundials. . . .

History of Sundials Egyptian Sundials and the History of the Sundial Beginning about 1500 B.C. At the beginning of the 20th century the earliest sundial known was devised about ...

http://www.the-sundial-store.com/sundial...

How to make a sundial. . . .

http://www.squidoo.com/sundial

Egyptian sundial. . . .

http://www.picasaweb.google.com

Classical Egyptian dance by the Murad Sisters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq06pGmAM...

Answer 5

The first s****t!

Answer 6

The earliest sundials known from the archaeological record are obelisks (3500 BC) and shadow clocks (1500 BC) from ancient Egypt and Babylon. Presumably, humans were telling time from shadow-lengths at an even earlier date, but this is hard to verify. In roughly 700 BC, the Old Testament describes a sundial — the "dial of Ahaz" mentioned in Isaiah 38:8 and II Kings 20:11 (possibly the earliest account of a Sun-Dial that is anywhere to be found in history) — which was likely of Egyptian or Babylonian design. Sundials are believed to have existed in China since ancient times, but very little is known of their history.