Sundial of the month May

It was shown earlier that Babylonian and Italian hours can be read on a sundial with a conical gnomon.
The figure shows a horizontal interpretation.

Continuing on this principle, Fabian Savian adds a sphere to the cone.
Then the cone is taken away and the sphere serves as a gnomon for both time systems.
The result is a curved shadow instead of a straight line.
The hour line tangent to the curve reads the time.

Quite recently, Fabio Savian showed one of his models on the Internet, and we publish it here.
The sundial is a vertical east and west dial, playfully shaped like a frog.
The eyes are gnomons for Italian and Babylonian hours.
In this example, Italian hours are counted as "how much longer the sun will shine".

East and west dial

Fabio Savian writes:
Meanwhile, I have built frog. I sent the design for this sundial to the mailing list a while back, now I have actually constructed a prototype.
It is done in wood, because it is a demonstration model that I have used yesterday on a spring festival, a market feast of Paderno Dugnano.
The dial is a polar sundial for Italian and Babylonic hours in which the cones are replaced by two spherical gnomons.
The hour lines and numbers act for both time systems.

The prototype is made from 10mm plywood and the eyes are 60mm diameter hemispheres. The pedestal is made out of 25mm plywood to render it more stable.

The photograph was taken in the afternoon. The shadows of the eyes indicate that slightly over seven hours have passed since sunrise, and that approximately five-and-a-half hours remained until sunset.

(Translation from Italian: Hans de Rijk)

For more information visit the Fabio Savian web pages.