Sundial of the month August

It took Gerard Sonius over six years to realize a sundial for blind children.
A lot of time went into the right choice of materials, in finding suitable suppliers and in rounding up sponsors.
In 1991, his idea became reality on the grounds of the Bartiméus Institute for the Blind in Zeist.
It was ever his wish to create a sundial for precisely these children.

It is an equatorial sundial, consisting of a large rotatable disk.
A photocell rotates with the disk, and when it detects the bright light of the shining sun, a loud tone sounds indicating that the disk is aimed at the sun.
A fixed index next to the disk then indicates the hour. Two indices, rather - one each for standard and daylight saving time.
Since everything is in relief, the blind children are able to "read" the time with their hands.
On the sundial are manuals in Braille and in plain writing.

When the sundial was inaugurated, it was a splendid sight how children took possession of the sundial and found out it would tell them the time.
Some children would compare with their Braille watches, only to be surprised at the agreement.

Fer de Vries