Sundial of the month September

In one of the living rooms in the Gemert Castle Mission Seminary, there is a meridian sundial, or noon dial, with an equation-of-time loop (you will sometimes see such a loop referred to as an analemma). Usually, this dial is invisible because a carpet covers the floor.
The noon dial must have been made between 1883 and 1909.
The length of the EOT loop is almost 5 meters.

J.J. Koekkoek, a former member of the Sundial society, lived in the castle from 1929 to 1930 and from 1936 to 1942. He knew of the sundial, but hardly paid attention at the time.
In the early eighties, when he was allowed a look under the carpet, he surveyed the sundial. A fixed bookcase made part of the winter side of the loop inaccessible.
This survey resulted in a scale 1 to 24 drawing. It is shown here, further reduced.

Large and small iron and copper tacks in the floorboards make up the sundial.
Koekkoek has counted approximately 8000 nails. The drawing shows about as many dots
The sundial since then remained hidden under the carpet, but in the spring of 2004, the room was cleared temporarily, so that the noon dial could once more be admired. When the bookcase was removed shortly afterwards, even the last part on the winter side of the loop became visible.

It is difficult to photograph the complete noon dial because of its small contrast against the floor, but some close-ups are shown here.

The texts on the sundial are in French. Easily recognizable are:
SUR LES MIDI DES HORLOGES
Solstice D'Été
Sep Equinoxe Mars
Solstice D'Hiver
Along the loop: the four seasons, PRINSTEMPS, ÉTÉ, AUTOMNE and HIVER.

The hour lines are drawn partly for every five minutes, partly for every quarter.
Dates are written along the EOT loop, together with their EOT values in minutes.
There is no trace whatsoever of an index to read this noon dial.

Fer de Vries

Fotographs: P. Delisse, Gemert.
Literature: J.J. Koekkoek, The sundial in the Gemert Castle, Bulletin of the Sundial Society, nr 18, November 1983.