CHAPTERI
DAY15 APR
CLOCK11:00
LIGHT100%
LAY THE DIAL
SEASON STRAY0.0 MIN mark 11 min
DAILY DRIFT0.0 MIN mark 2.6 min
line for the whole day
YOUR READ06:00 THE WINDOW14:24 – 16:06
BEADOFF THE PLATE
Both numbers under their marks, then cut.
SABLEMERIDIAN
Time is a shadow. Stand the style at your latitude, lay the meridian line on true north and cut hour lines for a season — then use the dial you built to call the hour for people walking up the road, before the daylight runs out.
The light is held.
The sun, the plate and whoever is on the road are exactly where you left them.
What a dial actually does.
- THE STYLE
- A style stands at an angle equal to your latitude and points at the pole. A nodus bead near its tip drops one true shadow, and that bead is the only thing on the plate you read.
- THE MERIDIAN
- The line of noon, running from the centre to the true-north mark. Cut it a few degrees off and every hour on the plate is off by the same hand.
- SEASON STRAY
- The worst the dial can read across its stated season, dawn to dusk. A horizontal dial cannot serve the whole year — the lines are cut for one date and drift away from it as the sun's height changes.
- DAILY DRIFT
- The worst the dial can read on the day you are standing on. This is what the visitors judge you by, because they will not wait for a better season.
- THE HOUR LINES
- They are not equally spaced. The shadow's angle follows the sun's hour angle and the day's declination together, so the lines crowd near noon and fan out towards the rim.
- READING IT
- Put the brass index on the bead. The time the index claims is the time your dial believes. The time it really is the time on the bead.
←→ sweep index · SHIFT fine · SPACE act · WSAD view · V view preset · M mute · H these notes · ESC pause