GLOBAL TIMER WITH CIRCULAR DISK MAP OF THE WORLD AND DATE RING

Abstract: The invention is a global timer that answers the questions "What time is where on earth<" and "Which day is where on earth?" on a single display. The invention adds to traditional watches and clocks with hands and circular faces a South Pole centred circular disk map of the world, that rotates clockwise within a ring-shaped face of 24 hours, and an outer date ring next to the face, thus all geographical points at any time are positioned under their local hours and calendar dates on the face and on the date ring.

Description: SPECIFICATION TITLE OF INVENTION Global timer with circular disk map of the world and date ring CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION Not Applicable STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT Not Applicable REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDLX Not Applicable BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention belongs to the technical field of universal time or world time clocks and watches. International classification is GO4B 19/22 (Universal Time Piece). US classification is class 368, sub-classes 21-27, and class 434, sub-classes 142-149. Clocks and watches indicating universal or world time, or more than one local time, are either agglomerations of more than one clock or watch, or combinations of clocks and watches with geography. The latter combine either fixed faces with mobile geography (maps, globes, geographical names) or mobile faces with fixed geography. Globes combined with dials are unfit for the purpose, as most of a spherical surface cannot be viewed at once. Rectangular maps of the world which use cylindrical or other not pole centred projection of the planet's surface cannot be used as technically integrated components of watches and clocks. North Pole centred disk maps of the world within ring-shaped faces are unfit for the purpose, as the planet rotates counter clockwise when looked at the North Pole. Existing pole centred maps of the world use projections of the planet's surface which deform continents and oceans beyond easy recognition. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Objective of the invention is a global timer, which looks and can be used like traditional watches and clocks, but indicates also on one single display all local time worldwide, also which calendar dates govern where on earth. The invention uses a new South Pole centred circular disk map of the world, which rotates clockwise within a ring-shaped face with 24 hours, thus all geographic points on the disk map at any time are positioned under their respective local hours on the face. Thus the problems are avoided, which occur if rectangular or North Pole centred maps, or globes, are used as components of world time clocks and watches. Next to the ring-shaped face an outer date ring displays the travel of the calendar dates over the planet's surface in at way, that all geographic points on the disk map at any time are positioned under their respective calendar dates on the date ring. The invention uses components the public is most used to, namely a circular face and clockwise rotating hands. All alternatives from wrist watch to tower clock are based on the same technical principle and can be manufactured and used like traditional watches and clocks. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figures 1 to 7 illustrate the successive travel of Monday 25 November 1996, and Tuesday 26 November 1996 over the planet. The hour hand at figures 1 to 6 is represented by the 75° West longitude near New York, at figure 7 by the 0° longitude. The mi- nute and second hands are omitted. The date line at 180° is represented as straight line; the deviations in the South Seas, the Bering Sea, and at the Aleutian Islands are ignored. Fig. 1 07:00 h 75°West (New York) - For the moment of the transition of the date line over midnight Monday alone governs on earth. Fig. 2 08.00 h 75°West (New York) - The first bit of a new day, Tuesday, by the date line has been drawn from midnight. Monday, the old day, begins to vanish at the other side into midnight. Fig. 3 13:00 h 75° West (New York) - The new day, Tuesday, now governs Australia, Asia east of 105°East including Japan, China, Indonesia, while both Americas, Europe, Africa, Arabia, India and the western parts of Russia still live on the old day, Monday. Fig. 4 20:00 h 75°West (New York) - The new day, Tuesday, is observed everywhere outside the two Americas, which alone remain on the old day, Monday. Fig. 5 06:00 h 75°West (New York) - The new day, Tuesday, has pushed the old day, Monday, nearly fully off the planet and into midnight. 80 Fig. 6 07:00 h 75°West (New York) - The old day, Monday, has totally vanished into midnight. The new day, Tuesday, for one moment alone governs everywhere on earth. Fig. 7 Summary of the date travel relative to the 0° longitude and to Greenwich Mean Time. 85 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The South Pole centred circular disk map of the world at the centre is attached to the hour axle of a clockwork with 24 hours and rotates clockwise within a ring-shaped face with a dial of 24 hours. 90 The minute and second hands are attached to the centre axle system of the clockwork and point to a traditional dial with 60 minutes on the ring-shaped face. The hour hand is either printed as a bold longitude on the disk map, the longitude being next to the location where the invention is used, or is attached to a second hour axle of the clockwork and superimposes the longitude next to the location where the invention 95 is used. Thus the hour hand rotates with the disk map and points to the local hours on the face. The 24 longitudes of 15° distance, beginning at 0°, are printed on the disk map and point to the respective local hours on the face, thus serve as auxiliary hour hands and indicate all local time on earth. 100 At alternatives with an hour hand printed on the disk map, one out of the 24 longitudes of 15° distance, which is next to the home location of use, is printed bold to represent the hour hand. In case of travel the local time of the abode is read from the hour on the face to which the longitude next to the abode points. In case of seasonal time change from summer to winter or winter to summer time the entire disk map with the printed 105 hour hand is re-adjusted, thus also the other 23 longitudes point to local seasonal hours. At alternatives with an hour hand attached to a second hour axle of the clockwork, the disk map remains permanently adjusted to mean solar time, which is identical to Greenwich Mean Time and Universal Time, and the hour hand in case of travel or seasonal time change is shifted in steps of 15° to superimpose the longitude which indicates 110 the local civil time indicated on local clocks at the location where the invention is used. The disk map and the minute hand like traditional hour and minute hands are linked and cannot be readjusted independently from each other. In case of running to slow or fast they are readjusted in the traditional way. On the outer date ring the travelling calendar dates are generated by a computer, 115 which is connected to the date line on the rotating disk map. The date line acts like a tool, which draws on its way the new day from the midnight position on the face, and pushes the old day at the other side into the midnight position. The new day is pulled behind the date line, the old day pushed in front of it. Thus all geographical points at any time are positioned under their respective calendar dates on the date ring, and it is shown which 120 day governs where on earth. At alternatives of wrist watches and table clocks the date ring is a liquid crystal display (LCD), at larger clocks it is a light emitting display (LED). At alternatives of larger mechanical clocks the date ring can be represented by an endless tape with the seven weekdays printed on it. The tape is of the sevenfold length of the disk map's circumfer- 125 ence and endlessly wound around by the rotating disk map. Six umts of the weekday tape's length hang down under the midnight position in an endless tape storage box. The travelling calendar date on the date ring is written within differently coloured or shaded date fields, which superimpose the sectors on earth where the dates govern. The date generator generates four components of the calendar date to be displayed on 130 the date field: Consecutive number of the Modified Julian Day (MJD), weekday, consecutive year numeral, eternal Gregorian calendar date (month and day numeral in month). A new MJD numeral is generated at the beginning of every new day. A new year numeral is generated at the beginning of every 1st January. The weekdays are generated as an endless repetition of ever the same sequence of the seven weekdays. The eternal 135 Gregorian calendar date is generated as an endless repetition of ever the same sequence of the 146,097 days (400 years) of the Gregorian intercalation period (which omits tree otherwise regular leap days). The date generator initiates the date fields on the date ring at two positions to change the colour or shade, and the writing of the date: at the fixed midnight position (relative to 140 the face) of the date ring, and at the mobile position to which the rotating date line points. At the moment of the transit of the date line over the midnight position the complete writing and date field of a new calendar date is ready to be sent by the generator to the date ring, but is sent only step by step. One end of the new date field remains at the midnight position, the other end travels with the date line. Thus the date field is stretched 145 over the planet respectively over the disk map, thus indicating the sector governed by the particular date. The appearance, growth, shrinking and disappearance of the date fields on the date ring is initiated in intervals dependent to the size of the watch or clock and to the type of LCDs or LEDs installed to form the date ring. If the inner diameter of the date ring of a 150 large clock would be 1,000 mm, thus the date ring's inner circumference 3,1414 mm, and if the date ring would be furnished with 1,000 radial rows of diodes, the rows being 3.1414 mm distant from each other, the date generator would daily send 1,000 impulses to the date ring, one every 86.4th second to cover the 86,400 seconds of a day. The 1st impulse shortly after the date line's midnight transit would send the beginning of the new 155 date field to the date ring and initiates the 1st radial row of diodes to change to the colour or shade of the new day. The remaining 999 impulses of the day initiate every 86.4th second another row of radial diodes, to which the date line points, to change the colour or shade, thus stretching the new date field step be step over the entire date ring. The complete calendar date is written manifold on the date field and near to both ends 160 of the date field to display at the beginning of a new day at least the first and at the ending of the day at least the last letters of the day. On the date ring the Christian reckoning of years is raised by 10,000, thus the time of post ice-age human civilization is indicated by consecutive positive year numerals as a unit of history. Each single day travelling as calendar date growing and dying over the 165 date ring and over the planet is designated by the numeral of the Modified Julian Day (MJD) as individual event, not as an endless repetition of ever the same day, thus indicating that no day was ever before, and will ever return. The spherical surface of the earth is projected to the flat circular disk map of the world by a scale that grows continuously southwards. Thus the continents and oceans are 170 kept in recognizable shapes, and are represented in their true positions towards each other in a complete circular panorama, thus the One World is not split by paper ends as by the cylindrical projection to rectangular maps. This circular projection with southwards growing scale represents South America, the southern parts of Africa, and Australia smaller as real relative to the more northern parts of the planet, and omits all the planet's 175 surface beyond the latitudes of 66° north and 42° south. The longitudes are represented as straight lines radial towards the South Pole, the latitudes as circle lines, thus crossing at an angle near to 90° as at the globe. Quartz clockworks with 24 hours for wrist watches and medium seized clocks are available as commercial products. They are strong enough to carry and turn ornamental 180 disks even on the second hand axle, and therefore are strong enough to carry and turn the disk map of the world on the hour axle. For larger alternatives of the invention mechanical clockworks with 24 hours are derived from existing clockworks with 12 hours, which are commercially manufactured for tower clocks. The date generator and the display system of the date ring are produced as new com- 185 ponents.

Claims: CLAIMS What I claim as my invention is: 190 Claim N°l Global timer that indicates on one single display which local hours and which calendar dates govern where on earth. The local hours are indicated by a South Pole centred circular disk map of the world, that rotates clockwise within a ring-shaped face with 24 hours, thus all geographic locations at any time are positioned under their local hours on the 195 face. An outer date ring next to the face indicates the calendar dates which travel successively over the earth, thus all geographic locations at any time are positioned under their calendar dates on the date ring. The 24 longitudes of 15° distance, beginning at 0°, are printed bold on the disk map, thus point at any time to their respective local hours on the face and to their calendar dates on the date ring. 200 Claim N°2 The spherical surface of the earth is projected to the flat circular disk map of the world by a scale that grows continuously southwards, thus the continents and oceans are kept in recognizable shapes and represented in their true positions towards each other in a com- 205 plete circular panorama. Claim N°3 On the date ring the Christian reckoning of years is raised by 10,000, thus the history of post ice age human civilization is indicated by consecutive positive year numerals as a 210 unit; and each single day on the date ring is designated by the consecutive Modified Julian Day numeral as an individual event, not as an endless repetition of ever the same day, thus indicating that no day was ever before, and will ever return.

Inventors: SCHWEITZER ROBERT PETER, SCHWEITZER, ROBERT, PETER
Applicants: SCHWEITZER ROBERT PETER, SCHWEITZER, ROBERT, PETER
Application year: 1997
Main classification: G04B19
IPC codes: G04B19