Portable Horizontal Sundial with Bag
date: label: date made
content: ca 1660-1675
name: label: maker
content: Bourgaud
notes: label: Description
content: This silver and brass portable octagonal horizontal sundial is calibrated from V to XII to VII with the hour divided into two parts (there are three hour scales). A curved brass gnomon that folds down rises from the base. A piece of the gnomon slides to adjust from 30 to 55 degrees latitude, but it is no longer possible to lock this piece into position. A compass is at the foot of the dial. Another compass star is on the underside but has no needle.The compass needle and compass stars may be nineteenth century replacements. There are only six points on the compass stars, and these do not line up with the eight compass points engraved on the top of the case. The brass compass casing is attached to the dial with screws. The casing and another peg enable the dial to lie on a flat surface. There is a lunar volvelle on the underside of the sundial, used to assist in converting from lunar to solar time. The sundial was kept in a leather sleeve, which is stored in a separate bag along with a cardboard box.
label: Description
content: The French dial is signed at the center: Bourgaud (/) Nantes.
label: Description
content: According to a letter from Byron Arkebauer, the agent for vendor Mrs. Betty Schmidt, the instrument was plowed up on a farm near Montezuma, Indiana, about 1860. It was found by "Dr. Elisia Cannon".
label: Description
content: It is quite possible that the Dr. Cannon mentioned by the vendor was the North Carolina-born Quaker physician Elisha Betts Cannon (1830-1883) who, in 1850, lived with his parents Horace F. and G. B. Cannon in Montezuma, Indiana. Horace Cannon also was a physician and known as an abolitionist. By 1860, E.B. Cannon had married and set up his own household in Montezuma and would soon enlist in the Union army.Both E.B. Cannon and his brother, Joseph G. Cannon (1836-1926) moved to Illinois. Joseph, a lawyer, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1873, and became Speaker of the House in 1903 (the Cannon Office Building in Washington, D.C.is named for him).
label: Description
content: The instrument was purchased in 1964.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Accession file 255932
label: Description
content: Personal Communication,Sara Schechner, January 11, 2022. Dr. Schechner not only commented on the hour scals and the compass of the dial, but provided an approximate date.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Pays de la Loire, Nantes
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Timekeeping
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.325565
label: accession number
content: 255932
label: catalog number
content: 325565
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sundial
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: .5 cm x 6.1 cm x 3.8 cm; 3/16 in x 2 13/32 in x 1 1/2 in