Portable Horizontal Sundial by Pierre Le Maire
name: label: maker
content: Le Maire, Pierre
notes: label: Description
content: This brass horizontal portable sundial is rectangular in shape. The rectangle is calibrated from VI to XII to VI for latitudes of 43 and 49 degrees. The rectangle is also calibrated from 6 to 12 to 6 for a latitude of 42 degrees. Each hour of the 49-degree scale is divided into twelve parts. The other two calibrations have the hour divided into four parts. There are leveling screws at each corner of the dial. The gnomon is a string. It is tied to a brass arrow on a metal arm which folds up. The arm is marked by degree from 40 to 55. The arrow slides along the arm so that the gnomon may also be set to the user's latitude. The other end of the gnomon string is wrapped around a screw so that it can be made taut. The latitudes for fourteen European cities are engraved in the underside of the dial.
label: Description
content: A brass rectangular box attached underneath the dial contains a metal compass covered with a glass plate. The arrow is affixed at the center with a screw and inclines downward. There is a stationary metal arm underneath the arrow which points toward 10 degrees east of North and 10 degrees west of South. The compass rose has eight points. The compass is calibrated by units of two degrees into four quadrants marked by 10s from zero to just past 30. There are also marks at the five-degree points. All of the degree marks are sloppily made.
label: Description
content: Pierre and Jacques Le Maire were both makers active in Paris in the mid-1700s. A more ornate inclined string sundial with compass made by Pierre is inventory number 34646 in the Oxford Museum of the History of Science.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Timekeeping
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Department of Physics, Fordham University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.325690
label: accession number
content: 257690
label: catalog number
content: 325690
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sundial
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (cover of compass needle material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7.2 cm x 3 cm x 11 cm; 2 27/32 in x 1 3/16 in x 4 11/32 in