Barrel-Type Portable Horizontal Sundial
notes: label: Description
content: This barrel-type sundial consists of a brass ring with a gnomon that folds up (one edge is jagged). The dial is calibrated by hour from 1 to 8 and from 4 to 12. The ring sits in a wooden base. The base contains a broken, crudely cut glass compass cover and a paper compass rose of eight points with a fleur de lis at North. The paper pivots on a point and acts as the compass--there is no need for a needle. There is a brass plate screwed to the outside bottom of the base. When the sundial ring is removed, the wooden base screws into a wooden barrel. The barrel has a brass decorative ring screwed around its top. The barrel also has a wooden lid which is attached to it with a brass chain. This barrel may have held tobacco.
label: Description
content: George Watson gave this sundial to Silvio Bedini to give to NMAH c. 1968-1969. There is a label from Kaywoodie Pipes addressed to Bedini in the accession file, but it is not clear whether Watson was associated with this company, which was owned and operated by S. M. Frank & Company of Peekskill, New York. It is also not known whether the wood in this sundial is briar wood, the material used to make Kaywoodie Pipes.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of George Watson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0787.01
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0787.01
label: accession number
content: 1987.0787
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sundial, horizontal portable
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 8.2 cm x 5 cm x 4.5 cm; 3 7/32 in x 1 31/32 in x 1 25/32 in