Portable Sun/Star Dials: Tickless Timepieces

Our Own Devices February 24, 2025
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Our Own Devices

@ourowndevices1

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Ever wonder how a rotary telephone works, how sailors and pilots navigated by the stars, or how mechanical calculators perform complex math using only gears? Then you've come to the right place! Our Own Devices is a channel dedicated to the fascinating world of vintage technology, and the many elegant and ingenious ways our ancestors solved even the most complex technical problems. Questions or comments? Have a fascinating device you'd like covered on the channel? Please contact me at [email protected] Want more fascinating history? I am a regular staff writer for Today I Found Out and many of its sister channels: https://www.youtube.com/@TodayIFoundOut

Video Description

In this video, we look at a trio of portable timepieces designed to tell the time only by the movement of the sun and stars: two sundials and a stardial/nocturnal. Pelorus/Course Corrector/Marine Computer Video: https://youtu.be/Lsa_UrnO-e4 0:00 Introduction 0:44 History of the Ansonia Clock Company 1:47 Sunwatch: Markings and Patents 2:56 Sunwatch: External Features 4:38 Sunwatch: Setup Procedure 7:24 Aquitaine Sundial Ring 8:57 Nocturnal / Nocturlabe 10:27 Outro SOURCES https://www.gilai.com/product_852/Sunwatch-Combination-Sundial-and-Compass-by-Ansonia https://honorableoutfitters.com/artifacts/ansonia-clock-company-sun-watch/ https://museumoftechnology.substack.com/p/sunwatch?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web http://www.vintagerecipeblog.com/2016/03/the-ansonia-sunwatch-instructions.html https://vavasseur-antiques.com/portfolio/british-ansonia-sunwatch https://patents.google.com/patent/US1418926A/en?q=(hollinwood)&oq=hollinwood https://www.mountaintoptradingco.com/product-category/sundials-compasses/aquitanes/ https://www.mysundial.ca/tsp/horizontal_sundial.html https://dev.to/pauljlucas/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-sundials-5h2l#:~:text=Noon is, of course, 0,lines become more evenly spaced. https://nawcc.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/9760242E-F23A-45B3-9C94-042532962628 https://www.mysundial.ca/tsp/nocturnal.html https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/astronomy/what-nocturnal https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mosmd/noctrnl.htm https://patents.google.com/patent/US463040A/en?oq=463040

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