CHAIRMAN
I am sure that all those who were at the Edinburgh Conference will agree that we had an excellent venue in a spectacular setting and we all enjoyed the Conference dinner in the splendour of the Playfair Library.
The highlight, for me, was undoubtedly the Andrew Somerville lecture. Tony Freeth enthralled us all with his talk about the Antikythera Mechanism. Here was a true enthusiast holding his audience in rapt attention. The applause at the end was loud and prolonged.
It was very good to be North of the Border again and we were blessed by fine weather. A good proportion of the dials that we saw on the Saturday afternoon had sunlight falling on them.
Chris Lusby Taylor is to be congratulated on running his first conference.
The Forum was again very successful with a particularly useful discussion about the proposal to put a selection of British Dials On Line, the BriDOL project. This project will form a major plank in the new website with its additional content. The 2013-14 Council will be guided by the clear sense of direction which was given.
I should like to offer a special thank-you to John Foad who has retired after seven years on Council. His wisdom and his minute-taking will be much missed but, fortunately, he will continue as the Society’s Registrar and as the driver of BriDOL.
The next major event in my personal diary is the NASS Meeting in Boston in August and I am very much looking forward to that.
Frank King
SECRETARY
The recent election of the 2013-14 Council and the subsequent appointment of 2013-14 Specialists is a reminder of our dependence on volunteers. It is an apt time to take stock. As Secretary I have been heavily involved in the process of finding and retaining volunteers: some observations come to mind:-
We are overly dependent on a few individuals. Each Specialist tends to operate with little support or backup. Consequently, we are exposed to the proverbial ‘run over by a bus’ risk, and filling their shoes appears daunting to any prospective candidate.
We are overly reactive. We wait until retirement is imminent before searching for a replacement. In consequence we do so under pressure in a sense of crisis.
Is this symptomatic of an underlying reality – a limited and/or reluctant volunteer supply – or a classic chicken and egg problem? It’s both.
We need to break the cycle by injecting more openness, transparency and proactive planning. How?
1. End the presumption of permanent appointments. Council has moved to a specific annual roll over – hopefully the resulting dialogue with individual volunteers will encourage earlier notification of retirement – or indeed the wish to do something different.
2. Advertise vacancies. Last February, Council identified four Specialist vacancies – Education, Safari, Publicity and Archivist. We have since found a candidate for the new Education role. We would love to hear from anyone who might be interested in the others.
3. Invite members to express possible future interest in any role – Officer, Council membership, Specialist or project. We would love to hear from those who might be interested and to discuss the what and the when.
Project roles warrant elaboration. These are not formal appointments, but involvement in a particular project. For example John Foad, our Registrar, has been much assisted in BriDOL. Looking ahead, given our ambitions, there will be an increasing need for such volunteers – two areas spring to mind:-
More content for our website: eg help getting the Bulletins online; or you may have specific ideas of your own for new content. You don’t have to be an IT wizard – we need more capacity to prepare content ie authorship, admin, and editing skills.
Celebrating the Society’s Silver Jubilee in 2014: David Brown, our 2014 co-ordinator, has potential volunteer roles that range from cake design and making, to calendar design, to penning articles and publicity. Surely something for everyone!
It is hoped these suggestions will – by making volunteering a less daunting or enduring commitment, by providing backup and support, and by preparing individuals for future roles – help us move forward in a less hand to mouth fashion. All comments and ideas gratefully received.
Chris Williams
TREASURER
For a decade, Dr. John Schilke has conscientiously operated a bank account in the United States of America for the convenience of BSS members. With considerable reluctance, John was obliged to close the account, having received legal advice that the U.S. authorities would not view it kindly. My thanks for his unfailing co-operation, the great savings on fees to the Society and his agreeable correspondence. There are more options available for making international payments than when the account was opened which, if impersonal, do facilitate the same transatlantic exchanges we have long enjoyed.
Graham Stapleton
REGISTRAR
When is a Noon Gap not a Noon Gap?
A good horizontal dial will have a gap in the chapter ring to accommodate the thickness of the gnomon. The gnomon is, of course, set north-south, and almost invariably 12 noon is at the north point of the dial, so the gap tends to be known as a noon gap, or a split noon.
Occasionally we come across a horizontal dial which has been delineated to allow for the longitude of its location, so that it shows Greenwich Solar Time, or the same time as a sundial located on the Greenwich meridian. The only adjustment then needed to find GMT is the EOT correction. The gap, of course, appears in line with the gnomon, at the north point of the chapter ring, and therefore at some point before or after noon, depending on the longitude. In such a case the term ‘Gnomon Gap’ is more appropriate and is used, where necessary, in the Register.
This is nothing new and is explained in the BSS Sundial Glossary, but I was reminded of it recently when I received a report of just such a dial. It was designed for the Chester area, and so the gap appears at about twelve minutes past noon, Chester being around longitude 3 degrees West. It is a good, modern dial and another nice feature is the motto ‘Hodie, Nunc’. Much more upbeat than the usual, being interpreted as ‘Get on with it’ or as Nike would say ‘Just do it!’. It is, in fact, taken from the writings of a Spanish priest, Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei (of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ fame), who was canonized in 2002.
John Foad
MEMBERSHIP
We would like to welcome two new members to the Society since the last newsletter. David Freke is from Banbury and Brad Dillon runs Charlestown Sundials in Cornwall.
If you are a sundial maker and are not yet on the list on the website, do contact the webmaster to be included. It is one of the advantages of being a member of the British Sundial Society.
There are still a few members who have not returned the new gift aid form. If you are a UK income-tax payer, the society will benefit by getting tax relief on your membership subscription. If you have mislaid the form, it can be found at the end of the membership form on the website or contact me for one. To save postage, it can be scanned after signing it and emailed to me.
Jackie Jones
WEBSITE
I am pleased to have taken over as webmaster and have three priorities for the website in 2013: to keep the current site up-to-date, to develop a new site based on a much more capable system that will make it easier to support, and to enhance the site with more features such as BriDOL, the online display of some dial information. Work on the new site is underway but there is a fair amount still to do. Any thoughts about what you would like to see are very welcome.
All these activities are designed to make the site more interesting to current members and more attractive to potential ones. Whilst there is a wealth of information on the site already I would like to be able to publish more current news and information. The BSS membership is widely engaged in dialling activities and it would be very good to continue to refresh the home page with short news items that may be of general interest. If you are either personally involved or aware of interesting projects please send a few lines, photos or videos to me at webmaster@sundialsoc.org.uk.
Bill Visick
MASS DIALS
The long winter and associated weather has meant little activity in the mass dial world. In fact, only one report from a member, Dennis Cowan, who ventured south to send in reports from Beds. and Bucks.
However, non-members have been active:
Regular correspondent Dave Everest and son Paul reported from West Clandon, Surrey. NADFAS ladies Brenda Hunt and Anne Stutchbury have sent in reports from Salisbury and Bishopstone in Wiltshire. Also Brenda reported a dial on a tithe barn and wondered why; don’t know I’m afraid, apart from the church connection.
Another NADFAS lady, Trisha Marsh, recording at St Ives, formerly Hunts., now Cambs. also sent in a mass dial for us. NADFAS are very good about contacting us – thank you all.
From Hanwell in Oxfordshire an e-mail from Stephen Wass about ‘excessive numbers’ of mass dials at Hanwell in Oxfordshire – all too true – about 19 and will prove a right nightmare as we have had four or five recorders there, all with different numbers of dials and their own numbering sequences.
John Foad is printing the County listings in hard cover and double-sided paging. This is primarily for the library but copies will be available for members also. I hope John can release full details and list which counties he is to print.
I am currently entering Oxfordshire, one of the biggest counties and one which has been well investigated over the years by lots of recorders – wish me luck, I’m still amongst the ‘A’s.
Spring is here, out you go!
Tony Wood
A SICILIAN SURPRISE
I always look out for sundials when I am on holiday, and if I happen to be looking the wrong way my sister or a family friend will usually draw my attention to the right direction. In Sicily towards the end of our recent trip I was thus alerted to a distant view of a modern vertical one – but it was not out of the ordinary. But we had already seen two older portrayals, both were set into ancient floors.
On the first day of our tour, in Palermo Cathedral we saw a long line across the floor indicating noon. High in a minor dome was a tiny hole that would have admitted a thin beam of sunlight to touch the line. In appropriate places were the symbols of certain of the constellations of the zodiac. This way of ascertaining noon and of confirming the time of equinoxes and solstices is not unusual and will be familiar to most if not all of the readers of this newsletter.
However, on the very next day I saw something that I found astonishing. In a ruined Roman house probably dating to the second century BC, a mosaic floor pictured an armillary sphere. A copy of this was displayed in the entrance to the site of the ancient town of Solunto and the mosaic itself remained in its original position, carefully shielded from the weather.
Beside it was a notice naming it as an ‘armillary sphere’ which it clearly was. Although damaged one could still make out many of the rings. Looking today at the photographs I was able to take it seems likely to have had the usual horizon, ecliptic, zodiac and tropics and perhaps several others too. A small globe appeared to be in the centre – and perhaps has the remnant of a smiley face on it.
Now home I have searched through a number of guidebooks and other sources and have found the comment that it seemed that the occupier of this house ‘had astronomical interests’. Of course it may not have had an integral sundial, being just a representation of the celestial sphere but all the same I found it surprising being completely unaware that this sort of device had quite so long a history and wondered if any examples had survived. I have never seen one illustrated or in a museum.
Perhaps those who know about such things will be able to tell me more about this mosaic in the ‘House of Leda’ at Solunto and Roman armillary spheres in general?
Jill Wilson
THANKS
Dear Safari Friends,
We were amazed and delighted when we were presented with a glass bowl at the Edinburgh Conference in recognition of our work with Sundial Safaris. To make it even more special Margery Lovatt had engraved the bowl with the Safari venues and under each one had engraved a dial appropriate to that particular venue.
Although we thanked the people at the Conference we would like to thank everyone who came on one of our Safaris. We will treasure this bowl together with the fine sundial that Tony Moss engraved for us with the names of people who had been on our Safaris, at the end of our trip to the Alsace in 2009. They are both fine reminders of these visits. We hope that someone else will arrange further Safaris and we will be pleased to assist in any ways possible. Many thanks once again.
Val and Mike Cowham
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