University of Southampton, Southampton

Concrete bow-string equatorial dial with a mean time gnomon, located outside the Hartley Library. The equatorial ring carries a stainless steel time scale with marks every quarter hour from 6am to 6pm and Arabic hour numbers. The polar axis is a stainless steel rod gnomon, carrying a figure 8 shape so that the dial reads GMT. A mean-time dial of the type was first patented by John Oliver in 1892 but remains very rare. The design works well much of the year but falls down where the gnomon has to made thicker than desired for strength reasons (to be correct, it should come to zero thickness in the middle). Unless there are two gnomons, for the two halves of the year the gnomon shape must be a compromise. Nontheless, it should tell GMT considerably more accurately than an uncorrected sundial. This is a mean-time dial of the type first patented by John Oliver in 1892. The base is inscribed: "This sundial was presented by the 84 Club to mark the 50th anniversary of the University’s Royal Charter 1952 - 2002". Instructions are given for reading the correct side of the shadow, depending on the date. See SRN 6294 for another example by the same maker, P B Morice, also at Southampton.