R. Newton Mayall (1904–1989)

A really excellent, but sometimes confusing book. A classification of sundials, and instructions for laying them out. Some mathematical explanation of they're functioning in the back that left me totally bewildered, which is probably a bad sign, since I already have some understanding of sundials.

This book drew my attention to the armillary sphere located in Andover, Mass., not all that far from where I live. I visited the armillary sphere, and it's not really all that, but it's pretty cool anyway. Due to the pandemic, I finally got a chance to inspect the sundial outside the University of Massachusetts-Lowell computer science building. _It_ is a complete mess. I can't see how it could be used to tell the time, and it seems to being held together, at least in one location, with electrical tape. It should probably be removed.

In the forward, the authors thank the head of the Harvard Observatory, who was then Harlow Shapley, dating the book impressively. Some of the illustrations are not actually part of the book but affixed to their pages with glue.… (mehr)