THE PERSONALIZED SUNDIAL
THE WORLD'S MOST ACCURATE
by Oscar Falconi
If you're planning to buy or construct a sundial, you should read this
first: It is NOT possible to have a more accurate sundial than the one you
will build from the computer printout we generate from your own
Latitude, Longitude, and Time Zone. The angle of each and every timeline
on the dial (the sundial's face) must be accurately known and plotted or
else gross time errors will be introduced. If your surface is NOT
horizontal (such as a wall, monument, or memorial), just send us the
compass direction the wall is facing, along with its forward or
backward tilt, and in a few days you'll receive all the construction and
sundial angles. Complete instructions are included on how to use this
data to construct and set up the WORLD'S MOST ACCURATE SUNDIAL. The
data will give the angle at which to draw your timeline for each quarter
hour of the day. Also, the sine and cosine of every angle is given to
facilitate your plotting the dial and verifying your points. A sundial
design is suggested and a sample dial drawing is included to guide you.
Here are some of the reasons why our PERSONALIZED SUNDIAL is the only
one accurate to a couple minutes:
1. The traditional design of the style (whose shadow determines the
time) makes it impossible to know just what portion of the poorly
defined shadow to read. This fact alone reveals that no one really
expects sundials to be accurate. Our recommended design provides a
perfectly straight and accurate shadow which is used to read the time
with no judgement errors.
2. The angle the style makes with the dial must be set to a few tenths of
a degree. This means the special angle to which the style is set for your
home will only give accurate time readings within about 10 or 20 miles
of you. Store-bought sundials, marketed throughout the world, are for
decorative purposes only.
3. Most all sundials have their noon line pointing exactly North, and their
6am-6pm line exactly east-west. In some places, such as Denver or
Memphis, only a few minutes error would be introduced. But such
sundials in other places would often be in error by more than a half hour.
There'd be an hour error in El Paso, TX, and a 2 hr error in Ft. McPherson,
NWT. The only answer is to customize your sundial to your own latitude,
longitude, and time zone.
4. The tilt of the earth, and the eccentricity of its orbit about the sun,
require a correction to your sundial reading of several minutes depending
on the time of year. Four times a year, about April 16th, June 14th,
September 2nd, and December 24th, no correction is required. On
February 12th, however, 14 minutes is added to the sundial reading, and,
on November 4th, 16 minutes must be subtracted. We provide a simple
table that will give the correction for any day of the year, any year, and
for all latitudes and longitudes.
5. Ordinary sundials are of such an unsound design, and so error-ridden,
that seldom is the importance of leveling the dial ever mentioned in the
set-up instructions. In our instructions we provide a very simple and
very accurate method for leveling your dial. If your sundial will be on a
non-horizontal surface, we tell how to mount it, orient it, and give you
the exact angles.
Atmospheric refraction of the sunlight will introduce a small error at
sunrise and sunset of never more than 3 minutes of time in the middle
latitudes. No provision is made for this error since it's so small and so
transient, being barely detectable only when the sun is a few diameters
from the horizon, where it's usually obscured and when sundials are
somewhat less accurate anyway.
PLEASE NOTE: We supply only the personalized data, based on your
latitude, longitude, time zone, wall direction and tilt. Though we include
an illustrative dial drawing, and suggest a sundial design, we do NOT
supply hardware nor plot your dial face since choices and requirements
will differ from person to person.
PRICE: $35 (THIS SERVICE IS AGAIN AVAILABLE. In the early '80s, Oscar
Falconi devised the Sundial Programs on a TRS-80 Model I Radio Shack
computer. When Microsoft Windows came along, the old programs wouldn't
work - plus sales were low - so the Sundial Design Service was dropped
about 1995. Then, in 2006, along came Pete Williamson, who thought we
should again offer the service, and was willing to take the time to
convert the old Radio Shack program, containing over 120 lines of code, to
an equivalent Windows program.)
When ordering, don't forget to include your time zone and exact latitude
and longitude (to at least a tenth of a degree, available at your library,
or from your GPS.), and, if required, your surface's direction/tilt.
PHONE ORDERS (VISA-MC-AMEX-NOVUS): (800)325 2664 FAX: (408)867 6236
Or e-mail: wn@nutri.com
Copyright 1989 by Wholesale Nutrition, PO Box 3345, Saratoga CA 95070
THE HEINRICH HARRER MUSEUM SUNDIAL OF HUTTENBERG, AUSTRIA
HEINRICH HARRER
OF WHOM AUSTRIA
CAN BE PROUD
Happy 90th Birthday 6 July 2002
( Heinrich Harrer, 93½, died 7 January 2006 - Godspeed, Heini )
Heinrich Harrer is a most fascinating man with a dozen lifetimes of
experiences, many of which are related in his 1953 worldwide best
seller, "Seven Years in Tibet" (with a Foreword by the Dalai Lama), and
more recently (1992) in his "Lost Lhasa", which includes over 200
extraordinary photos of Tibet before the invasion, plus a message by the
Dalai Lama, a good friend (for over 50 years) of Heinrich Harrer. The
above Sundial was designed and constructed to celebrate Prof. Harrer's
80th birthday and the opening of the Heinrich Harrer Museum in
Huttenberg in July 1992.
Due to be released October 1997, the movie, "SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET", stars
BRAD PITT playing the part of the young HEINRICH HARRER !! This is a
"MUST-SEE" film - already denounced by the People's Republic of China.
Partly filmed in Tibet unbeknownst to the Chinese, it was mostly filmed
in a mountainous region of Argentina with elaborate multimillion dollar
reproductions of famous Tibetan settings such as a mind-boggling
re-creation of a winding street in Lhasa 200 meters long, and whole rooms
of the Potala, the legendary 1000-room palace of the Dalai Lamas. It will
be most satisfying to see an exciting, historically accurate, movie with
no sex, violence, or vulgarity. A learning experience par excellence,
"Seven Years in Tibet " is being directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and will
most certainly receive fine reviews, and maybe an Oscar or two.
Sixty Years a Hero - and now a scandal?
Heinrich Harrer has recently been scandalized in the German magazine,
"Der Stern", for joining the Nazi SA (Stormtroopers) in 1933. In 1938 he
joined the Austrian Nazi party and enlisted in Hitler's elite SS. In
that same year, he requested SS leader Heinrich Himmler's permission to
marry, being required to give proof that he, and his bride-to-be, were
proper Aryans. Yet, back then, about 60 years ago, young Harrer would've
been scandalized if he had NOT joined those organizations if he could,
and had NOT obtained Himmler's permission to marry. Remember, those
were the days when Hitler`s Nazi party had just taken
Germans - and by association, Austrians - out of the terrible depression
and inflation rampant in the '20s and early '30s. Remember, too, by 1938,
Harrer was a world-class Olympic athlete and climber, and, at just 26, an
idol to all Austrians. How, indeed, could Harrer, or any patriotic
Austrian, NOT express his devotion and loyalty to his country at that
time? It would've been a blatant insult to his country not to stand up
before the Austrian youth and proclaim his patriotism. The well-run
propaganda machine of the time, using the newly-perfected radio and cinema
technologies, had the whole country in a state of nationalistic furor.
Just view some of the Nazi propaganda films by Leni Riefenstahl - they are
exhilarating! Don't you dare say that you nor I would NOT have acted
exactly as Harrer did at the time. "Let he who is without sin cast the
first stone!"
If Germans and Austrians are now sensitive about the policies and actions
of their fathers and grandfathers 60 years ago, they shouldn`t be. Back
then, the people would never challenge the leader they idolized. "Ours is not to
question why, Ours is but to do and die." But due to the War-Crimes Trials
after World War II and Vietnam, these ideas no longer prevail. It seems,
now, we must question all orders and hope our actions will agree with future
juries!
A final thought to ponder: Suppose Hitler had won the war! Would anyone be
sensitive about "those days"? Who would "Der Stern" be scandalizing now?
But maybe German-speaking peoples are unique. Would we Americans, under
similar circumstances, also be obedient to a popular authority figure?
Would we be capable of inflicting pain to an innocent human being? Would
we conform to a sort of mass hysteria, despite its being against our
better nature and judgement? Well, back in 1962, these ideas were tested
to their limits in science's most controversial and shocking conformity
experiment ever. It's called the "Milgram Obedience Study" and has rarely
been discussed publicly. That experiment, in the history of social
psychology, was earth-shaking. Prof. Stanley Milgram, of Yale University,
wondered whether the Holocaust was a uniquely German experience, or, under
similar circumstances, whether any of us have this same capacity for
evil.
Here's how the Milgram experiment worked. Subjects were told they were
part of a study on memory and punishment. They were told they'd have to
give a man electrical shocks every time he answered incorrectly in a
memory test. A very impressive electrical apparatus was used by the
subject to apply ever-increasing voltages to the man strapped in a chair
with electrodes applied to his body. Electrode paste was applied to
provide a good connection and to avoid blisters and burns. Another man, in
a lab coat, running the experiment, gained instant credibility simply by
acting in charge and sounding and looking like a scientist. As the man in
the chair kept giving wrong answers, the subject at the apparatus would
apply shocks to the man starting at a slight 15, to an intense 255, and
finally to a deadly 450 volts! All the while the subject was applying
large shocks to the
man, he could hear blood-curdling screams and cries to be released. But if
the subject ever questioned anything, he was ordered to proceed as agreed.
It had previously been predicted that only one in a 1000 subjects would go
all the way to 450 volts - by which time the victim had stopped crying
and was
presumably dead. Amazingly, nearly 2/3 of Milgram's subjects - from a
laborer to a social worker to a corporate executive - went all the
way!
Prof. Milgram concluded that, just as in Nazi Germany, any one of us could
put blind obedience over conscience! If this experiment had been run in
1942, instead of 1962, perhaps the war-crimes trials would have had
different outcomes. And, of course, the point of all this, is to show
why Prof. Heinrich Harrer must never be criticized for his socially
popular decisions in 1933 and 1938.
(Note: The "doctor" running the experiment, and the man receiving the
shocks were actually Milgram accomplices. No shocks were applied.)
Indeed, we should be chastising Harrer for apologizing for his early
decisions which were not only popular, but a great honor for such a young
man. It's easy to become furious when you read all the media trashing of
this highly intelligent, highly productive, man. In order to sell
magazines, "Der Stern", and now newspapers, TV, etc., hypocritically
pounce on a public hero with holier-than-thou editorials condemning the
prevailing morals of another era. Again I ask, who would "Der Stern" be
pouncing on now if Hitler had won the war?
THE SUNDIAL: Its diameter is 44 cm, weighs 11 kilos, and is made
of cast bronze. On its face, in addition to the usual hour lines, is a map
of the famous two-year trek Harrer made to Lhasa during World War II.
