Thursday, August 30, 2012

Broken Clock

During the fence building and the blocks being laid around the patio planter the other day my sun dial got broken. This thing has sentimental value to me as it had a place of honor in my father in law's garden for as long as I knew him. I inherited it.

It must have got knocked off it's stand because the little upright piece that casts the shadow had snapped off. The perpetrator simply put it back on it's stand, laying the snapped off part on top. They said nothing but I suspect Norma. The whole thing is brass and I did not know how or even if, it would weld so I thought I would try Gorilla Glue on it. It seems to have worked, it is good as new. It will not stand up to another fall but excluding that, it should be good enough until it is passed on to Brooks.

I had a great time with our youngest granddaughter, Sierrah, a few years ago with this sun dial. I asked her to "please set grampa's clock". She said, "What clock?" and I pointed to the sun dial. She went over and stared at it for a minute before asking, "How do you set it?" I had a great time explaining what it was to her. She has a very scientific mind and grasped the concept immediately, even why it only goes from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. I told her she would end up with it one day.


4 comments:

  1. That is cool. Does it keep time? I don't think I have ever seen a real one a work. You should get it fixed.

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  2. It is fixed and yes, it keeps perfect time! You just rotate it until the shadow falls on the correct time and leave it. As the sun moves across the sky, the shadow moves across the clock face.

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  3. Our sundial looks much like yours. If you ever want to see other sundials you should visit the North American Sundial Society at

    http://sundials.org/index.php/home

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  4. Good for Gorilla Glue. It's always nice to come with a nice easy fix to a problem.

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