Accession No
0786
Brief Description
universal equinoctial ring dial, by Nicholas Bion, French, circa 1700
Origin
France; Paris
Maker
Bion, Nicholas
Class
dials
Earliest Date
1700
Latest Date
1700
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass)
Dimensions
Meridian ring 114mm - 99 mm x 4mm; hour ring 99 mm -86 mm x 4 mm; max length 146mm
Special Collection
Robert Whipple collection
Provenance
Purchased by Robert Stewart Whipple from Percy Webster, London, England, on 17/06/1935.
Inscription
‘N. Bion fe[?] A-Paris 49 deg’ (meridian ring)
Description Notes
Meridian ring calibrated for all latitudes, divided in opposite quadrants [0] - [90˚], numbered by 10˚, subdivided to 1˚. Suspension shackle with brass suspension ring. Equinoctial ring divided I - XII, I - XII, numbered by I, subdivided to 15 minutes; similarly divided on the inner face. Pierced bridge with date scale divided to named (initialled) month, subdivided to 5 days; pinhole gnomon; decoration at the end of the bridge and on the hour ring stops. Reverse of bridge a scale marked by zodiac signs, and numbered ‘69’ twice. List of towns and latitudes on meridian ring, and on the reverse of both rings.
References
Events
Description
The universal equinoctial ring dial was designed by the English mathematician William Oughtred in the first half of the seventeenth century. It could be used at any latitude, so was a popular timekeeper for sailors and other travellers. It was really a much simplified version of the armillary sphere, only keeping the parts which were needed for telling the time.
The universal equinoctial ring dial consists of two rings and a bridging bar inside the inner ring. The outer ring represents a circle passing through the North and South celestial poles. The inner ring is called the ‘equinoctial’ ring because it represents the celestial equator. The bridging bar represents the axis of the world, just as the gnomon on an ordinary horizontal dial does. So the instrument is a very simple model of the heavens.
01/02/2001
Created by: Dr Hester Higton on 01/02/2001
FM:40008
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