Epact Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe

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Horizontal Dial
Signed by Erasmus Habermel
Late 16th century; German
Gilt copper and brass; 175 x 175 mm

The upper face of this instrument has a common horizontal dial with the shadow cast by a string stretched from the centre to the top of a folding standard.

The most unusual feature of the dial is that diagonal lines are used to sub-divide each hour into single minutes. This degree of accuracy cannot be achieved in practice for several reasons, for example the imprecision of setting the dial to the meridian using the magnetic compass.

Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
Inventory number 39980

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