Sundial+compass

Enclosed you will find information about the sundial+compass. Its history, operation and symbolism.

Sundial

Which is why a sundial often had sayings immortalized on the dial:

Mottoes and other inscriptions on sundials appeared very early. Most of them were already written in Latin. Some have a reference to the measurement of time, such as Horas non numero nisi serenas (literally: I do not count the hours unless they are serene), which as "Do as the sundial does, count the serene hours only" is one of the most common sundial sayings today. Others are very general reflections on time and life, such as: Tempus fugit ("Time flees.") or Vita in motu ("Life is in motion.").

Sundial+compass: here info about the reliability of the sundial

The display of the time of day is the actual function of a sundial. However, compared to the commonly used mechanical and electronic clocks, the sundial goes quite "wrong" because the apparent movement of the sun is not uniform. Until the invention of the mechanical wheel clock at the end of the Middle Ages, this "error" had no meaning. One could accept without further ado that the true solar time deviated over the year in the summer half-year up to about ±5 minutes, in the winter half-year even up to about ±15 minutes in comparison with the evenly running time. The general public had no knowledge of this. This would have been of no use either, because there was no better continuously measuring clock than the sundial. Only astronomers knew about the uneven course of the sun and corrected the measured solar time (true solar time) with the so-called equation of time, which already Ptolemy knew, to the evenly passing time (mean solar time) to make their observations more accurate interpretable.

If you want to know more about the sundial:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnenuhr

These compass jewelry pieces in our store are for decoration only. They are NOT functional.

Sundial outside old
Sundial outside large
Sundial

Sundial+compass: here info about compass and its Meaning:

The compass was used as an orientation point even earlier. The Italian navigator Amalfi is considered to be the inventor towards the end of the 13th century. Basis of each compass are the 4 cardinal points. North - South as well as East - West. In old German records, probably from the Middle Ages, the cardinal points were named after the position of the sun. There is a saying which helps to remember the course of the sun:

"The sun rises in the east,
in the south it takes its course,
in the West, it will perish,
in the north, it is never seen."

Compass chains and keychains are a nice gift for travelers or someone who travels a lot for work. So that the owner always finds his way home in good health.

Functionality of a compass

The earth is surrounded by a magnetic field. This represents the outer edge of the earth and is in motion and also over several thousand degrees hot. It can happen that rocks, which can also be magnetic, push themselves over this magnetic field. This can cause a compass needle to flicker or point in a completely wrong direction.

By the way, when flying, a compass is used which does not react to the disturbances in the magnetic field. This is called a gyro compass.

Furthermore, we must distinguish between the magnetic and geographic north - and south pole. By the way, the difference is in fact several hundred kilometers. Therefore, today, in the digital age, we rarely find use for a compass. Perhaps when hiking, traveling to unexplored regions or diving yet.

Why a compass always points north:

First of all, let's start with a magnetic compass. This has a small movable pointer, which is called a compass needle. ... This needle is magnetic and always points approximately to the north. This is because the earth contains a lot of iron and therefore acts like a giant magnet itself. Better formulated: Magnets attract each other and therefore the magnetic needle is attracted by the natural magnetic attraction field of the earth.

These compass jewelry pieces in our store are for decoration only. They are NOT functional.

Compass close up
Compass
Compass