Sundials: Their Theory and Construction (Anywhere But Naxos) [Paperback]

Albert Waugh (Author)

Book Description

Series: Anywhere But Naxos | Publication Date: June 1, 1973

This fascinating approach to sundials offers a rigorous appraisal of the science of sundials, including mathematical treatment and pertinent astronomical background. It also provides a nontechnical treatment simple enough that several of the dials can be built by children. 106 illustrations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (June 1, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486229475
• ISBN-13: 978-0486229478
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science > Astronomy > Aeronautics & Astronautics
  • #41 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Time

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Overall the best available sundial text., March 18, 2002

By 

Alex (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sundials: Their Theory and Construction (Anywhere But Naxos) (Paperback)

I have read and viewed the major English language texts on Sundials. These being 1.Waugh, 2. Mayall & Mayall, and 3. Rohr.

The Waugh text has good, mostly clear, intructions and gives both graphical and equation based methods of constructions. Mayall and Mayall perhaps has better graphical constuctions but Waugh excells in the variety of tables in the appendix. Waugh also has the clearest explanation of determining the declination of a wall. This is very important as many buildings are aligned along magnetic north (& south & east &west) rather than true north ( south etc...).

A shortcoming of the almost every book including Waugh, is the lack of clear instruction on how to draw other types of hours. Most importantly of these interesting alternatives types of hours are babylonian and Italian hours. These hours are still useful today. So far I've only found the Rohr text to have any attempt of explaining how to draw these lines. However the Rohr text simply doesn't match the clarity and breadth of Waugh and Mayall and Wayall.

Waugh (and Mayall and Mayall) both could do with an update on trigonometry. With the easy availability of scientific calculators, the need for log versions of equations and the use of things like "cot" functions is not needed and simply makes the calculations clumsy to perform on a key pad.

The book by Cousins is an excellent higly detailed text if you can get it, but it seems to be out of print. It is useful if you really want to get into the maths of spherical geometry and it wouldn't be the best book you'd want to read first. It makes you appreciate the wonderful elegance of the graphical solutions but it may convince you that it is all too hard when it actually isn't in a practical sense. Just about anyone can make a simple sundial.

The text by Rohr also has a good section on how to do hour lines on just about any shaped surface (bowl, sphere, plane etc..) if you have a rod for a gnomen. This is about the only strength of this text over the others.

So to conclude Waugh would be the best first text, very closely followed by Mayall and Mayall, then Rohr. The text by Cousins is excellent but at a much higher level that isn't needed for the construction for the standard types of dials.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The all-time classic work on dialing., July 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Sundials: Their Theory and Construction (Anywhere But Naxos) (Paperback)

Albert Waugh's "Sundials: Their Theory and Construction" is a veritable treasure-house of information on the ancient science of gnomonics. As a dedicated dialist of several years, I never could have achieved such wonderful results without Waugh's classic book. The work presents the art of building sundials from two perspectives: for the advanced dialist, Waugh's book approaches the theory from a highly complex, mathematical viewpoint, including some aspects of celestial mechanics; for the average "do-it-yourself-er", Waugh presents several projects that are simple and well-explained. Accompanying this fine work is a collection of solar tables, astronomical information, and various data of inestimable value that would alone justify the purchase price of the book. So whether your purpose is to further your technical interest in the fascinating science of gnomonics, or merely to build an attractive sundial for your garden over the weekend, "Sundial! s: Their Theory and Construction" should be in your collection. It is considered the very "bible" of dialmaking. I couldn't brag about it more had I written it myself!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the dial-builder, March 29, 2004

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Sundials: Their Theory and Construction (Anywhere But Naxos) (Paperback)

No other book, as far as I know, gives such clear detail about making your own sundials. That word seems so narrow; Waugh covers much more of solar time-telling than just dials. One thing that amazes me is his passion. He writes with clear pride about his own sundials, good to within (he says) ten seconds!

This book covers graphical or analytic techniques for laying out sundials on just about any surface that doesn't move, horizontal, vertical (facing any direction), slanted, or even the ceiling. He also discusses the movable kind, like a "shepherd's dial". It has nothing inherently to do with sheep, but can be used anywhere, even without knowing true north.

The historian may be disappointed. This is not a catalogue of sundials through the ages, although bits of history are scattered throughout. In one sense, though, this is a view into the time of its writing (1973). A modern reader, with access to modern calculators and computers, will be amused if not puzzled by some of tricks used to make hand computation more feasible. I don't know anyone any more who multiplies by adding logs, and the circumlocutions around negative logarithms look positively quaint. The only real flaw in this book is its systematic omission of half the world: the southern hemispehere. It wouldn't have been so hard to add just a paragraph or two about sundials that work "backwards".

Although this book celebrates the craft and art that can go into a sundial, its real value is technical. This book gives the essential methods for the functional side of a solar time-piece; bring your own artistry.