THE SUNDIAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 134, 18 March 1940, Page 7

THE SUNDIAL

AN ANCIENT INSTRUMENT.

ONCE THE WORLD'S TIME-PIECE.

With the possibility of a sundial being erected in Ashburton as a Centennial memorial, it is interesting to recall that this instrument, now valued only as an ornament, was an essential feature of early civilisation.

There has always existed in man a deep-rooted .desire to mark in some way the progress of time. The “Clypsedra” or water-clock, by which time was roughly calculated through the dropping of water from one vessel to another, and tho similar use of sand, were early efforts to satisfy this desire.

Tho shadow cast by a. tree gave primitive man an idea. He experimented, possibly at one stage using a howl or basin, “and so slowly a sundial was evolved. Although it posessed the disadvantage of being useless when there was no sun, it soon was universally adopted, in home, temple, and public building. The first authentic record of its existence appears in the Bible in Isaiah XXXVIII. 8, where reference is made to the sundial of King Athaz, 750 years B.C. Down through the ages it was the universal time piece, until replaced by the mechanical instrument. Time specimens of sundials are to ho found throughout the world. Perhaps the most beautiful of all is at Glamis Castle. 'Scotland, and the homo o'f Queen Elizabeth. It is a masterpiece standing twenty-one and a-quar-too: feet high. Along with the construction of tho dial has gone the addition of mottoes, some conveying deep feeling and beauty, others being light and amusing. Of the former, here is an example; I stand amid the summer flowers,

To tell the passage of the hours, When winter steals the flowers away, I tell the passing of their day.

Man whose flesh is hut as grass Like summer flowers thy life shall pass, While tim© is thine lay up in store, And thou shall 1 ive for evermore; And of tli© latter “Like a true fireman I am always ready, R.U.?” (Tliis appears on a sundial in the Invercargill Public Gardens).