[time-nuts] Harvard, Time and the Dipleidoscope

[Larry McDavid]

Dr. Sara Schechner, curator, just posted this on the sundial reflector:

............
The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments (CHSI) at Harvard 
University would like to invite you to an informal gathering during this 
year's HSS Annual Meeting, held in Boston. We will open our museum doors 
on Friday, 22 November 2013 from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. Wine and cheese will 
accompany the visit of our two current exhibits: Time, Life & Matter: 
Science in Cambridge AND Time & Time Again: How Science & Culture Shape 
the Past, Present, & Future. For more information, go to our website: 
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi-exhibitions.html

We are located on the Oxford Street side of the Science Center at 
Harvard University:

Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Science Center 136 and 251
1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA.
(map: http://hmsc.harvard.edu/files/museums/files/hmsc_map.pdf)

Please join us for this special occasion. We are eager to see old 
friends and make new ones!

Please RSVP to either Dr. Sara Schechner (schechn at fas.harvard.edu) or 
myself, your two hosts.
............


The Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments is simply 
outstanding and there are two large exhibits running at present. I 
presented a paper on the Dent Dipleidoscope at the August annual meeting 
of the North American Sundial Society, held in Cambridge this year at 
Harvard. We toured the Harvard exhibits and enjoyed a lengthy 
behind-the-scene tour of their extensive collection storage area in the 
basement. This is surely the largest room of rolling shelves filled with 
scientific antiques I've ever seen!

I serve as Registrar for NASS, maintaining an 8.6 GB database of 
sundials throughout North America. Sundials, of course, were our first 
time-telling instruments! By 1850, the Industrial Revolution and the 
extensive train system in England led to demand for more accurate time 
than sundials and mechanical clocks of the day could provide. For 
example, train schedules used London Time (as opposed to local solar 
time) and showed train arrivals/departures to the nearest minute.

The Dent Dipleidoscope was the first instrument available to the layman 
that allowed identifying correct time within just a few seconds. It was 
easy to use and relatively inexpensive. My presentation was titled, "The 
Dent Dipleidoscope: A Sundial By Another Name."

So, as Time Nuts, we can appreciate that time accuracy has come a long 
way in just 150 years!

If you should happen to be in Cambridge for this event, do visit "The 
Coop" bookstore near the Harvard campus. It is an amazing, 5-story high 
place!

Larry McDavid W6FUB



On 11/12/2013 9:32 AM, Brooke Clarke wrote:
> Hi:
>
> Two exhibits based on time:
> March 6 - December 6, 2013
>
> Time, Life & Matter: Science in Cambridge
>
> and
>
> Time & Time Again: How Science & Culture Shape the Past, Present, & Future
> http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi-exhibitions.html
>

-- 
Best wishes,

Larry McDavid W6FUB
Anaheim, California  (SE of Los Angeles, near Disneyland)