Selected Sundials of North America

This is a selected listing of sundials in the North American Sundial Society Registry. Click on any dial thumbnail picture or city name to display the full dial description with additional information and images.

 

Rhode Island

 
Newport Rhode Island USA Vertical Dial Dial 671
An 8x8 foot vertical dial of carved stone with hour lines and Arabic numerals and with Zodiacal symbols around dial perimeter. Dial declines to the west and has a bronze gnomon. Access to view dial is available to all campus visitors.
 
 
Newport Rhode Island USA Horizontal Dial Dial 1077
Farenholt sundial for U.S. Naval Hospital Newport Rhode Island. This cast bronze dial was designed and commissioned by RADM Farenholt for U.S. Naval Hospitals at bases where he was commanding officer, visited, or had special meaning to him. The dial is 18 inches (46cm) in diameter. The outer chapter ring has the motto, followed by a chapter ring with Arabic hours 6am to 6pm, raised hour lines that radiate from near the foot of the gnomon and short half-hour lines. The gnomon has graceful curves and a quatrefoil cut-out in the center. Below the gnomon is the naval command name, followed by the commissioning date in the southern portion of the hours chapter ring. Dial sits atop a circular stone pedestal with beveled capital.
 
 
Providence Rhode Island USA Vertical Dial Dial 857
The vertical dial is a metal frame approximately 4 x 5 feet set high on a brick wall. Within the frame are metal hour lines from 6am to 5pm marked by Roman numerals. The hour lines are adjusted for the dial's longitude to show time for the 75th meridian. Metal lines for the solstices and equinox are set for the shadow of a small spherical nodus on the gnomon rod. The gnomon itself is anchored to a bronze plate stylized as the Sun.
 
 
Providence Rhode Island USA Vertical Dial Dial 858
The 3 x 4 foot vertical dial is set high in the ashlar sandstone wall of Wilson Hall, the original Physics Building. In the middle of the dial is the Brown University shield, holding the gnomon rod. Surrounding the shield are hour lines. In the original 1890 architect's drawing, the hour marks were Arabic numbers from 6am to 6pm, but as built, the numbers were engraved Roman numerals and set inside the hour lines. Half hour marks were added as well. No longitude offset is made such that the noon hour line is vertical.
 
 
Providence Rhode Island USA Vertical Dial Dial 859
This is a traditional vertical dial approximately 4 x 6 feet. The dial is surrounded by a row of square pink concrete brick. The dial backdrop itself is concrete with decorative dark block squares in each corner. The dial consists of a simple metal frame with hour lines that radiate from a small top central circle, all well proportioned. Hours of 7, 9, 12, 3, and 5 are marked with Arabic numbers, keeping the dial face simple. No solstice or equinox lines, but there is an artistic circular arc surrounding the central circle. Unfortunately the rod gnomon is completely missing.
 
 
Providence Rhode Island USA Armillary Sphere Dial 860
This 18th century dial is made by Benjamin Martin an instrument maker in London. It is bronze, approximately 18 inches in diameter. The gnomon rod is held by an meridian circle attached to a heavy bronze pedestal with three legs. The horizontal time ring, held by the meridian ring and an east-west ring as well, is engraved with Roman numerals.
 
 
Providence Rhode Island USA Noon Mark or Meridian Dial Dial 949
At first glance this is a gleaming stainless steel sculpture 15 feet long by 4 feet high in the shape of a Mobius strip. Although it fits its name "Infinity Possibility", it also contains a meridian noon mark sundial. At the south end of the Mobius, high up on its curved surface is a hole to allow the noontime sun to create a beam of light that hits a lower portion of the Mobius strip. Engraved on the strip is an analemma adjusted for the longitude of Brown University that shows date and civil time throughout the year. The analemma has monthly markers and is delineated with ticks every 5 days.