Sandwich  

 Sundial: 175
State/Province:  Massachusetts Country:  USA
Dial Type:  Armillary Sphere Condition:  Good
  Latitude and Longitude: 41° 44.950' N  70° 30.498' W
Location:
  • Heritage Museum and Gardens, Cape Cod, 67 Grove St. There are 70 acres of gardens. Dial is located ion the Day Lily Garden. To enter museum there is a fee. Check schedule (508) 888-3300
 
Description:
  • Bronze armillary dial about 40 inches in diameter, weighing between 1100-1200 pounds. The dial has wide 4 inch meridian and equatorial rings. The equatorial ring is flanked with small arctic and antarctic circles near the poles. The gnomon is a brass rod 1 inch in diameter. According to Heritage Museum, "Originally the sundial was highly polished and the engravings on the dial and the instruction plaques were all filled with red paint to make it easier to read. The piece has acquired a patina now and traces of the red paint are still visible." The dial is corrected for longitude and along one side of the octagonal stone pedestal is a graph of the equation of time with instructions on how to read corrected time from the dial.

    Heritage Museum notes that the dial maker James Moss, "Through a connection on Nantucket, Mr. Moss was commissioned to build the sundial for Heritage. He had never made an armillary sundial before, so he wasn't sure how long it would take. It took about a year and a half total....When the sundial was complete, it would not fit out the front door of his shop. Since his building was located on a main thoroughfare, he removed the front windows of his shop and hired a police detail to stop traffic so he could back a truck up to the windows to load it."
 
General Information:Inscription:
  • Owner: Heritage Musuem and Garden
  • "Serene I stand among ye flowers, telling ye passing of ye hours
  • Designer: James Moss, Newton, MA
  • Builder: James Moss, Newton, MA
  • Construction Date: 1980-1981
 
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Last Revised: 2020-07-14 17:27