Time in the garden

The sundial that stands in the front of Ronald and Linda Rinehart's home tells not just the time, but the date as well. The figure eight shaped path the shadow of the crossed wires takes is called an analemma. It is a result of the earth's eliptical path around the sun and the axial tilt of the earth. Rinehart makes sundials as a hobby, and he says he "has time on his mind." --Steve Moyer/Daily Mail

Sundials have been used for millennia to tell time but modern clocks overtook the sundial centuries ago as a time telling device. Sundials are still made an enjoyed, however, and Dr. Ronald Rinehart, an atmospheric scientist by training, likes to make sundials for a hobby.

"I don't make any money at it. It's just a hobby," Rinehart said. "Last year I didn't make any and some years I've made as many as six or eight."

Rinehart isn't alone, there are people all over who enjoy displaying sundials and sometimes it results in a sale.

"I belong to the North American Sundial society get quarterly journals from them. That's where I got the order for this one," Rinehart said displaying a planned sundial. "I went to a conference in St. Louis and I had donated one to the Missouri Botanical Garden and that's when I got this order."

Despite the popularity of sundials as decorations, the usual sundials are generic and aren't set up to really tell time, they are just decorations without function. Rinehart makes sundials that are functional as well as decorative, which is what a true sundial is, no matter what it's shape or size. Making a real sundial is an art that fewer people are taking up.

"There aren't that many people who make sundials, although that used to not be the case," Rinehart said. "In St. Louis we saw a sundial that Thomas Jefferson had built, I think, for Monticello, which is now at the St. Louis Museum."

There are many types and styles of sundials, they can be horizontal or vertical and while many depend on a gnomon to make a shadow on the face of the sundial, where the shadow rests indicates the time, some sundials use a different method, they use a ray of light to mark the time. The style Rinehart made for his home uses the inside surface of a partial cylinder with two crossed wires for a gnomon -- where the intersection of the wires is the point, or nodus.

He made the sundial specifically for a location in Nevada, using a spreadsheet to calculate the figures. It's not the first sundial he's made for his own home. The one he made while living in Columbia is almost the same as his current one but it had a metal rod sticking up out of the base for a gnomon.

Sundials often have saying and images on them, referred to as furniture. They are often humorous and there are a wide variety. Popular ones include "I only tell sunny hours,"-- which is on Rinehart's -- some are more morbid, "Do not kill time, for it will surely kill thee," and some mock their own existence -- "I am a sundial and I make a botch of what is done far better by a watch."

To make a sundial Rinehart needs to know the location where the sundial will be, each location needs to be figured separately. After doing the calculations for the location Rinehart lays out the face, including the furniture on paper then sends that to be photoengraved on an aluminum sheet which he then applies to the inside of the cylinder.

"I calculate what the scale should look like with Excel," Rinehart said. "There's two ways to do it. For this I send them to Minnesota have them photoengraved onto aluminum, it's just a thin layer, then I glue it to PVC pipe and grind it down to size and I'll use a brass gnomon and paint to finish them."