Show 0 ANCIENT SUN DIALS Six Foot Spears Used to Denote Timo in the Deserts It Is probable that the earliest sundial sun-dial was simply the spear of some nomad no-mad chief stuck upright In the ground wanderers keen to observe their surroundings sur-roundings It would not ho a difficult thing to notice that the shadow shortened short-ened as the sun rose higher In the sky 0and I that the shortened shadow always pointed In the same direction north I The recognition would have followed very soon that this noonday shadow changed In Its length from day to day A alxfoot spear would give a shadow at noonday In latitude 10 degrees of twclvo feet at one time of the year oC less than two feet at another This Instrument In-strument so simple so easily carried ao easily sol up may well have begun the scientific study of astronomy for It lent Itself to measurement and science Is measure and probably wo nee It expressed In permanent form In the Obelisks of Egyptian solar temples though these no doubt were retained merely as solar emblems ages after their ue an actual instruments of ob scrvnllon had ceased An upright stick carefully plumbed standing on some level surface may therefore well make the first advance upon the natural horizon hori-zon A knob at the top of the stock will be found to render the shadow more I easily observed Knowledge |