Vertical sundial being installed at downtown Wooster market
By Kyle Valentini
June 30, 2011
562
Summary: Downtown Wooster will be home to only the second vertical sundial in Ohio according to The North American Sundial Society and project coordinator, Keith Speirs. An ongoing project, the two-story wall will also include a solar panel covered overhang and an electric car charging parking area for Local Roots Market and Café.
Leave it to the progressive and creative members of Local Roots Market and Café and Wayne County Sustainable Energy Network to come up with a project that is both an educational tool and a way to beautify what was once a lack luster brick wall in downtown Wooster.
Keith Speirs serves on the board of directors for both organizations and came up with the idea of installing a sundial after spending time with Clyde Simpson, Observatory Coordinator at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Unlike the sundials most of us have seen, Speirs differs in that it is a vertical sundial. A vertical sundial is a dial that is placed on a wall. It is vertical to the ground. There are two types of vertical dials; the direct vertical. These dials are upon surfaces that face a cardinal direction, which is to say they face true north, south, east or west, and the declining vertical dial. These dials do not face a true compass point.
Speirs sundial is a direct vertical dial and will be placed on the south facing wall of the Local Roots Market and Cafés two-story building at 140 S. Walnut St at Wooster.
A sundial is a simple, yet accurate, instrument, which tells time by the movement of the shadow a pointer casts upon a dial, which marks the hours of the day. The shadow moves as the sun changes position in the sky throughout the day, and the dial tracks this movement.
For a sundial to be accurate, the pointer must be slanted at an angle equal to the latitude of its location. Vertical pointers are useful at showing the correct time of day at one latitude and only during one season.
The creation of the sundial is an ongoing process and wont be complete until December. Speirs began making the hourly points on June 21st, the summer solstice. Hour lines on the dial plate indicate the shadow position at a particular hour. The shadow is created from the gnomon, the physical structure that actually casts the shadow.
The gnomon and hour lines are constructed of aluminum and are being custom manufactured by Morrison Custom Welding. Morrison thought it was a really neat project to get involved with, said Speirs. They were anxious to help and even hoped it was more complex than what it turned out to be.
Prior to the institution of standard time in 1883 most cities and towns used some form of solar time maintained on a common clock within the town. The US and Canadian railroad industry was responsible for creating a standard time but it was not immediately embraced.
The sundial will take up the upper half of the two-story wall while the lower half will be installed with a roof that will hold solar panels. More of an educational tool than a means of powering the market at this point, Speirs wants the panels to provoke conversation and get people to start talking about alternative energy.
Beneath the solar paneled roof will be Woosters first electric car charging station. We will leave this area for electric car parking and while they shop they can plug in, said Spears. Eventually wed like to add a parking area for our Amish customers to park their horse-drawn vehicles.
Speirs pointed out the interesting juxtaposition of having an ancient time telling device and a modern electricity generating devise placed together on one wall. This wall was rather an eye sore and we wanted to do something to make it look better and create an educational tool at the same time, said Speirs.
Speirs would like to eventually have a plaque placed near the sundial to explain the instrument more clearly for those with an interest. Sundials are a lot more complicated than I realized before I got involved with this project, said Speirs. My interest in astronomy and map making was helpful and I am pretty certain it is as accurate as can be.
