I'm super bummed that it was completely overcast today when I visited Barnwell to see the sundial. There was no telling the time today other than from the clock in my car, or my Fitbit, or my phone, but not from the sundial.
Quite possibly the only one of its kind, it has displayed the accurate time - within two minutes of standard time - for over 150 years. It was a gift to the city in 1858 from state senator J.D. Allen.
The plaque reads, "The sundial. The oldest known device for the measurement of time, a sundial indicates time by the position of the shadow of a gnomon cast by the sun on the face of a dial marked in hours. The gnomon is a flat piece of metal in the center of the dial with its back pointing towards the North Pole when in the northern hemisphere and facing due south and with the upper edge slanting at an angle equal to the altitude of the location of the sundial."
[Review 16842 overall - 873 in South Carolina - 355 of 2022.] read more