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Meridivo Hobart, Tasmania

Meridivo · Hobart, Tasmania · since 2004

A sundial is only right in one place. We make it for yours.

Bronze and slate dials cast and cut to order in Hobart, each engraved for the latitude and bearing of one garden or wall.

The index, A to W
A bronze horizontal dial on a sandstone pedestal, the sun's morning position marked on its path above, the gnomon's shadow falling between ten and eleven XII XII XI X IX VIII VII VI V I II III IIII V VI VII PL. 01 · HORIZONTAL GARDEN DIAL · BRONZE, 400 MM · SET FOR 42°53′ S

01 · Everything we make and cover

The Index, A to W

Filed the way the order book is, from analemmatic ground dials to walls that face true north. Prices are in Australian dollars, and every dial is drawn for one place before it is made.

Motto engraving: the first 30 letters are included, then $4 a letter. No minimum order, and nothing is made for stock.

02 · Why no two are alike

One Dial, One Place

A sundial reads the angle of the earth beneath it, so it can only be right where it was calculated.

The edge of every gnomon, the style that throws the shadow, has to lean at the latitude of its garden and point at the celestial pole. In Hobart that angle is 42°53′. A dial set out for Brisbane leans at 27°28′, and in a Hobart bed it is out by the better part of an hour by mid-afternoon, however carefully it is levelled.

It is also why the workshop will not make a decorative dial that is set to no latitude at all. It would be wrong everywhere, and somebody would believe it.

On the bench sits a wooden wedge cut to exactly 42°53′. It has been there since the first slate dial in 2004, it is worn smooth along its long edge, and every Hobart gnomon is offered up against it before it is fixed. Dials for anywhere else take their angle from the arithmetic, which you can try yourself with the gnomon calculator on the setting-out page.

Three gnomon edges of the same length, leaning at the latitudes of Brisbane, Melbourne and Hobart 42°53′ HOBART 42°53′ MELBOURNE 37°49′ BRISBANE 27°28′ DIAL PLATE
Three gnomons, one length of edge. Only the steepest is right in Hobart.

03 · South of the equator

Reading a Southern Dial

Most of what the old sundial books say holds only in the north. Down here a dial runs the other way round, points at an empty patch of sky, and keeps its own time.

A Hobart dial is not slow because it is badly made. It reads the sun over Hobart, while the clock keeps the time of the 150th meridian, a line that runs out over the Tasman Sea well east of the Tasmanian coast. The sun reaches that line first, and reaches your garden about ten and a half minutes later.

Whether to engrave that offset into the hour lines, or to leave the dial honest to the sun and fix a small correction plaque beside it, is a choice made at the drawing stage. Most people choose honesty.

A southern horizontal dial seen from above, north at the top, its shadow sweeping anticlockwise from morning on the left through noon at the south to afternoon on the right VI VII VIII IX X XI XII I II III IIII V VI NORTH NOON SHADOW POINTS SOUTH
From above, north at the top. Morning on the left, and the shadow turns anticlockwise.
The shadow turns

Anticlockwise

The sun crosses the northern sky, so the shadow sweeps from west through south to east, the other way round from a clock.

The gnomon points at

An empty sky

No bright star marks the south celestial pole, so each gnomon is set by calculation, a level and the 42°53′ wedge.

Behind the clock in Hobart

10 min 41 s

Hobart sits about 2°40′ west of the 150° meridian. Daylight saving adds a further hour from October to April.

The whole sum, worked through

04 · Drawn at the bench

Three on the Bench

Three kinds of dial as they leave the drawing board. Each is redrawn for its own wall or garden, so these are kinds, never stock.

  • A square slate wall dial fixed to a brick wall, its hour lines fanning down from the gnomon root XII XI I X II IX III VIII IIII VII V VI VI 300 MM

    Slate Wall Dial

    From $680

    A 300 mm square of dense blue-grey slate, engraved for a wall that faces true north and fixed with stainless pins. Five to six weeks from the approved drawing.

    Wall dials and prices
  • A round bronze garden dial seen from above, its gnomon on the noon line and its hour lines fanning south N XII XI I X II IX III VIII IIII VII V VI VI 42°53′ S 250 OR 400 MM

    Bronze Garden Dial

    From $1,450

    Cast in silicon bronze at 250 mm, or at 400 mm for $2,600, and engraved for your latitude. Allow ten to fourteen weeks: bronze is poured once a month, on the first Thursday.

    Garden dials and prices
  • A bronze armillary sphere on a small sandstone pedestal, its polar rod tilted at the latitude of Hobart TO S. POLE 600 MM

    Armillary Sphere

    From $5,200

    Bronze rings around a polar rod tilted to your latitude, 600 mm across. $5,200 to $7,400, depending on how many rings and how much engraving.

    Armillaries and prices

05 · From first letter to fixing

How an Order Runs

Four steps, and you see a full-size drawing of your dial before anything is cut or poured.

  1. Step 01

    Survey or Photographs

    Within 60 km of Hobart, Hester comes out with a compass and a plumb line. Further away, send your suburb or coordinates, a photo of the wall with a compass bearing, and the size and material you want.

    Survey $120, credited to the order
  2. Step 02

    The Setting-out Drawing

    Every hour line is calculated for your place and drawn at full size, with the motto and any date you want engraved. Freight to the mainland or New Zealand is quoted here too.

    Reply within two working days
  3. Step 03

    A 40 Percent Deposit

    Paid once you approve the drawing. The balance falls due before dispatch or installation. There is no minimum order, and nothing is made for stock.

    Balance before dispatch
  4. Step 04

    The Pour or the Cut

    Slate is cut and engraved straight away. Bronze waits for the monthly pour on the first Thursday. Installation is included within 60 km of Hobart on orders over $1,400.

    Slate 5-6 wks · Bronze 10-14 wks

Write to hello@meridivo.com with your suburb, which way the wall or garden faces, and the size and material you have in mind. Elsewhere in Tasmania, installation runs at $1.10 a km beyond 60 km, on the one regional trip each month.

What to Send Us