Editing Sundial (section)

===Shepherd's dial – timesticks===
{{Main|Shepherd's dial}}
[[File:Tibetan Timestick.jpg|thumb|19th-century Tibetan shepherd's timestick]]

A [[shepherd's dial]] – also known as a ''shepherd's column dial'',<ref name="story of time">{{cite book |last1=Lippincott |first1=Kristen |last2=Eco |first2=U. |author2-link=Umberto Eco |last3=Gombrich |first3=E.H. |year=1999 |title=The Story of Time |place=London, UK |publisher=Merrell Holberton / National Maritime Museum |isbn=1-85894-072-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/storyoftime00kris/page/42 42–43] |url=https://archive.org/details/storyoftime00kris |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name=beginnings>{{cite web |publisher=St.&nbsp;Edmundsbury Borough Council |title=Telling the story of time measurement: The Beginnings |url=http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/visit/beginnings.cfm |access-date=2008-06-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060827151541/http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/visit/beginnings.cfm |archive-date=August 27, 2006 }}</ref> ''pillar dial'', ''cylinder dial'' or ''chilindre'' – is a portable cylindrical sundial with a knife-like gnomon that juts out perpendicularly.<ref>{{harvp|Rohr|1965|pp=109–111}}; {{harvp|Waugh|1973|pp=150–154}}; {{harvp|Mayall|Mayall|1994|pp=162–166}}</ref> It is normally dangled from a rope or string so the cylinder is vertical. The gnomon can be twisted to be above a month or day indication on the face of the cylinder. This corrects the sundial for the equation of time. The entire sundial is then twisted on its string so that the gnomon aims toward the Sun, while the cylinder remains vertical. The tip of the shadow indicates the time on the cylinder. The hour curves inscribed on the cylinder permit one to read the time. Shepherd's dials are sometimes hollow, so that the gnomon can fold within when not in use.

The shepherd's dial is evoked in ''[[Henry VI, Part 3]]'',{{efn|
[[Henry VI, Part 3]]:
: O God! methinks it were a happy life
: To be no better than a homely swain;
: To sit upon a hill, as I do now,
: To carve out dials, quaintly, point by point,
: Thereby to see the minutes, how they run –
: How many makes the hour full complete,
: How many hours brings about the day,
: How many days will finish up the year,
: How many years a mortal man may live.<ref>
{{cite book
 |author=Shakespeare, W. |author-link=William Shakespeare
 |title=[[Henry VI, Part 3]]
 |at=act&nbsp;2, scene&nbsp;5, lines&nbsp;21–29
}}
</ref>
}}
among other works of literature.{{efn|
For example, in the ''[[Canterbury Tales]]'', the monk says
: "Goth now your wey," quod he, "al stille and softe,
: And lat us dyne as sone as that ye may;
: for by my chilindre it is pryme of day."<ref>
{{cite book
 |author=Chaucer, Geoffrey |author-link=Geoffrey Chaucer
 |year=
 |title=[[Canterbury Tales]]
 |editor=
 |translator=
 |section=   |at= 
 |place=
 |publisher=
 |isbn=
}}
</ref>{{full citation needed |date=June 2023 |reason=Which tale? Which edition? Publisher? Date? Page?}}
}}

The cylindrical shepherd's dial can be unrolled into a flat plate. In one simple version,<ref>{{harvp|Waugh|1973|pp=166–167}}</ref> the front and back of the plate each have three columns, corresponding to pairs of months with roughly the same solar declination (June:July, May:August, April:September, March:October, February:November, and January:December). The top of each column has a hole for inserting the shadow-casting gnomon, a peg. Often only two times are marked on the column below, one for noon and the other for mid-morning / mid-afternoon.

Timesticks, ''clock spear'',<ref name="story of time"/> or ''shepherds' time stick'',<ref name="story of time"/> are based on the same principles as dials.<ref name="story of time"/><ref name=beginnings/> The time stick is carved with eight vertical time scales for a different period of the year, each bearing a time scale calculated according to the relative amount of daylight during the different months of the year. Any reading depends not only on the time of day but also on the latitude and time of year.<ref name=beginnings/>
A peg gnomon is inserted at the top in the appropriate hole or face for the season of the year, and turned to the Sun so that the shadow falls directly down the scale. Its end displays the time.<ref name="story of time"/>