Tuesday 31 October 2017

Sunshine recorder in the Port Charlotte museum

I found this in the museum at Port Charlotte on Islay. I remember seeing pictures of it in books. the glass globe is essentially a spherical lens which means that no matter the direction of the sunlight, it is focused onto a piece of paper behind and burns a track, allowing the hours of sunshine to be recorded. Being curved it should be the case that every 15 degrees represents an hour.