Sundial for Stainless Steel Rat

Description.

The instrument is set in the village of Ringmer (East Sussex, England) and is designed to measure the time in the village of Ringmer (UK) and in Stamford town (USA).

The instrument is made for science fiction writer Harry Harrison and is based on his novel «Steel Rat gets drafted». It is set in the village of Ringmer (East Sussex, England) where the writer spent the last years of his life.

The instrument has three scales. Two peripheral scales measure the time in the village of Ringmer. One of them measures time in currently accepted method in which a day is divided into 24 hours. Another one measures time in the village of Ringmer using the method described in the novel «Steel Rat gets drafted.» The day in this novel is not divided by 24 hours but 20 hours — 10 daytime and 10 nighttime hours. Every hour is divided by 100 and centihours and 10 000 milihours.

The inner scale measures time in Stamford (Connecticut, USA) — the home of the author of Steel Rat.

In the southern part of the dial there is an image of the robot Mark IV who is a spiritual leader of the peaceful population of the planet Chodzheki and an author of the social theory for reciprocal mutualism, through which the local population thrives and needs no army, police and law. The drawing of Mark IV is made by Sergey Korsun who is my co-author and one of the most famous Russian cartoonists.

The northern part of the dial is decorated with the motto in Esperanto language “Iru Jim, iru! La steloj estas vian! — Forward, Jim! Forward! The stars are waiting for you!” The novel «Steel Rat gets drafted» is finished with this call. Harry Harrison translated this phrase in Esperanto specifically for this sundial.

Gnomon is covered with 24 K gold. On the eastern verge of the gnomon a quote from the novel is etched which describes the experience of a young scientist who witnessed the birth of the first in the world artificial intelligence of Mark IV. On the western verge the authors names are etched — A. Boldyrev and S. Korsun. The gnomon has a nodus and an anniversary line. On the Harry Harrison birthday (March 12) the nodus shadow goes along this line.