The sundials presented on this page were designed by Bob Hough of Tucson, Arizona. One dial was manufactured in part by an engraving firm and completed by Bob while the other Bob built himself.

The following is a short description Bob provided about his sundials. If you wish to contact Bob send an e-mail to: houghbob@comcast.net

	"I designed the "Ratz Dial" for a client named Ratz in Colorado Springs, CO, in 1994.  I used my computer and described the graphic algorithms in the PostScript language using a simple text editor. I had to define many new operations that are not defined in standard PostScript. When viewed with a PostScript Interpreter, this renders an image of the dial face that can be viewed on a computer screen and also printed on a printer. The angles are adjusted for the latitude, but the longitude of that site is close enough to the standard meridian for the time zone that the longitudinal correction can be ignored. I converted the PostScript file to an EPS file with two lines of code and copied it into a 3.5" diskette. I took it to Colorado Laser Markings, where they read it into their CAD system and it displayed on the screen (without a glitch). They drove the engraving machine directly from the CAD system. Most of their engraving is laser, but laser doesn't work well with highly reflective surfaces, like the brass for my dial, so they used an older, mechanical engraver. The face is 11" in diameter and 1/4" thick. I hand cut and finished the style myself from the same 1/4" brass stock and attached it to the face by drilling and tapping holes on the underside and drilling and countersinking aligned holes through the face and using machine screws and a touch of epoxy between the pieces. I had the pedestal made from steel (was going to be wrought iron but my builder had excess steel). The pedestal is disproportionately tall to raise the dial face over the top of a close-by fence so the late afternoon sun could still hit the face. I mounted the pedestal to a well seasoned stump with lag bolts and cement. The brass face has weathered nicely since it was installed. I had originally designed the furniture to include an EOT graph on the face, similar to the dial you did, but my customer did not like it, so I took it out of the design."
"I recently did the "Wall Dial" for the wall along the back of my back yard at my house here in Tucson. We wanted a primitive "look and feel" and that is what we achieved. The wall declines 19.6 deg SW. (I drew a line perpendicular to the wall on a level board and an intersecting line along the shadow of a plumbline and measured the angle. With the date/time to determine the EOT and sun declination, and the long/lat, I determined the azimuth of the sun and thus the wall declination.) To make life simpler, I used PostScript to calculate for me, instead of my hand-held calculator. Again, I used PostScript and not only rendered a basic image of the face and the style, but also had it print out the values for the hour angles, sub-style and style-height.  The dial is adjusted for latitude, longitude and wall declination. The face is sandstone and the style is 1/2" copper plumbing pipe with a glass marble epoxied in the end for appearance. I drilled the hole by hand and built a wooden form to hold the style in place while the epoxy set, then removed the form. The lines are painted by hand (remember, it is supposed to look crude).  A local landscaper donated the stone (too thin for stepping stone) and the rest of the materials totaled about $5.  This summer we will see how it holds up in the desert heat with stone, copper and epoxy expanding at different rates. From June through Sept, the probable high is 40 deg C."