SUNDIALS: ILLUSTRATING SHADOWS is a book covering the design and construction of sundials, from the earliest altitude dials, the evolution
of azimuth dials, to the dials based on the apparent rotation of the sun around the earth's polar axis. Empirical, geometrical, and trigonometrical
approaches are demonstrated for all the different dials, formulas are developed as well as used, and techniques for the design of
spreadsheets are discussed. Spreadsheets not only provide the tables in the appendices, but they can also provide dial plate templates.
Additionally, the use of CAD (computer aided design) is covered, and the book is illustrated with CAD throughout. The second book is
ILLUSTRATING MORE SHADOWS. Whereas Illustrating Shadows focuses on theory and small dials and detailed dial construction, this follow
on book focuses on larger outdoor garden sundials using commonly available building materials from any building supply store. The book
reviews all the normal dials for completeness and shows many case studies in clay or glass. The inclined decliner and the declining dials are
treated in depth as are calendar curves. There are chapters dedicated to both cube decliners for the garden (16 by 16 inches) and to inclined
decliners, with all the design methods, and construction notes from start to finish. Inclined decliners will be a piece of cake with this book, and
fun to do, and the spreadsheet for the book was completely rewritten to facilitate the process. More innovative work in DeltaCAD and TurboCAD
is covered, and the programming of DeltaCAD and TurboCAD is discussed in depth. FEEDBACK, corrections, suggestions, and so on are
WELCOME. It doesn't matter if you think it is trivial, major, pedantic, YOUR input is welcomed. I respond to all such emails. All such emails are
considered, most cause the next print run to be improved, some cause an improvement but elsewhere in the book than suggested, and very
few result in no action. Extremely few. And all result in a better product. In June 2009 he produced Illustrating Time's Shadow, about 400 pages
with an additional 170 page appendix, and this book is an alternative to books 1 and 2, Illustrating Shadows and Illustrating More Shadows.
Please email me at:- sam_in_silver at yahoo dot com or alternatively at illustratingshadows at yahoo dot com The author is a
member of the North American Sundial Society as well as the British Sundial Society. He lives in Silver City, New Mexico and in Phoenix,
Arizona. If you are in the vicinity, email and perhaps we can meet.
MATH: SOLAR: RADIO: His major math work in the 1960s was helping with the algorithm for how long the British Olympic team should
acclimatize in Mexico City for those Olympic games, and later on algorithms for polygon fill and general graphics systems. His sculpture
education was from Donald Potter of Bryanston, his math tutor was Dr Garood (major work on magnetic theory). If you exclude his celestial
navigation in the 1960s as a member of the Royal Institute of Navigation, his first major solar actitities were in 1970's for hot water, his electrical
system is powered by 3kw of solar panels, see Home Power magazine, edition 87. His {hoenix house has a 5kw solar system. The author has
held an English amateur radio license (G3ROW) since 1962, and a USA advanced class license (WB7ULT) since the mid 1970s.
VOLUNTEERING: The author for many years was a volunteer CASA (court appointed special advocate) and helped research a major work on
child sexual abuse. He is active on several cases and has done this volunteer work not only in 6th District Court in NM, but also in Arizona since
1997. The author was a volunteer mediator in magistrate court, and volunteered in the trial courts of Maricopa County, AZ as well as probate
court. He was also a senior mediator performing federal cases in California, Arizona, and New Mexico in the EEO and labor relations dispute
arena.
GLASS: The author has been working in stained glass (13th century pigments,14th century silver stain, etc) since 1975 and has sold many
works, some examples are here.
of azimuth dials, to the dials based on the apparent rotation of the sun around the earth's polar axis. Empirical, geometrical, and trigonometrical
approaches are demonstrated for all the different dials, formulas are developed as well as used, and techniques for the design of
spreadsheets are discussed. Spreadsheets not only provide the tables in the appendices, but they can also provide dial plate templates.
Additionally, the use of CAD (computer aided design) is covered, and the book is illustrated with CAD throughout. The second book is
ILLUSTRATING MORE SHADOWS. Whereas Illustrating Shadows focuses on theory and small dials and detailed dial construction, this follow
on book focuses on larger outdoor garden sundials using commonly available building materials from any building supply store. The book
reviews all the normal dials for completeness and shows many case studies in clay or glass. The inclined decliner and the declining dials are
treated in depth as are calendar curves. There are chapters dedicated to both cube decliners for the garden (16 by 16 inches) and to inclined
decliners, with all the design methods, and construction notes from start to finish. Inclined decliners will be a piece of cake with this book, and
fun to do, and the spreadsheet for the book was completely rewritten to facilitate the process. More innovative work in DeltaCAD and TurboCAD
is covered, and the programming of DeltaCAD and TurboCAD is discussed in depth. FEEDBACK, corrections, suggestions, and so on are
WELCOME. It doesn't matter if you think it is trivial, major, pedantic, YOUR input is welcomed. I respond to all such emails. All such emails are
considered, most cause the next print run to be improved, some cause an improvement but elsewhere in the book than suggested, and very
few result in no action. Extremely few. And all result in a better product. In June 2009 he produced Illustrating Time's Shadow, about 400 pages
with an additional 170 page appendix, and this book is an alternative to books 1 and 2, Illustrating Shadows and Illustrating More Shadows.
Please email me at:- sam_in_silver at yahoo dot com or alternatively at illustratingshadows at yahoo dot com The author is a
member of the North American Sundial Society as well as the British Sundial Society. He lives in Silver City, New Mexico and in Phoenix,
Arizona. If you are in the vicinity, email and perhaps we can meet.
MATH: SOLAR: RADIO: His major math work in the 1960s was helping with the algorithm for how long the British Olympic team should
acclimatize in Mexico City for those Olympic games, and later on algorithms for polygon fill and general graphics systems. His sculpture
education was from Donald Potter of Bryanston, his math tutor was Dr Garood (major work on magnetic theory). If you exclude his celestial
navigation in the 1960s as a member of the Royal Institute of Navigation, his first major solar actitities were in 1970's for hot water, his electrical
system is powered by 3kw of solar panels, see Home Power magazine, edition 87. His {hoenix house has a 5kw solar system. The author has
held an English amateur radio license (G3ROW) since 1962, and a USA advanced class license (WB7ULT) since the mid 1970s.
VOLUNTEERING: The author for many years was a volunteer CASA (court appointed special advocate) and helped research a major work on
child sexual abuse. He is active on several cases and has done this volunteer work not only in 6th District Court in NM, but also in Arizona since
1997. The author was a volunteer mediator in magistrate court, and volunteered in the trial courts of Maricopa County, AZ as well as probate
court. He was also a senior mediator performing federal cases in California, Arizona, and New Mexico in the EEO and labor relations dispute
arena.
GLASS: The author has been working in stained glass (13th century pigments,14th century silver stain, etc) since 1975 and has sold many
works, some examples are here.
| Are there any rests-of-the-story things in the book? If you look at one of the photos in the book very closely you will see a white blob to the rear of the old sundial at Hey Farm. This was the head and shoulders in sandstone of the first stone carving model used for the Baden Powell statue of granite at Baden Powell house in London, the sculptor being Donald Potter of Bryanston. Donald Potter, who lived into his 100s, was the author's sculptor master at Bryanston School. The old sundial whose picture was taken around 1956 still exists. I spoke with it's owner in September 2005 and it is still loved and cherished, and being professionally restored. |
| The author on the front of Home Power edition 87 |
| The author as a young teen with one of his family's dials in England in the background. |
| The author's article in the 1990s on pitch and power considerations in an airplane. The phone number in the article is out of date since I have retired. |
| Sir Ernest Craig, MP, Bt, one of my great grandfathers, owned the Last Chance mine in Mogollon, New Mexico in the 1890s, and in his car at Hudson (now Faywood) Hot Springs in 1908 |
| My grandfather (Franklin Wheaton-Smith) in New Mexico 1915 died at our home, Pilton Manor, UK |
| the author |
| COMPUTING: Original author of BDOS and DFOS (1968, 1969), SHADOW, PATCHES, FIDO, and TOTO IBM 360 and 370 systems (1973). Original author of MSTM (load module level compatability system for programs under SHADOW, CICS, CMS, ROSCOE, TSO. Co-designer of MANAGE-IMS (late 1970s). Author of the CAPEX, later CA, IBM GDDM compatible graphics system using symbol sets then later APA mid 1980s). Author of the ITT Courier Doomsday host based terminal quality control system, later IDEA (1997). While the author approves of object oriented methods, he strongly disapproves of excessive movement of inherent language features (=,>, <, etc) into objects as methods. H ealso strongly disapproves of rigid data typing, even back in the days of PL/I, type conversion was at run time if not feasible at compile time. He strongly disapproves of language releases which simply show the designers didn't think things through in the first place. A language should make the programmers life easy and simple, a language should not be a monument to the nerds and geeks who designed it. |
| DFOS |
| BDOS |
| A few notes about the author, Simon Wheaton-Smith, and some of his relatives. |
FLYING: He started flying lessons in 1963, was a freight hauler in Merlins
and Falcons, a B727 flight engineer, an airline pilot flying the Boeing 737
and retired from investigation & enforcement in the FAA (Federal Aviation
Administration) and became a DPE (Designated Pilot Examiner). The
author also used to fly competition aerobatics regionally. A distant cousin
many times removed Lt Thomas Selfridge was the first man killed in
powered flight in the USA, the pilot was Orville. The author's grandfather
Sergei de Bolotoff Wiasemsky was involved in the cross channel race in the
early 1900s but failed to get off the ground, and his great aunt Violette (de
Sibour) Selfridge flew a gypsy moth around the world in 1928 writing a book
about it called The Flying Gypsies. One of his great grandfathers was Harry
Gordon Selfridge who founded Selfridges department store in London,
England. His father was a geneticist, arrested for bull smuggling in 1961. A
family of interesting people. The author points out that he is the first sane
one in the entire family.
and Falcons, a B727 flight engineer, an airline pilot flying the Boeing 737
and retired from investigation & enforcement in the FAA (Federal Aviation
Administration) and became a DPE (Designated Pilot Examiner). The
author also used to fly competition aerobatics regionally. A distant cousin
many times removed Lt Thomas Selfridge was the first man killed in
powered flight in the USA, the pilot was Orville. The author's grandfather
Sergei de Bolotoff Wiasemsky was involved in the cross channel race in the
early 1900s but failed to get off the ground, and his great aunt Violette (de
Sibour) Selfridge flew a gypsy moth around the world in 1928 writing a book
about it called The Flying Gypsies. One of his great grandfathers was Harry
Gordon Selfridge who founded Selfridges department store in London,
England. His father was a geneticist, arrested for bull smuggling in 1961. A
family of interesting people. The author points out that he is the first sane
one in the entire family.
| A few of the author's sundials are hidden here at this Phoenix, Arizona home's east lawn. |
COMPUTING: In the mid 1960s the author learned Algol on the Elliott 803, then learned and wrote IBM 1401 code, and in the late 1960's on the
IBM 360, and later the 370, and later systems, the author designed the SHADOW teleprocessing control program, as well as FIDO, TOTO, and
PATCHES, in the 1970's Computer Associate's Manage-IMS, and in the 1984 thru 1997 the ITT Courier (later Alcatel, later IDEA) 3270
compatible quality testing system (DOOMSDAY). Many years of IBM assembler experience in multiple operating systems, C, C++, PL/I and so
on. Likes the heritage languages. A lot. In fact, this page here has programs I wrote for sundials along with free or very low cost compilers for
them. Yes, he had two parallel careers, sometimes one was full time the other part time, and vice versa.
IBM 360, and later the 370, and later systems, the author designed the SHADOW teleprocessing control program, as well as FIDO, TOTO, and
PATCHES, in the 1970's Computer Associate's Manage-IMS, and in the 1984 thru 1997 the ITT Courier (later Alcatel, later IDEA) 3270
compatible quality testing system (DOOMSDAY). Many years of IBM assembler experience in multiple operating systems, C, C++, PL/I and so
on. Likes the heritage languages. A lot. In fact, this page here has programs I wrote for sundials along with free or very low cost compilers for
them. Yes, he had two parallel careers, sometimes one was full time the other part time, and vice versa.
| RETIREMENT: the author builds garden sundials in Silver City, NM and in Phoenix, AZ. After retiring from the FAA in May of 2006, he did some volunteer work then was appointed the Town Clerk for Silver City. Then he resigned to run for Town Council in District 3 which he won, and was re-elected in 2009 with 50% more votes. He is also a law enforcement officer, second in command of the reserve division, and NM DPS certified as an instructor in several law enforcement subjects. |
My great grandfather HGS at my parents wedding
along with my grandmother Rosalie.
along with my grandmother Rosalie.
My father's more interesting activities!
My parents at their wedding.
Page 2 of this link has more on my father, and my stepmother Liz who is also a cousin.