Hora sundial

So many things the sundial Hora expresses cryptically - and yet is superficially above all one thing: a reduced to the essentials, easy to use transportable sundial. Timelines are inherent in it, in that the clock bridges the gap from ancient China to the present day: the use of the shadow rod inserted into the (horizontal) ground to measure time can be traced back to as early as 2500 BC in China - and the orientation of the Hora is also horizontal. Then there is the material: the dial of the hora is made of porcelain, the material that first arrived in Europe around 1300 on the trade route from China - where it was to take another 400 years until Johann Friedrich Böttger produced the first European hard porcelain in Dresden. Today, some 200 kilometers away from Dresden, in Rudolstadt, Thuringia, the dial of the Hora is made in the Rudolf Kämmer porcelain manufactory - a job that is anything but trivial, despite its no-frills design. After all, the sundial is supposed to show the time precisely. The name of the Hora comes from Latin and means hour or time of day, which makes the matter also conceptually round.

The Hora displays the solar time, which reflects the sun's course from sunrise to the sun's highest position in the south (true noon) to sunset. This True Local Time (WOZ) was the official time of civil life until the 19th century, when, in the course of industrialization, an averaged time adapted by man to his purposes was introduced. Central European Time (CET) or Central European Summer Time (CEST) can be easily calculated from solar time, taking into account the location and the date. How this is done is described in the enclosed instructions. The Hora is optimized for mid-latitudes (50°N, Frankfurt am Main), but it can of course also be used north and south of it - with the small restriction that its time display then deviates by a few minutes.

The scale applied by screen printing is weatherproof burned into the glaze. The Hora sundial stands on three rubber feet and can be placed on a sunny windowsill or outdoors year-round. The top and edge glazed, bottom unglazed porcelain has a scratch-resistant, waterproof surface and excellent weather and frost resistance.

Gnomonics is the science of sundials. The name derives from the gnomon (Greek = shadow staff), the central element of these timepieces. Carlo Heller, a mechanical engineer with a doctorate from Wiesbaden, is a gnomonics enthusiast. Since his youth, he has been fascinated by astronomical instruments and sundials. Today, he translates his innovative ideas into precision instruments with technical expertise and a sound knowledge of modern manufacturing technologies. In doing so, his sundials set new standards, both in function and design.