Robert Stairs can’t say exactly when he first saw York University’s sundial, sometime around 1967.
asserted
he → say → 1967
But nearly six decades later, at 101, he remembers what struck him: it was beautiful.
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it → remember → him
He liked it enough to stop at an old shop on Yonge Street and buy a miniature sundial of his own.
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He → like → own
He kept it in his garden for more than 40 years before eventually donating it to York.
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He → keep → York
The original sundial, meanwhile, was gone.
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sundial → go → ?
By the 1980s, York’s wooden instrument had rotted beyond repair and been removed.
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instrument → rot → repair
Stairs was sorry to see it go.
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it → see → ?
Decades later, he decided to help bring it back — with a $600,000 donation toward a new sundial for the university.
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he → decide → university
“The original, which I had admired, unfortunately disappeared,” Stairs said.
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Stairs → admire → which
“I thought it was a great shame that it had gone.”
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it → think → ?
The result is an eight-foot bronze sundial designed to help students and visitors understand the relationship between the sun, time adjusted to their precise location on Earth.
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students → design → Earth
It is York’s first publicly accessible sundial for teaching and observatory tours since the original disappeared.
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original → disappear → teaching
Stairs, a retired chemistry professor who taught at Trent University from the mid-1960s to his retirement in the 1990s, and now lives in a Peterborough, Ont., retirement home, says he had been interested in sundials for a long time.
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he → teach → time
But he can’t pinpoint exactly when that interest began.
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interest → pinpoint → ?
He does know what he hopes will come of his gift: that other people will learn from it and enjoy it.
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people → know → it
“I’m an old man, it’s a little awkward to get down there ...
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it → ’m → ?
I shan’t go very often,” he said with a laugh.
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he → go → laugh
“But anyway, I hope other people will learn from it and have fun with it.”
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people → hope → it
The project took shape after Stairs visited York’s observatory in 2021 and discovered the missing sundial.
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Stairs → take → sundial
The work of bringing a new tool to campus fell largely to Robert Kellogg, an 80-year-old sundial designer and vice-president of the North American Sundial Society.
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work → bring → Society
With Kellogg’s help, Sea West Observatories engineered the new instrument, which shares its donor’s surname.
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which → engineer → surname
The sundial can indicate the time to within minutes when users adjust its wheel to align with the sun.
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users → indicate → sun
The design took about two years, and Stairs’s donation covered the entire construction cost.
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donation → take → cost
Kellogg described completing the project as “awesome.”
“I was both impressed and very proud,” he said.
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he → describe → project
“I think Stairs, likewise, was extremely proud of the sundial he sponsored.”
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he → think → sundial
For Elaina Hyde, York’s observatory director and a professor of physics and astronomy, the sundial is a teaching tool that offers something increasingly uncommon: a direct connection between the movement of the sun and the measurement of time.
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that → offer → time
“It’s a clock that will never need a battery,” Hyde said.
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Hyde → ’ → battery
Unlike a conventional clock, a sundial depends on the sun’s apparent position in the sky and the observer’s location.
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sundial → depend → sky
York’s new instrument is calibrated for its precise position on campus; moving it even a few inches would compromise its accuracy.
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moving → calibrate → accuracy
Hyde said the sundial also offers an opportunity to revisit ways of understanding time and place that were once much more familiar.
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that → say → time
“That tie between your physical location and what you see in the sky is something that was previously very well-known by humans, and especially the Indigenous peoples of this area,” she said.
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she → see → area
“That’s something you don’t see a lot today.
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you → ’ → ?
It’s an unusual thing to be able to bring back.”
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It → ’ → ?
She expects physics and astronomy classes to make use of the instrument.
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classes → expect → instrument
Its bronze construction, cast by Canadian company Artcast, should also make it considerably more durable than the wooden sundial that preceded it.
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that → cast → it
“I’m hoping that this sundial is still here in at least 100 years,” Hyde said.
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Hyde → hop → years
The new sundial was unveiled at a ceremony on York’s campus in September, attended by Stairs, Kellogg and Hyde.
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sundial → unveil → Stairs
“I was very pleased ... when it appeared,” Stairs said.
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Stairs → please → ?
“It’s a very handsome object.”
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It → ’ → ?
The Aporia
