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Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight) 2 0 Browse Search
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Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), D. (search)
as visited by an august procession of philosophers during the seven centuries which separated Aristarchus from Hypatia. On the instrument, which had a plane parallel to the equator and a gnomon parallel to the earth's polar axis, Hipparchus, 150 B. C., learned the length of the year, that the four quarters of the year are not of equal length, and also observed the precession of the equinoxes. See armillary sphere. Before the time of the erection of a sun-dial in the Quirinus by L. Papyrius Cursor, 293 B. C., the time was called by watches, which divided the time between the rising and setting of the sun. About thirty years after, the Consul Marcus Valerius Messala brought to Rome a dial from the spoils of Catania, in Sicily, and this he placed on a pillar near the rostrum; but, not being calculated for the latitude of Rome, it was inexact. The obelisk erected by Augustus in the Campus Martius was brought by his orders from Egypt. It was originally hewn for Pharaoh Sesothis,