Cubic sundial

This is polyhedral dial, which means that it has many faces. The simplest were cubes like this one. They were a way for an artist to show off his skill. The aim was to make a multi-faced dial so that each face would show the correct time.
 

The main use for this type of sundial was probably as a garden ornament. They were once very popular but fell out of favour, but were later resurrected in 18th century Germany by artists like David Beringer. He made cube dials with coloured printed faces.
 

To use this dial first you must adjust it for the latitude where it is being used. A small plumb-line, now missing, was suspended from a pin near the top. The whole dial was tilted until the plumb line crossing the curved scale showed the correct latitude. When it is correctly set the straight edges of the gnomons are parallel to the Earth's axis. Next the dial is aligned using the compass in the base.
 

The faces don't show the same hours. Nord (north) shows the hours of 4am-8am on the right and 4pm-8pm on the left.
 

West only shows a shadow from 1pm-8pm.
 

South shows the hour from 6am (on the left) until 6pm (on the right).
 

The East face shows the hours 4am-11pm.