The Sundial

In the 1750s the American Colonies were in a terrible state. Great Britain, the "Serpent from the East" continually created obscene taxes on some of the most arbitrary yet wholly necessary items required for orderly life. One of the most notable taxes was on clock gears. In fact, you may remember the popular patriotic slogan of the time, "They Tax Our Gears, We'll Box Their Ears!" England, however, was unimpressed by the complaints from the Colonies. The taxes were so unbearable that in the late 1750s most clock-makers in the Colonies had gone bankrupt. The clock, what had once been so commonplace now became a plaything of the wealthy. Ben Franklin, not one to stand idly by as an injustice ravaged the land, put his mind to work. Using complex measurements of the sun and shadow he devised a device that would give the precise time of day without a single gear - the sun dial. He oversaw the establishment of a small factory in Western Philadelphia to mass-produce the invention which made the timekeeping device both plentiful and affordable. Today many variants on the sundial still exist, but they all function on those same principles which Ben used to create the original.