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Date: c1875 Type: Sundail Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 26°10'57.92" S 28°00'39.76" E Alt: 1689m

This Heliochronometer, made in about 1875, which stands to the North East of the Main Entrance of the Clubhouse was given to the Club by the South African Engineer Corps who rescued and restored it to commemorate V.E. (Victory in Europe) day 8 May 1945. Those chiefly responsible were Philip D. Dickenson, Gordon Leith and George Harry Cotton, whose widow Alice presented the silver plaque (now removed). The circular face of the Heliochronometer has an inscription - engraved by hand on the brass surface - in a beautiful ornate cursive script, which reads: Restored by S.A.E.C. to commemorate V.E. Day, 8th May, 1945 The Heliochronometer is mounted on an octagonal sandstone slab which surmounts a fluted precast concrete stub column on an octagonal paved base. The octagonal base is made up of a square precast concrete flagstone surrounded by four purpose-made precast concrete flagstones - each forming a stretched hexagon - with a nominal slope down to the lawned surround. William MARTINSON, November 2017 Reference: Dates and names extracted from caption to photograph of Heliochronometer mounted in the foyer of the Johannesburg Country Club A heliochronometer is a precision sundial first devised in about 1763 by Philipp Hahn and improved by Abbé Guyoux in about 1827.[13] It corrects apparent solar time to mean solar time or another standard time. Heliochronometers usually indicate the minutes to within 1 minute of Universal Time. (Wikipedia)