DIAL

An instrument much used before the invention of clocks, to tell the time of day by the progress of the sun’s shadow. The dial of Ahaz, 2Ki 20:11 Isa 38:1-9, seems to have been peculiar either in structure or size, and was perhaps borrowed from Babylon or Damascus, 2Ki 16:10. The causing the shadow upon it to go back ten degrees, to assure king Hezekiah of his recovery from sickness, was probably effected not by arresting and turning backwards the revolution of the earth, but by a miraculous refraction of the sun’s rays, observed only in Judea, though the fame of it reached Babylon, 2Ch 32:31.

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Dial. Dial
For the measurement of time, only once mentioned in the Bible, erected by Ahaz (2 Kings 20:11; Isa. 38:8). The Hebrew word (ma’aloth) is rendered “steps” in Ex. 20:26, 1 Kings 10:19, and “degrees” in 2 Kings 20:9, 10, 11. The ma’aloth was probably stairs on which the shadow of a column or obelisk placed on the top fell. The shadow would cover a greater or smaller number of steps, according as the sun was low or high.

Probably the sun-dial was a Babylonian invention. Daniel at Babylon (Dan. 3:6) is the first to make mention of the “hour.”

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DIAL. → A contrivance for indicating time by the sun's rays 2Ki 20:11; Isa 38:8

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dial. Dial, n. a plate where the hand shows the hou

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Di″al (?), n. [[LL. dialis daily, fr. L. dies day. See Deity.]] 1. 1. An instrument, formerly much used for showing the time of day from the shadow of a style or gnomon on a graduated arc or surface; esp., a sundial; but there are lunar and astral dials. The style or gnomon is usually parallel to the earth's axis, but the dial plate may be either horizontal or vertical.
2. 2. The graduated face of a timepiece, on which the time of day is shown by pointers or hands.
3. 3. A miner's compass.
Dial bird (Zoöl.), an Indian bird (Copsychus saularius), allied to the European robin. The name is also given to other related species. — Dial lock, a lock provided with one or more plates having numbers or letters upon them. These plates must be adjusted in a certain determined way before the lock can be operated. — Dial plate, the plane or disk of a dial or timepiece on which lines and figures for indicating the time are placed.