He realized that the inscriptions on the large dial were calendrical markings indicating months, days, and the signs of the zodiac, and postulated that there must have been pointers, now missing, that represented the sun and the moon and possibly the planets, and that these pointers moved around the dial, indicating the position of the heavenly bodies at different times.
Older barometers have very artistically drawn backgrounds on the dial indicating strong winds, storms, sunny weather, etc., and they are nicely decorative but misleading nonetheless for it is the movement of the barometer needle (or the meniscus if you happen to have a very traditional old mercury tube type barometer), that has far more bearing on the coming weather.
Traveling eastward, ever eastward, flying at eight kilometers per second, the dials indicated: 28,000 kmph, although Gagarin would not have experienced any sense of speed.
"We've been studying this panel in the newspapers; it has dials indicating the force of the wind, and other matters of interest to the helmsman.
Beer built a device that would enable the country's citizens, from their living rooms, to move a pointer on a voltmeter-like dial that indicated moods ranging from extreme unhappiness to complete bliss.
He posited that there must have been a revolving ball built in the front dial that indicated the phases of the moon — one hemisphere was black, the other white, and the ball rotated as the moon waxed or waned.
The machine and the light-emitting diode which signaled that its power was connected were in view of the subject, but the dials which indicated the US were out of sight.
Your special issue (May 7) provided a special gem, "The Self-Discovery Dial," that indicates many of the innumerable facets of everyone's experience.
On the Lady Arpels Poetic Wish, the silhouette of a young woman moves slowly from the left to the center of the dial to indicate the exact hour.
After college, a girlfriend bought me a Diesel watch with the image of at least six continents on its dial, to indicate just how "worldly" I was, and a subsequent girlfriend had it repaired after we had broken up, a gesture of unusual kindness.
