Stadia plane tabling
PJ Alley · New Zealand Engineering · 1948
Plane tabling of any kind is a neglected art among engineers in New Zealand, but there are many occasions when its use would save much time in plotting field work that is ordinarily carried out with theodolite surveying. Plane tabling has been described as more suitable in countries like India and China where its fundamentals are easily understood. Certainly the time honoured method of using a simple straight edge equipped with a sighting slit and a hair has its limitations, but with the development of improved instruments for sighting and the incorporation in the instruments of stadia wires, the plane tabling process ceases to become an approximate method, and comes well within the limits of plotting accuracy.