plane table
[′plān ‚tā·bəl] (engineering)
A surveying instrument consisting of a drawing board mounted on a tripod and fitted with a compass and a straight-edge ruler; used to graphically plot survey lines directly from field observations.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
plane table
In surveying, a device for plotting the lines of a survey directly from the observations; consists essentially of a drawing board on a tripod, with a ruler, the ruler being pointed at the observed object by the use of a telescope or other sighting device.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Plane Table
field drawing table used in making a map of an area by the graphic method. It consists of a square mapboard, a base, and a stand.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.