Vertical Sketchmaster, Plotting Board by Abrams Instrument Company
date: label: date made
content: 1943
label: date made
content: ca 1943
name: label: maker
content: Abrams Instrument Co.
notes: label: Description
content: In the early twentieth century, the U.S. Geological Survey began to use panoramic cameras for topographic surveys. Photogrammetry, or measurement using photographs, proved highly successful. From 1921, the Topographic Branch of the Survey had s Section of Photographic Mapping. A variety of special instruments helped to transform photographs into maps. In 1931, James L. Buckmaster of the Survey designed the first version of this instrument, the vertical sketchmaster.
label: Description
content: The device allowed the transfer of detail from a photograph taken vertically from the air to the ground onto a plotting sheet. The image to be copied was placed in the bed of the instrument. By means of an arrangement of mirrors, the image also could be viewed on a plotting sheet below and sketched.
label: Description
content: At the time of World War II, the U.S. Marine Corps arranged for Abrams Instrument Company of Lansing, Michigan, to make this version of the sketchmaster. It has an iron and stainless steel frame, three large supports stored at the back (two of these rotate out to the sides), and glass mirrors and lenses. Placing a photograph on the bed and looking through a hole at the front, one can see the photograph projected onto a surface below.
label: Description
content: A metal tag on the frame reads: VERTICAL (/) SKETCHMASTER (/) SERIAL NO. 468 MODEL VE-1 (/) MFD. FOR U.S. MARINE CORPS (/) by ABRAMS INSTRUMENT CO. (/) LANSING, MICHIGAN, U.S.A.
label: Description
content: The device fits into a wooden box painted gray. Another metal tag on the front of the box has the same information as the one just cited. A warning painted on the top of the box reads: CAUTION (/) THIS SIDE UP. The inside of the box has a section with six steel box-shaped weights. It also has a paper tag that reads in part: Important (/) This instrument bears Serial No. 468 (/) O.K.ed for shipment by (/) Inspector No. OK (/) 9 Date SEP 3 1943.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Morris M. Thompson, <I>Development of Photogrammetry in the U.S. Geological Survey. Geological Survey Circular 218</I> Washington, D.C.: U.S. Geological Survey, rev 1953, esp. p. 7.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Michigan, Lansing
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Plotting Boards
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the University of Missouri - Columbia
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.333633
label: accession number
content: 300659
label: catalog number
content: 333633
objectType: label: Object Name
content: plotting board
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 24.2 cm x 48 cm x 33.7 cm; 9 17/32 in x 18 29/32 in x 13 9/32 in