Military sketching board
The military sketching board was designed to be used on horseback. The board incorporates a compass, an inclinometer, a ruler, a roll of paper and an arm buckle.
Description
The board was designed to be strapped to the arm of a cavalryman on the arm with which he held the horse's bridle. The board is attached to the leather buckle with a swivel joint. This means that the user can twist the whole board on their arm to ensure that the compass alignment is clear.The board incorporates a compass for this purpose. The user can then use the supplied ruler. In earlier versions this was attached with rubber bands but later versions had the ruler permanently attached. The paper was about long and was rolled around one of the side rollers. As a sketch was completed then the paper roll was advanced to supply more clear paper. On the back of the board is a fixed clinometer to allow the gradients of slopes to be recorded.
History
The board was originally designed by Colonel William Hamilton Richards, Fifty-fifth Regiment of Foot, who taught military drawing and surveying at the Royal Military College Sandhurst as Instructor and later as Professor.The board was improved by Major William Willoughby Cole Verner, Rifle Brigade, who had briefly been Professor of Topography at Sandhurst. He patented improvements in 1887 and 1891 and the board became known as Verner's
. Verner published his own guide to the sketching board in 1889.
However the board was not universally loved and some referred to it as "The damnable cavalry sketching board".
In the 1930s very similar devices were used by solo aviators. The device was strapped to the arm or leg and was loaded with maps rather than sketching paper.
One of these devices is in the collection of the National Museums of Scotland.