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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Robin Stuart
Date: 2025 Jul 13, 05:48 -0700
Hi Rob,
Modern dictionary entries say something to the effect of
Plane: a flat surface
Plain: simple, unadorned
To me "Plane Scale" is the more sensible choice just as in the term Plane Sailing. The 1851 edition of Bowditch page 18 https://books.google.com/books?id=DWxGAAAAYAAJ calls it a Plane Scale.
Much earlier authors all seem to call it a Plain Scale. In John Collins' 1659 work The Mariner’s Plain Scale New Plain’d; https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Mariners_Plain_Scale_New_Plain_d.html?id=nx4SuwEACAAJ he proclaims "...Uses of a Line of Chords, in resolving of all Proportions relating to Plain or Spherical Triangles..." and "...Plotting of a Traverse, both upon the Plain and Mercators Chart...". Elsewhere in the text he uses terms like "obtuse plain triangle". I am no etymologist but it suggests to me that what we write today as "plane" was spelt "plain" in 17th century and hence Collins' title wittily contains two distinct meanings of the word "plain",
Regards,
Robin
