Major General Sir Andrew Scott Waugh was a British army officer and Surveyor General of India who worked in the Great Trigonometrical Survey. He served under Sir George Everest and succeeded him in 1843. Waugh established a gridiron system of traverses for covering northern India. Waugh is credited with naming the peak of Mount Everest.
1852 painting by George Duncan Beechey
Andrew Scott Waugh's grave in Brompton Cemetery, west London.
Waugh around 1861
Great Trigonometrical Survey
The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India was a project that aimed to carry out a survey across the Indian subcontinent with scientific precision. It was begun in 1802 by the British infantry officer William Lambton, under the auspices of the East India Company. Under the leadership of his successor, George Everest, the project was made the responsibility of the Survey of India. Everest was succeeded by Andrew Scott Waugh, and after 1861, the project was led by James Walker, who oversaw its completion in 1871.
Index to the Great Trigonometrical Survey
The first triangulations across the Peninsula
Measurement of the Calcutta baseline in 1832 based on a sketch by James Prinsep. This shows surveyors stretching a chain on coffers supported on pickets. The chain is housed under shade to reduce errors due to thermal expansion, and is aligned using a boning telescope.
A zenith sector was an upward-facing telescope with accurate angle measurement scales. A star close to the zenith of known declination from the Pole star was used to determine latitude, as a direct measurement of the pole star could be affected by refraction.
