Photos/Pictures of a stadium for estimating distances.

Waterloo50

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Joined
Jul 7, 2015
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England
There’s a very brief article in the Jack Coggins book (Arms and Equipment of the Civil War) where he describes a stadium, it’s basically a brass plate with a sliding bar, they had a figure of a man or rider in the eye piece, the distance was read off an appropriate scale 25 inch cord, according to Coggins, the bar would be pushed up and that gave the correct distance from the eye. I’m guessing that these stadiums would have been used by sharpshooters and snipers and are probably as rare as hens teeth.
I was hoping someone had either a decent drawing or picture of the stadium, I’ve searched online and I haven’t managed to find any images of one. Does anyone own one and would it be possible to post a few pictures please. Also, does anyone know if copies of the stadium have been made and are there any for sale?
Many thanks
 
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Stadia-see also Stadiametric Measuring. And as for where to get one, I've never even seen an original for sale.
 
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View attachment 305232Stadia-see also Stadiametric Measuring. And as for where to get one, I've never even seen an original for sale.
Excellent, thank you very much. Would that be a standard issue Stadia, Id like to see the ones with the figure or rider, like I said earlier, they must be very rare, I’m wondering if the reenactors can get hold of copies.
 
Excellent, thank you very much. Would that be a standard issue Stadia, Id like to see the ones with the figure or rider, like I said earlier, they must be very rare, I’m wondering if the reenactors can get hold of copies.
This is your basic issued model from the Frankford Arsenal and it's the only picture of one that I have ever seen.
 
Here’s an image of the stadium which I found in the Coggins book. Other than the picture posted by redbob, these are the only two images I’ve seen. I expect someone, somewhere has one in a collection, I’d imagine that they are very sought after.
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Just did a quick bit of research, the stadias were apparently given as prizes for the best shot, the brass stadias were awarded to the best shot in a company and the silver ones were awarded to the best shot in the regiment, they were highly prized. The host of the vid makes civil war reproductions. He offers a great explanation on how to use a stadia.
Here’s a quick vid on civil war stadias.

 
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