The Trestle-Board is defined to be the board upon which the Master inscribes the designs by which the Craft are to be directed in their labors. The French and German Freemasons have confounded the Trestle-Board with the Tracing Board. The two things are entirely different. The trestle is a framework for a table - in Scotch, trest; the Trestle-Board is the board placed for the convenience of drawing on that frame. It contains nothing but a few diagrams, usually geometrical figures. The Tracing-Board is a picture formerly drawn on the floor of the Lodge, whence it was called a Floor-Cloth or Carpet. It contains a delineation of the symbols of the Degree to which it belongs. The Trestle-Board is to be found only in the Entered Apprentice's Degree. There is a Tracing-Board in every Degree, from the first to the highest. And, lastly, the Trestle-Board is a symbol. the Tracing-Board is a piece of furniture or picture containing the representation of many symbols.
See The Builder - January 1923 for a more definitive article.
~~ooOoo~~
This page is adapted from the Glossary at Phoenixmasonry — Used with permission.
