Did you know: Mount Everest was named after a surveyor?! Sir George Everest (b. 1970, d. 1866) originally objected to the mountain being named after him, but as we know, this was in vain. Without using your resources (i.e. Google), do you know what country Sir George Everest was the Surveyor General of? Here’s a hint: It’s the country of the Great Trigonometric Survey.
#surveyor #everest #KudurruStone
Great book on the subject. I've actually stomped around his home in Mussoorie, India, although not much remains of it but the foundation and some crumbling walls. The full extent of their mapping efforts were absolutely epic and many of the people that did the field work in jungles and swamps perished from disease and every hazard imaginable.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Arc-Dramatic-Mapped-Everest/dp/0060195185
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
The attached is a good-sized file, 19 MB. It shows the overall layout of the triangulation net of India as it existed in 1922.
The chart at lower left gives the dates of some of the work. According to the excellent book Williwaw mentions, the very first baseline was chained in 1802 down near Madras, now called Chennai.
Mt. Everest is in the upper right, above the triangulation nets. Of course it wasn't in a net because they couldn't occupy it. They triangulated both its location and elevation from points in the net, somewhat more than 100 miles away.
They started observing "Peak XV," now Everest, and other high Himalayan peaks in about 1847, working in the time they could spare from their work on the triangulation net. It took several years to get clear shots due to persistent cloud cover. Then they had to finish some tidal observations to get a sea level datum. Then they checked and re-checked their calculations. Finally, in 1856, they made the announcement.
Until that time, no one knew this was the highest mountain on earth. After that, a lot of ambitious mountaineers wanted to climb it.
I did not know! Thanks for the info. I love spouting off random surveyor trivia to my wife and kids.
Only the fun ones (like this!) keep them from rolling their eyes: "cool dad..."