Received my autographed copy today!
I'm not trying to say I thought of it first, but I had the RFID idea 20 years ago, just never did anything with it, unfortunately. I think the technology is at a point now where it's cheap enough to do it where you want.
The Monument Race: Harrison vs. Berntsen
Over 40 years ago, John David Johnson of the Harrison Marker Company in Anoka, Minneosta, and Peter Berntsen of Berntsen Cast Products in Madison, Wisconsin, were racing to patent a frangible cast survey marker. Johnson narrowly was awarded his patent first on August 22, 1972, while Berntsen soon followed with his patent on July 31, 1973.
Johnson's monument was made of cast iron while Berntsen's monument was made of cast aluminum. Both companies thrive today with Ellen Johnson (John David Johnson's daughter) and Rhonda Rushing (daughter of Phillip Peterson, the co-founder of Berntsen) heading their respective companies.
In the image below is Johnson's patent (the largest marker at far left) and several other Harrison markers which were patented. The bottom photo shows the Berntsen monument which came in its own box. Both monuments came with a special wrench to remove the top.
Just ordered a copy. I am looking foward to seeing what different designs were considered. I saw the post about the "screw type" model with the glass ball at the bottom.... Interesting!
Woodward's Monument Patent of 1990
This patented survey marker by Woodward in 1990 was a huge surprise to me when I actually saw the marker compared to the patent drawings. I expected to see something in the order of a large iron marker, but in actuality they are small plastic ones. The inventor said that contractors were complaining about setting nails at construction sites, so this plastic 3"-long "nail" was developed. A lot of money was spent getting the patent and developing the injection mold, but it never took off. I have a few of the only ones that were actually made as shown below. I think the intent was to make them orange or pink once operations got going. Nevertheless, this was one man's dream that he pursued.
Woodward's Monument Patent of 1990
Prior to the prevalence of the VRS network a base station was required to perform RTK GPS.
I sold monumentation networks to municipalities, we would static survey the network of monuments with a quartet of Trimble receivers, over the years 4000, 5800, R-8.
We would build the network, then train the city staff on how to inventory their assets, how to set up base station and rover around to collect data and to maintain their databases.
Once I pitched the idea of naming the monuments after prominent people in the city like mayors, engineers, councilmen, anybody that was somebody.
This was a popular idea that helped garner support for our company, and helped gain favor to win this and other projects from the municipality.
We installed Bernstein monuments and also a hinged cover, wish I still had a picture, they were hella cool...fun stuff from back in the day
Wow, that looks great. By the way, I really enjoyed listening to your radio show with Curt Sumner.
