Hey Guys, I'm often on the lookout for textbooks and or other texts/websites with general information about surveying whether that be more on the technical side of things or more on the 'soft side' (managing a survey company) ... have you read any books that might be of help for a field surveyor?
Cheers!
Elementary Surveying. A misnomer for sure.
Urban Surveying and Mapping.
Adjustment Computations.
Those three are on the back seat of the truck currently.
Ogundares book is excellent too.
Maybe a little old, but covers the basics...
A Manual of Land Surveying, Francis Hodgman
DDSM:beer::beer::beer:
I've always enjoyed R B Buckner. I have "Surveying Measurements and their Analysis" on my shelf.
Not sure if you're into the more boundary-law or writing legal descriptions side (if you want to manage a survey business I would think that would be some of your technical books). If so, "Boundary Control and Legal Principles" Also "Evidence and Procedures For Boundary Control" both by Curtis Brown. I would go for an earlier edition of BC&LP by Brown. For writing descriptions, "Writing Legal Descriptions" by Wattles is a good book and often cited.
Someone has been cited on this site several times who has written a book on managing a survey business, but his name escapes me.
edit: on the legal side, Skelton "Legal Elements of Boundaries and Adjacent Properties" if you can find it for less than $100.....my favorite.
"Beyond the Traverse Point" by Madsen and Beardslee, although I don't always agree with Ted Madsen, it's a good book.
Thanks for the reminder foggyidea, "Business Management" handbook by Dan Beardslee has been recommended on this site before. (I haven't read it).
Tom Adams, post: 372256, member: 7285 wrote: I've always enjoyed R B Buckner. I have "Surveying Measurements and their Analysis" on my shelf.
Not sure if you're into the more boundary-law or writing legal descriptions side (if you want to manage a survey business I would think that would be some of your technical books). If so, "Boundary Control and Legal Principles" Also "Evidence and Procedures For Boundary Control" both by Curtis Brown. I would go for an earlier edition of BC&LP by Brown. For writing descriptions, "Writing Legal Descriptions" by Wattles is a good book and often cited.
Someone has been cited on this site several times who has written a book on managing a survey business, but his name escapes me.
edit: on the legal side, Skelton "Legal Elements of Boundaries and Adjacent Properties" if you can find it for less than $100.....my favorite.
I did see those books "Boundary Control and Legal Principles" Also "Evidence and Procedures For Boundary Control" both by Curtis Brown but was unsure if there are ideas which apply up here in Canada as I'm sure it is an american book?
mrewenmacdonald, post: 372284, member: 11707 wrote: I did see those books "Boundary Control and Legal Principles" Also "Evidence and Procedures For Boundary Control" both by Curtis Brown but was unsure if there are ideas which apply up here in Canada as I'm sure it is an american book?
Yeah....I don't know either. But they are good reads. Laws vary from State to State, but they are good books regardless of your State; so maybe they would be worthwhile for you. I think there are a couple of Canadians that log on here, so maybe they could chime in.
While waiting for our Canadian brothers to chime in, here is something to review:
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-6/FullText.html
DDSM:beer::beer::beer:
I was going to post this exact question last week as I read the pincushuon effect and loved it so I'm looking for more.
I searched the forum and found an old thread of this topic with many suggestions
https://surveyorconnect.com/index.php?threads/250272/
Lots of good suggestions on the technical side. I also like Tom Adams' list for some general references. While the tech books are applicable no matter where you practice, the legal aspects/boundary principles books will vary on their applicability. Tom is also correct that for the "Brown" books, the older versions are better and more inline with the actual state of the law. I like the 2nd Edition of EPBL and the 3rd for BCLP (each the last that Mr. Brown was directly involved with). Skelton is dated but well organized and almost all of the principles are still applicable.
Boundaries & Landmarks by A.C. Mulford is timeless and can often be found online for $7 to $20, depending upon how recent the last reprinting is. It gets reprinted every few years.
The specifics on the boundary principles will deviate from what is presented in our text books more for you than they would for any of our particular US jurisdictions, and the court references of course will be almost all US references, but both Canada and the US share English Common Law as the root of our modern boundary principles. I suspect that most of the boundary principles would have evolved similarly with fairly minor differences.
Although I can't recall the titles right now, I do recall running across a couple of interesting references published by the Ontario surveyor's society. I think that in general, your provincial societies tend to publish more than our state societies have on boundary matters. I would check each of them to see what they have listed in their bookstores.
IMO, every surveying library should start with the following five books:
1. Elementary Surveying, by Wolf & Ghilani. Now in it's 14th Edition.
2. Boundary Control & Legal Principles. Start with an early edition by Curtis Brown. Available for a few bucks.
3. GPS for Land Surveyors, 4th Edition, by Jan van Sickle. You want the latest edition of this.
4. Writing Legal Descriptions by Wattles. The yellow book. Out of print and tough to find. Mine sprouted legs.
5. A Pocket Guide to Business for Engineers & Land Surveyors, by H. Edmund Bergeron
If you are in a PLSS state add:
6. Manual of Survey Instructions, 2009 edition. It is available as a free pdf now but I'd still pay for the hard cover.
My next purchase after that would be the latest Walt Robillard edition of Boundary Control, plus early and late editions of Evidence and Procedures.for Boundary Location. Then there are the statutes and the applicable case law of your state. There are lots of other very good books and I own many of them, but if you never read another you would be in pretty good shape.
eapls2708, post: 372454, member: 589 wrote: Boundaries & Landmarks by A.C. Mulford is timeless and can often be found online for $7 to $20, depending upon how recent the last reprinting is. It gets reprinted every few years.
Evan, This book reminds you to use a common sense approach that you write about in your posts. Nice to reread this book when the surveying world is getting to complicated. 😉
Jp
I am a fan of "definitions of surveying and associated terms" by ACSM.
Not a book to curl up with but really good for the book shelf. I only pull it down about once a quarter, but it's an excellent reference.
Well, the "Good Book" says "Cursed be he who removeth his neighbor's landmark".
🙂
I find this book a very good and interesting textbook on the science of many aspects of surveying. It describes state-of-the-art technology as it stood in 1925. Theory hasn't changed. And it's insight to how it was done, and done right.
Royal Engineer's officer textbook.
