Survey instruments started with a literal CHAIN, and a Ships compass. Then, the Rittenhouse Compass. (That would be in AMERICA). Ancient Egypt apparently used ropes to survey, and Pythagorean device, to turn angles along the Nile river.
Now, we use equipment that requires batteries, or we just go home.
Now, I got on at TRANSIT and TAPE, went into Theodolite, and EDM, morphed into L1 GPS, and then into RTK.
A professional surveyor should KNOW all the past equipment, how it worked, and how to RETRACE it.
So, where did you jump on the train?
Nate
transit and steel tape, although we called it a chain. And Yes, I can still throw a tape.
I don't think that I have to learn to use a solar theodolite in order to retrace old surveys, or how to survey using a Rittenhouse compass.
"Follow the Footsteps" applies to establishing intent....scheesh....
Kern non-electronic theodolite with DM 50_? all measurements were recorded in a field book and reduced in the office, then stakeout information was handed to us in handwritten sheet form. this was 1986.
1974 chain and Wild T1-A with inverted image.
Transit & tape. Back in the day a one minute transit and 100' tape was a well equipped crew.
As a kid (teenager) I shagged a tape, ran stadia, Transit + EDM.
As an adult (real work) I ran Total Station, Transit + EDM for a job or two and then oh my have we gone with the technology. L1 static, GNSS RTK, GPS Networks, Total Station, Robotic, Static scanning, Mobile scanning.
I have my eyes on drones.
K&E Transit, 100 foot Hi-Way tape, and Dip needle.
Started full time in '68 - '69.
All chain & transit. Notice I said transit, not theodolite.
The first EDM I ever saw was two Electrotapes. On top of Buffalo Peaks in Chaffee County, CO. It was 1964. I was amazed.
It took eight or nine years, but I was running an HP3800 Distance Meter by 1973.
Chain & transit was a viable way to land survey. The amount of time involved and accumulated error keeps it where it belongs...in someone's memories.
right here:
though it was only used in the most sparing way possible. double and triple taped in half the area code before we'd pull that tank out.
never had anything as heavy to lug around until this robot i bought last month.
ed: it was an antique when i got started. coming up on 20 years in the gig this fall.
1997, I was 15. I was the 4th man in the crew. We ran a Leica EDM and occasionally pulled out the Wild T-2.
Same a you, Nate.
Started in 1966 or 1967, still in high school, K&E transit and 100' chain (tape).
About 1982 I was working full time still using the same, although I had worked some with a T-2 and a HP distance meter.
Foggyidea and I are very similar. I started dragging a "chain" (steel tape) and working with a K&E Paragon Transit as we staked out Interstate Highway 95 through coastal Georgia. The first EDM unit that I saw, a big orange HP, was like the most amazing thing in the world. It was a big deal that I would not have to drag that tape through thousands of feet of Georgia swamp.
We have come a long way, haven't we?
Dale Yawn,
Savannah, Ga.
Started in 1975 with a company with 2 crews. One was transit and 100ft tape(chain), the other had a T2 with a HP3800. I went back and forth between the two. Liked the T2 better!
circa 1989
1978 Transit and Chain, sometimes an HP 3800 for the ridge to ridge shots.
1st top mount was a McHenry when we were able to get it into our district.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Typing class 9th grade!
Transit and Tape
Lots of stadia work, did some out to 1,000'. Used a 3 target Philadelphia rod and hand radios. Rod man moved the targets. For close work the center target was at instrument height and I read the high and low on the rod. The longer shots were for reconn and route clearing. Sometimes the 3 targets were preset and the rod man moved the rod accordingly. We did not use 3 targets a lot but the first time we did, we covered the cost of the extra targets.
Reduced traverses using Fortran punch cards on an IBM computer, 1969 and bought an HP 35 in 1972 and it still works. My dad bought an HP 25 when they first came out, only lasted 15 years, replaced it with an HP 11.
Paul in PA
Transit and Tape
Transit Tape, actually used chaining pins and red eyes
dumpy level
wild t2
Wild di 10 i think the one needing 2 people
hp 3800 a beast
kern tripods with the pole attached could not keep bubble true
topcon 3b
robot 802ar
Locus
promark 2
topcon rtk
Not a complete list
The fist EDM I used was a Topcon 3B or 3C and it was awesome after using a K&E with 100ft cromelad super highway beginning in the mid 1960 summertime.
That Sokkia SDM3E was my first personal EDM and is fully function and sitting on a shelf in the office ready for its next calling. It may be rated a 5sec gun but in the right hands can be dialed in within a sec or two. Could be considered an industrial quality model compared to the lightweight models of today.
😉
Transit and Stadia
1970 Summer Aid with the Soil Conservation Service, doing engineering surveys for farm ponds and drainage pipe lines. Full time in '72 with a 30" Gurley and a 200' steel tape and plumb bob. By '74 the company upgraded to a Wild T1A and an HP 3810, and it's been a pretty wild ride ever since. Great time frame to grow up a surveyor! Couldn't have wished for anything more!:-D