Changing Technology in Surveying

I thought you said *you* were writing the article.

(Just kidding.)

The evolution from compass, solar compass, transit, to theodolite were all improvements that had very little effect in how surveyors operated, only on their precision.

The switch from chaining (or taping) to affordable EDM made a big difference in how people approached the measurement problem.

Computing power in the total station and/or data collector reduced blunders and speeded things up, but didn't change the overall plan of how it was done.

CAD is a better drafting tool, but is doing the same old job.

The robotic station made a big difference in how measurement is done, especially in many people it takes to measure. That has caused a reduction in mentoring.

GPS provided a totally different attack on the measurement problem.

Research has gotten easier in some places with computerized data, but only incrementally.

But I guess I'm just stating the obvious here. Somebody may have more profound thoughts.

Study the downfall of K&E. K&E didn't believe EDMs and Total Stations would make a differnce in the profession.

Or, look at Trimble's history. Charlie Trimble bought the GPS rights from HP
because HP didn't think GPS had a future.

And there was the HP surveying instruments, some of the first portable EDM's and one of the early fully electronic TS, BUT they didn't last. Both them and K&E were big players for awhile.

About the only instrument line still in business from the 70's or before is WILD/Leica. Many if not most of the Asian instruments showed up around the time some of the old lines disappeared.

SHG

I think one change behind much of the technology was the small battery, until you didn't need to lug a car battery or worse, EDM's weren't in common use.

Smaller, lighter, more power efficient, more computing power, more memory, solid state memory, all of these technology improvements fueled the development of modern surveying instruments, of course the big game changer was GPS, a different way to measure, ALL other systems still directly measured angles and distances, just faster and easier.

Even scanners are just a FAST TS, still measure an angle and a distance, just 1000's of points in a short time frame BUT still a terrestrial line of sight!

The biggest change may really be in the reduced amount of labor required to accomplish the same task, this especially applies equally to aerial mapping and LiDAR. The computing power, automation, digital cameras, etc., has made frequent updates of mapping a reality and at a fraction of the labor, time and cost as 30 years ago by manual steroplotters.

SHG

It seems those companies who were manufacturing compasses and transits, but didn't immediately make the leap to the theodolite lost a large share of the industry. Then when you try to get your foot in the door it's generally too late because name recognition is huge for those who were at the forefront of the new technology. Everyone knows the Trimble name for GPS even though there are other manufacturers whose technology might actually be better. It seems to be a gamble with technology because not every company began producing tellurometers when they seemed to be the best things out there for measurement at the time. No American company makes plumb bobs today. At one time surveyors were one of their largest customers for plumb bob companies. Likewise the steel tape had surpassed the chain, but lost out to the EDM which lost out to GPS.

When I graduated from surveying in college in late 1980s, topcon was just selling their edm units that you place on top of a theodolite. you had to site the theodolite then align the edm to the prism. it was double the work.

Prior to that office where i was working for then was using fiberglass tapes & theodolite.
it was still slow because you had to write everything down in your fieldbook.

But from then on, the total station became widely available & surveying took off so to say.

it was a game changer.

GPS Was A Change In Technique In Surveying

Chain to tape to EDM are improvement steps in surveying. The EDM was different in that the distance comparative device chain or tape changed from a physical device that had substance to the measurement of light waves. It was still a comparative device and the field surveyor could grasp the concept.

GPS was different because too many surveyors cannot really grasp the complete concept, they simply trust that it works, hardware and software. Consider that GPS is just a series of distance/distance/distance resections from known basepoints, That those base points are at least 11,000 miles away and are moving at about 6,000 miles per hour simply complicates the math. But because few or no surveyors have experience with such resections they cannot understand the difficulties they face in the field. They see they have 8 satellites and assume they have a good solution. Because they do not understand that those 8 may be no better than 4 or 5 due to the geometry. Then they are fooled by the decimal points at the end of the results. The change in technology behind GPS aside, it is a failure if one does not understand the change in technique.

That GPS really started in surveying with topographic survey firms is due to their experience with distance/distance resectioning in the focal matchups of stereo photo imagery. They already had the concept down pat, just a few more dimensions added.

Paul in PA

GPS Was A Change In Technique In Surveying

I would add that Mathematical Ability is required by the manufacturing developers to write the Algorithms for the new technology. And, Mathematical Ability is required by the user to understand the data collection and analysis. (Garbage in, garbage out.)

The copy machine has to rate as one of the most valuable technology changes of all time. Copying everything by hand, over and over and over and over and over and........ was one of the largest wastes of time for professions who needed to extract data from days gone by to modern day (whenever that is). The opportunity for transcription errors multiplied as the number of copies required grew.

Another huge step was from the typewriter to the "word processor". Corrections could be made with a few key strokes. I remember the days when our clerks had a typewriter, five sheets of clean paper, four sheets of carbon paper and a drawer full of typing erasers. Making errors was bad, but, having the boss decide to rewrite it after it was finally typed was downright maddening.

Electronic pinfinder!:good:

I think the data collector was a big game changer.

> What would you say was the longest period in our nation's history that saw the least change in how surveying was performed with a certain type of equipment and then the greatest leaps. Also the shortest periods of any one type of surveying that seemed to rule, but was then taken over by newer technology.

I would suggest the longest was from the founding of America to about 1910 or so. There were a lot of advancements in that time (time through telegraph, as you've written about, being one), but for the practicing surveyor few of those advancements changed his daily work.

One of the coolest, yet briefest lived technologies would have to be the self reducing tachymeter theodolite. I've never used one or seen one up close, but Kern had a DK-RT that could optically determine horizontal distances to about 1:10k precision. Of course the portable EDM soon made it irrelevent. The microwave distance meter might be up there too.

DK-RT

microwave distance meter

As to the biggest change in surveying, I'd have to give it to the personal computer. It changed how we worked profoundly. COGO was made more practical with calculators and computers capable of working out the trig functions efficiently, which allowed us to migrate from station/offset to radial methods. Ultimately leading to drafting, word processing, data storage, research, image processing, GPS processing, project database, and invoicing.

GPS is up there and in another few decades may outdo pc/calculators for the top spot, but GPS surveying wouldn't even be possible without microprocessors.

Changing Capital Investment in Surveying

> I am in the beginning stages of authoring an article that somewhat involves the changing technology in surveying.

This isn't exactly responsive to your questions, but it occurs to me that the changing costs of surveying equipment in different periods has arguably had a greater effect than the technology itself. There are price lists available from the 19th century instrument makers and there are inflation calculators that can estimate those same prices in 2012 (or whatever) dollars. So it should be possible to compare real costs.

I think I'd argue that high levels of capital investment have generally resulted in a greater emphasis on production over quality or care. How else to explain the paradox that even as the most capable equipment ever produced is available, the actual quality of the work performed with it has typically declined? I would think that it isn't just the widespread use of RTK that is to blame, but the underlying economics.

Changing Capital Investment in Surveying

Could be, Kent. My guess would be that the initial set up cost was probably higher back then. A quality instrument in 1930, with all of the necessary accessories, was probably a lifetime investment. Our society is much more disposable now. I don't see me keeping any electronic device we currently operate in service for the rest of my career. That probably wasn't the case for a surveyor buying a 1 minute transit in the forties, or a compass in the late 19th century.

You're right though. It'd be a valuable aspect to the article.

Changing Capital Investment in Surveying

Also I would have to mention CAD or more specifically AUTOCAD.

For the 1st time the surveyor was able to visualize all those angles & distances.
All survey data when converted to coordinates, could be seen in relation to each other.
I know that boundary surveys became less difficult to analyze. The surveyor could compare
the actual ground position of corner markers with the correct lot boundary.

You could even zoom in & get the difference between actual & correct corner positions.
You could not do this with mylar film & pencil drawings.

What usually takes several hours or days of computations, drawings on mylar, rotation to match points now took minutes to analyze.

I started with ACAD 2.62 that came in 1 or 2 floppy disks. I was able to do subdivision plots using a 286 machine. Now I am using an i5 laptop and Autocad 2010 installed from a DVD for the same job!

Changing Capital Investment in Surveying

I did some quick math.

The 'first' set of new equipment I purchased in 1978 included a Leitz BT-20 transit and a Leitz Autolevel. With a couple of tripods, rods, plumb-bobs and a chain I financed 3700 bucks. At an hourly crew rate of $25 per hour it would take 148 crew hours to cover the cost of the equipment.

If you apply that simple linear equation to today's crew price of $150 per hour you come up with $22,200; and I believe you could outfit a ts crew with that kind of budget.

Now if you want to stay competitive you need 40K worth of base and receivers...not to mention 5 to 10K worth of whatever graphics software you prefer.

In my mind, the capital investment required to maintain a presence in the industry has at least doubled, if not tripled.

Changing Capital Investment in Surveying

You're all forgetting the Gammon Reel.
It has saved hunderds of surveyors from hanging themselves.

Changing Capital Investment in Surveying

> The 'first' set of new equipment I purchased in 1978 included a Leitz BT-20 transit and a Leitz Autolevel. With a couple of tripods, rods, plumb-bobs and a chain I financed 3700 bucks.

Per an on-line inflation calculator:

>What cost $3700 in 1978 would cost $12845 in 2012.

Westegg Inflation Calculator