This board is an awesome resource of information. Not that there aren't others souces for such, but I doubt there is and ONE place that a guy can find an answer to almost any question.
I am searching some county field books from 1975. There is a notation that appears to me to have been placed AFTER the original notes were taken, and apparently by more that one individual. It probably is not significant, but since I don't know to what it refers, I just don't know.
The notation is "AGA"
Always all caps, and no periods or spaces. I am speculating that since it always appears after a distance is recorded, that it might refer to an Electronic Distance Meter.
Any guesses?
thanx,
Geezer
AGA is the company that made Geodimeters.
If you google "aga geodimeter" you will find images, info, etc.
There was a distance meter with that name. I think is was made in Sweden. We demo'd one in 1973. It took two men to carry all the crap that it took to work it. It used retroprisms unlike the earlier kind that used microwave technology that were in used in the sixties.
Probably a AGA Model 76, but it could also have been an earlier model. AGA started selling EDMI(s) in the US around the late 1950s as I recall.
I was using a Model 76 in late 75 or early 76 (which I still have), and bought a Model 78 several years later (which I also still have).
Loyal
I purchased around 1979 an AGA geodimeter that was mounted on top of the theodlite when you wanted to measure a distance ..
Still have it in the shed along with the old Zeiss theodolite and mountings.
Geeze I feel old !
RADU
Yup, little thing that mounted on top of the theodolite. Huge improvement over the big boxes that preceded it. We are old!
http://amhistory.si.edu/surveying/object.cfm?recordnumber=748813
This is the unit I used in 1973. It was not mounted on the theodolite.
Company information at http://amhistory.si.edu/surveying/maker.cfm?makerid=1
HTH,
DMM
Not as old as an old party chief I had...
...when we first got an HP 3800 distance meter. I mean meter. For those of you not familiar with it; there was not an actual digital readout of the distance. Each digit place (thousands, hundreds, tens, single feet, then decimals) had to be switched on and then you "dialed in" until your meter centered. After all that the distance could be read out loud from knobs that looked amazing like the channel selector on a Zenith TV.
John, the party chief at the time (who we swore had actually rowed the boat for Lewis & Clark) didn't trust the HP. He made us flat chain every shot "just to check"..:pinch:
I wish he could see what we do nowadays.
BTW - I agree that the AGA was a Geodimeter.
Not as old as an old party chief I had...
I remember getting a NEW HP-3800 back in the EARLY 1970s, and thinking that it was the greatest thing since bottled (transportable) beer. It sure beat the Electro-Tape DM-20(s) that we lugged around before that...
B-)
Loyal
Resources for information on surveying instruments
Given the frequent questions posted about historic surveying equipment, I post below three of my favorite sites for good quality information.
http://www.gmat.unsw.edu.au/currentstudents/ug/projects/f_pall/html/t6.html
http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/distance_tools/0411.html
Not as old as an old party chief I had...
> I remember getting a NEW HP-3800 back in the EARLY 1970s, and thinking that it was the greatest thing since bottled (transportable) beer. It sure beat the Electro-Tape DM-20(s) that we lugged around before that...
>
> B-)
> Loyal
Did it look like this.
Not as old as an old party chief I had...
Yup...
And you needed two of them (one at each end). It was pretty cool though, in that you had a headset w/mic, and you talked back and forth with them ("go'in LOW!")
Longest EDMI shot I ever made was with a couple of DM-20s in ~1983 (>206,000 feet).
Loyal
Not as old as an old party chief I had...
This was taken on a very cold day in Baffin Bay Texas, we have a hard time measuring over 18 miles, it is so flat the horizon keeps getting in the way.
The Gulf in the winter..
has a look all its own. Some people swear they can tell what month it is by the way the water looks (and smells).
Not as old as an old party chief I had...
The old 3800 would, sometimes, waver between two digits also. Too far left for one digit and too far right for another. They were good instruments for the time but toting that sucker and the necessary (HEAVY) battery was a real pain.
Andy
