Help with Boundary Call

> to a rock corner with said owners line; thence S 46 deg. 30' W (B.S. 46 deg. 15') 7.51 chains to a rock corner with said owner

My impression is there exists a 15 minute variance between the actual line and something else he has recorded as a back sight. Possibly magnetic compass bearing or a reference to an adjoining deed.

At that date, I wouldn't have expected a compass traverse, but the description would make sense as foresight from this corner to the next S 46 deg. 30' W and backsight from that next corner back to this one 46 deg. 15. The difference would be attributed to local magnetic influences.

In this call, the difference is about 2 feet. Break out the old K&E transit and use the compass instead of turning angles.

I agree that it was probably a compass traverse (or transit with compass) and he was reading the magnetic at both ends of the line. Helps to prevent blunders and does identify local variations.

Great answers, great Forum.

This makes perfect sense. Redundancy.

Do you think a call of NW 19'30" (BS 25') would be considered a blunder or acceptable error.

For this particular call a distance was not provided, just a call for the monument (CL of RR)

I might just have to break out the old KE. I hope the manual is still in the box.

I'd call it acceptable. If it was a compass, he was really stretching it to read it to 5'.

I just reread your question. Did you mean 19 degrees or 19 minutes?

I have never seen this in a deed. However some of the old transits read in quadrants. A person would load the bearing for the backsight and turn to the foresight. They would record the turned bearing and the magnetic bearing as a check. This would help reduce blunders. When I first started in surveying, we would turn azimuths and record the bearing as a check. B.S. could be for Bearing sight.

19 degrees 30 minutes

5 degrees would be excessive - except that you're apparently along a railroad. Tracks will play havoc with a needle so anything is possible.

I've seen oddball stuff like that. Generally a farmer or some other know it all layperson messing up things, but never intentional. First thought is to look in both places. Second is pay attention to the impact on your survey. Basically a 500 ft line with 15 minutes of potential issue, seems significant.

Lot line adjustments do a lot of fixing of things like this. The issue is to get all parties to agree.

Good luck and remember that you are just the messenger of your professional opinion.

Here is a look at the description if you are interested.

Interesting description. My first impression is that the calls are the records of actual measurements along the lines; the actual measurements being compass readings looking forward. For certain courses, measurements are observed or sighted looking back, hence the "BS." Alternatively, it may be possible that the "BS" refers to reading the other end of the compass needle.

Another interesting aspect of the description is that of using the lower case letter "o" for the degree symbol.

> ...My first impression is that the calls are the records of actual measurements along the lines; the actual measurements being compass readings looking forward. For certain courses, measurements are observed or sighted looking back, hence the "BS." Alternatively, it may be possible that the "BS" refers to reading the other end of the compass needle.

they didn't have the "BS" bearing on all the bearings. I wonder if they always checked the bearing at the other end of the line, but only recorded it if it differed from the 'fore-bearing'. ?

> Another interesting aspect of the description is that of using the lower case letter "o" for the degree symbol.

It might have been real hard to type the [alt]-0186 combination on the old typewriters. 😉

>using the lower case letter "o" for the degree symbol.

Typewriters didn't have a degree symbol, so the letter o was always used. If the typist was diligent, they rolled the platen a half-line to raise the symbol to a superscript.

>
> It might have been real hard to type the [alt]-0186 combination on the old typewriters. 😉

I just learned something new. I use Alt-0176, but Alt-0186 creates a slightly different version which could be useful. Thanks! 90° vs 90º

My old Olivetti long carriage

I picked up an old Olivetti typewriter at a county auction back in the early eighties for just a few bucks. The carriage is wide enough to accept an 11"x17" sideways.

And to top it all off, it has the degree symbol! I was able to "type" my surveys for a few years if they would fit on 11x17. I was squattin' in tall cotton with that thing. But plotters were just around the corner and it was retired. It's in the attic, I think, if anyone wants a typewriter with a degee symbol. 😉

Try ALT 248 gives you this °.

> I just learned something new. I use Alt-0176, but Alt-0186 creates a slightly different version which could be useful. Thanks! 90° vs 90º

I got corrected once on this site for the reference to the Alt-0186. The code is for a "Masculine Ordinal indicator" which I looked up but am not sure what it means totally. The 0176 symbol is the code for the degree symbol.

I'mI think whatever looks good on my printed copy is what I need; but apparently the 0176 is the correct symbol for degree. Knowing both codes is a bit of a curse, unless you make sure and be consistent. I am going to try to use the "correct" symbol, but often forget which is which.

...Can't resist answering...

The masculine ordinal indicator normally would not be used in English. It's used in a few languages in the same sense that we use -st, -nd, -rd, -th, etc. as a short-cut for ordinal numbers (first, second, etc.). In Spanish, you might have primero or primera depending the noun that's being described, so you could write them as el 1^º camino (the first road) or la 1^º puerta (the first door).