I recently took a job in the government sector, and being the only surveyor in a dying program, I inherited a shed full of old equipment from the program's heyday. Most of these things I know what they are, but never used personally, however:
The attached picture has two objects I'm wondering about. First, there are boxes of these square shank nails, that I have no idea what they're used for. Sometimes nails are just nails, but do these have a particular use in the survey world? Second, there was this weird tiny prism with a notch in the shank, like a bishop in a chess set. I'm guessing it hangs on a stringline, and then you can shoot it with a total station? I don't know.
Looks like a big square nail for posts and xties and a odd ball right angle prism.
The prism looks like a right-angle prism for laying out right angles. One typical use would be for chaining baseline stations to objects offset at right angles from the baseline, as for a right-of-way survey. The notch is to hang a plumb bob off the hand-held prism.
Here's a variation on that made by NEDO:
I used the black object right angle prism for many years. Move up and down alignment until the backsight and foresight on alignment and the subject topo object are aligned in each prism. Then you are positioned at a point normally distant from the topo object.
Right angle prism? If so, that's a blast from the past.
Rt < prism
Joist hanger nail
I think the square nail is what I have heard referred to as a boat spike in some old notes. One of my mentors told me about them. The black items is definitely a right angle prism.
More accurate than a wingding...
That's the prism I lost years ago,,,,,,
Gosh now I feel like a dino. I laid out many miles of roads in Pinellas County with one of those but then found I could slap a 90 just as good. for rough staking. We would set one side with the transit than chain to the other side. Then run a level with a linker rod to mark the elevations. even did that for blue topping sometimes if there was no curbs involved. Never trusted the total station for elevations back then.
Rt. angle prisms were/are very handy for doing various tasks, I still have one in my vest.
Paul Landau, post: 407761, member: 2526 wrote: I still have one in my vest.
I do, too. It's about 30 y.o. A parting gift from an employer who beat me out of a bunch of O/T pay :mad:. Very handy for offset shots to stuff the gun can't see direckly.
There's 4" of snow on the drive and it's 15 degrees. I'm not interested in shoveling yet so I'm playing on the computer. So here's a few more things that use to be common in some field trucks. Any old-timers recognize anything?
Rt angle prism. I have one like that.
The nail looks like a hurricane strap nail used to nail rafters in framing construction.
paden cash, post: 407774, member: 20 wrote: There's 4" of snow on the drive and it's 15 degrees. I'm not interested in shoveling yet so I'm playing on the computer. So here's a few more things that use to be common in some field trucks. Any old-timers recognize anything?
Well, from bottom to top:
4. Hand warmer that burned lighter fluid.
3. Oklahoma plumb bob protector.
2. Oklahoma digital level (pristine condition).
1. Taping thermometer with analog temperature correction computer.
Kent McMillan, post: 407784, member: 3 wrote:
...2. Oklahoma digital level (pristine condition)...
Yeah, that one never rode in any of the trucks I was in, that's fer sure.
Kent McMillan, post: 407784, member: 3 wrote: 1. Taping thermometer with analog temperature correction computer.
It looks more like a sling psychrometer to me.
Jim Frame, post: 407810, member: 10 wrote: It looks more like a sling psychrometer to me.
Yes, I thought so, too, but then I realized that most likely that was what was used in Oklahoma for tape corrections since you could choose either the dry bulb or wet bulb temperature, depending upon which county you were in. There are lots of dry counties up there, but there are some wets as well.
The square nail may indeed be a boat spike, but I thought they were longer. Item on the right is an optical wing-ding.
The only superior evidence is that which you haven't yet found.
I've always called those square nails "square nails." Some old-timers around here used them to mark boundary points in AC pavement. They're pretty stout.