My Son-in-law sent me the following e-mail:
“Found this old surveying transit or level that belonged to my grandfather. He used to design and build golf courses many moons ago. I was curious to see if you might know more about it. I couldn't find any dates or year made anywhere but mfg was kueffell & esser company. Think it's cool that they used to come in handmade custom boxes like this one. No gps or lasers on this puppy. Sure it has a wooden tri-pod also.”
I said I would post the above message on this board and see if the men and women in our profession could elaborate on this instrument!
Have a great New Year!:-)
My old K&E catalogs are at work, but this looks a little newer than my catalogs anyway.
Check out How Old Is My K&E that has a serial number vs. year production table to find an approximate age.
Is he thinking of selling?
This is a 1950s or 60s vintage builders transit/level. 6 minute vernier. K&E made thousands of em. The telescope could be locked to be used as a spirit level or released to turn vertical angles or plumb objects. Built to last rough treatment on the jobsite, easy to adjust and maintain. made from solid brass. A similar CL Berger from Home Depot today could cost $400 or so and you don't get near as good quality.
> My Son-in-law sent me the following e-mail:
>
> “Found this old surveying transit or level that belonged to my grandfather. He used to design and build golf courses many moons ago. I was curious to see if you might know more about it. I couldn't find any dates or year made anywhere but mfg was kueffell & esser company. Think it's cool that they used to come in handmade custom boxes like this one. No gps or lasers on this puppy. Sure it has a wooden tri-pod also.”
>
> I said I would post the above message on this board and see if the men and women in our profession could elaborate on this instrument!
>
> Have a great New Year!:-)
>
>
these look to be the same model
1952 Ad
Transit, tripod & case.
run property lines with it!
run property lines with it!
"And the price is only $185, complete with tripod." But if properly used that thing would do an excellent job.
> Is he thinking of selling?
Hi Dan,
No I don’t think he will want to sell it, he was just curious of the instrument and its origin. I’m sure with his woodworking skills the box will be refurbished and restored to new condition.
Again, Have a great New Year! (This applies to all on this great board too!):-)
> I’m sure with his woodworking skills the box will be refurbished and restored to new condition.
Please, please do not let him touch the beautiful patina on that box! Any Antiques Roadshow viewer would tell you what a mistake that would be! That is where the value is in this item. The box will probably sell for more than the instrument - if it isn't wrecked by "refurbishing". Make a duplicate instead.
At best this is what can be termed as a contruction level and maybe in the loosest terms a 'transit'. Very common and very inexpensive and often found on ebay. I would not put a value of much over $50 for it based on the market. I would not consider it a 'surveying' instrument.
- jlw
Thanks Mark,
I'll forward your message to him. In all honesty I doubt he will do anything with either. He is too absorbed with his wife's (my daughter) pregnancy.
Happy New Year! 🙂
When my dad started surveing he bought a similar used "Builders Transit" K&E or Dietzgen, I am not sure. After about 6 months he realized it was fairly useless and bought a used Kegelman Brothers 1' transit. That satisfied him.
While in college I bought one of the first HP 35s and did some field note reduction for him. When we did a traverse on 800 acres I wrote a punch card "Fortran" program and reduced it on the college's IBM 3600. He soon bought an HP 25 and my brother laid out a keystroke spreadsheet for him to reduce his latirudes and departure. Minutes had to be converted to decimal degrees added to the degrees then stored in the register, then do the lat. and dep. math etc. When the HP 25 wore out he bought an HP 11 and was very very happy with the DMS to D.ddddd conversion key.
I have the 1' transit and the HP 11. I am not sure if he long ago sold or gave the builder's transit away.
Paul in PA
run property lines with it!
Circa 1972 had to run lines with a basic no frills David White borrowed from the High School math teacher, had a scope that would not flop and had one plate. Took a lot of patience and setups were tedious to say the least. In 2,800ft was 1ft left of end monument. Put pull post at corrected offset line and built fence that stands in place today.
I wish I had my dad's original 20" C. L. Berger and Sons transit. He gave about $900
for it in 1967. It was a heavy sucker. Weighed over 26#s.
I have on old mining transit he acquired later. He loaned it out to a county commissioner and we got it back in pieces. I was ready to go do some stomping over that.
My 1' Dietzgen Engineer's Transit weighs close to 30 lb.s too. I wouldn't want to haul that thing all over the countryside.
