I've been doing this for over 40 years and I have to admit I miss the old days of field notes, top mount edms, steel ribbon tapes and three and two man crews.?ÿ Motorola radios, hand signals, rapidiograph pens, electric erasures, Curta calculators.?ÿ I go so far back I even used speed ball and Irish Linen.?ÿ Ah, the good ole days.
I got so nostalgic a couple of months ago I bought binders and transit field notes.?ÿ As if I'm going to use them (hasn't happened yet).
I hear ya man!
I started in 1968 and all I can say is;
What a long strange trip it's been.
Loyal
TC I get nostalgic sometimes too.?ÿ What we do nowadays is very different that what we did 'back in the day'.?ÿ But as much as enjoy a good memory, I'm not so sure I could ever go back.?ÿ Memories are fine, but living it was tough sometimes.
I remember working for two days to see a quarter corner from a section corner.?ÿ I could stand on each corner but there was no way to see between them.?ÿ I cleared a lot of line for one lousy tie.?ÿ I guess at least I didn't have to chain between them!
I miss the old days but I could never go back to them after knowing how easy we have it now.
You betcha, it is a lot easier today.?ÿ Couldn't go solo back than with a steel tape and four screw transit, that's for sure.?ÿ But I miss the brewski's with the crew at the end of the week.
you could use an electric eraser as a drill, jewelry polisher, tooth polisher, nose and ear hair removal tool, rubber band rewinder, jig saw, noise maker, coffee stirrer, fire starter and...(add yours here)....
Oh and it could erase stuff. ?????ÿ
rapidiograph
That's one thing I don't miss, especially the 000. ???? ?ÿ
Shoot, I never thought of all those uses.
@flga-2-2 The 0000 was even worse.
I have a compete set somewhere, probably out in the garage. Probably a Leroy Set too. It all belongs in a museum (or a dumpster) along with its owner!
Loyal
As much as I used to enjoy drafting, I would not want to go back.?ÿ I was a wiz with my big mylar protractor and scale with the taped flag to hold the pin.?ÿ I'd plot all day, then draw the linework, taking care to draw the tangents to the curves correctly.?ÿ Watch out that you don't smudge ink with the circle templates.?ÿ Then you get to construct the contours, and then the final labeling.?ÿ
Yesterday I dumped almost 300 shots that I sucked up with my BRx6 and had them plotted in about 5 minutes.?ÿ Adjust some break lines, and the contours are done.?ÿ No, it is good to recall how it was, but I do not want to go back.
Ken
I started full time in '72 after doing it for the summer of '70. I don't miss then, but I sure miss being young, strong, a full head of hair, and being full of piss and vinegar! Running up mountains, 12-14 hour days, and lovin' all of it. That I miss!
@true-corner:?ÿ "...end of the week"??ÿ More like end of the day on the crews I started with.
Ah, yes, the four screw transit with a plumb bob on a breezy very (hot or cold) day all mounted atop a stiff legged tripod.?ÿ Even TDD probably took up swearing when he had to use them.?ÿ I'm pretty sure Abraham Lincoln was the first user of the one we were using in 1978 with a steel tape and chaining pins.
I recall spending days plotting original ground/design template cross-sections station by station then "buggying" the cut/fill for each and using end areas to calculate the total volumes of excavation and embankment. When they didn't balance properly, the designer would adjust the centerline profiles by applying a "guesstimate" and tell me to do it again. When this became a simple exercise of comparing existing versus design surfaces in CADD, I embraced technology and never looked back.
Still, I am glad I used an HP3805, steel tape, and dip needle. Wouldn't want to go back though.
Oh, yes, that was fun.?ÿ Punching numbers on a calculator until you were blue in the face.?ÿ One of my first excursions into the volume business was with an irrigation supply dam that was over a half mile in length with a maximum height of 27 or 29 feet.?ÿ Play with changing the top width.?ÿ Play with changing the front slope. Play with putting in a sort of bench part way up.?ÿ Finally programmed a TI calculator that used the little magnetic strips for programming.?ÿ Feeding in criteria for each cross-section (50' apart, I think) and making adjustments for the two end sections still took quite a bit of time.
Oh, yes, that was fun.?ÿ Punching numbers on a calculator until you were blue in the face.?ÿ One of my first excursions into the volume business was with an irrigation supply dam that was over a half mile in length with a maximum height of 27 or 29 feet.?ÿ Play with changing the top width.?ÿ Play with changing the front slope. Play with putting in a sort of bench part way up.?ÿ Finally programmed a TI calculator that used the little magnetic strips for programming.?ÿ Feeding in criteria for each cross-section (50' apart, I think) and making adjustments for the two end sections still took quite a bit of time.
I remember spending many nights in a USFS "Tent Shack" @ 9000 ft. MSL, balancing earth-work under the light of a Coleman Lantern by hand calculations of average end-areas from the days slope staking notes (no calculator). When things didn't balance it was the ol' raise/lower the grade "a bit," and go back the next day and do it again. The "good old days" NOT!
On the up side, we learned a lot back in those days about just about everything that would get a lot easier in coming years. The only thing with a button on it in those days was yer belly.
Loyal
I miss doing jobs like staking out new retention pond slopes because the existing ones were too steep. They told me people were afraid that their young kids would wander into the pond and slide down the slopes until they drowned. I used my SMI XPLOT program to calculate the existing slopes and to check the new ones.
as simple as those times seemed, we still lost data!?ÿ I was pulled in from the field and was given a complicated road system with lots of curves to compute.?ÿ I worked it out with my new HP 41 and when Friday of Memorial Day weekend came, I had it all done.?ÿ The map had point numbers.?ÿ The coordinates were printed on strips of thermal paper and taped to letter size sheets to be archived in the folder.?ÿ I left them neatly on the sill of the bay window next to the drafting table I was using.?ÿ Came in Tuesday morning and, you guessed it, the coordinates had melted off the paper.?ÿ
What is the old saying: there are 2 types of computer users, those that back up their data and those that wish they had.?ÿ?ÿ Even back then.
Ken
What I don't get is, with all the latest GPS, Lidar, robotic TS, we still can't finish the fieldwork within the estimated man-days quoted.