First a word of appreciation to Dave Karoly. I appreciate the recent threads discussing vintage surveying instruments. I have a real passion for the mechanical devices of the 1930's-1960's. The analog techniques for solving complex problems amazes me. Your discussion on transits on ebay got me to pull out my old Dietzgen (pre-30's) 1' transit. I was sure when I got it that the cross hairs were missing. (Duh - I forgot to focus them). There they are. Now I need to set it up on dad's old transit tripod and turn some angles...
I picked up one of Jeff Opperman's friend's Kerns a few weeks ago. I can not get over how small this little 5 second gun is. It's an inverted 20x image and has the split bubble for the vertical circle mentioned by others in the Wild thread. Unlike Dad's old Topcon theodolite, the micrometer is for 20' intervals with ten second divisions, instead of for an entire degree. The circle is has 20 minute divisions. The micrometer viewer is independent of the scope and can be read easily even if the scope is pointed at a steep angle (which should be convenient for solar observations using a projection method). The instrument is about the size of a field book in height and width.
I have no idea why we don't still use self centering tripods even with today's total stations and GPS base and static stations. I picked up an immaculate specimen with the Kern - looked like it just came from the dealer. It's incredibly fast to set up. It's similar to setting up a bipod with a prism pole, but easier and more precise because the center rod can be rotated to truth the bubble and it is graduated for determining instrument heights.
I do need to get the theodolite cleaned and get the vertical circle indexed. Like Dave Karoly's T1 example, the vertical circle is out about 1'30" - or half that I suppose. There are oil spots on the micrometer. I'm told that this is from temperature variations over time. Overall, I'm incredibly pleased with the purchase. Every treasure I have will someday go to my kids or grandkids - except this one. I don't want to see this collecting dust somewhere. Someday I'll pass this one on to a young surveyor that will turn angles with it, shoot the sun or another star for azimuth, measure some stadia distances with it and treasure it for what it is.
Along with the Kern I got a brochure of their instrument lineup. They had a very expensive and ingenious theodolite that could dial in distances (typically inside of a couple hundred meters) from a subtense bar with an accuracy of 1:10,000! I believe it was the DKRT (I don't have the brochure handy). What an amazing device.
I love my data collector and total station to be sure. The robot smokes topo surveys and GPS gives me azimuth and position in a blink. But these old instruments are exquisite. Jeff asked me why I would want one of those old Kerns. I told him "No one is making them anymore." Sad but true. No one manufactures analog theodolites anymore - they are all digital and require batteries. Sincere thanks to Jeff for the hassle of selling these for his friend's widow. I may be wrong, but I don't think too many people will be saving their pennies to buy that Trimble 4600 or Geodimeter robot in another 50 years with the same romantic enthusiasm folks snatch up the Wilds and Kerns and K&Es and Gurleys today.
NEED PICS!
I also got one from Jeff.
I have just about zero nostalgia for older surveying equipment....with the exception of the DKM1.
I used one almost daily for 5 years or so back when I used to work for a living.
As you say, the craftsmanship is lovely indeed. You really do not see much of that any more.
Lots of memories and looks nice in my living room.
That center leg is a pain when setting up on a cap, set to refusal but still 1.5' +/- above the surface. We removed the center leg and had an attachment with a plumb bob hook, took a while but you could get over the point level enough to true up and turn the angles. We use the DKM 2AE with aluminum legs for a while, keeping them level in the sun required an umbrella, without it, every time you put a different leg in the shade while turning angles, the instrument went out of plumb, we finally got some wooden legs with an aluminum center leg which was much better. I don't own any aluminum legs because of that experience.
jud
Mine came a couple of week ago and I've already sent it off to the shop for service. If either of y'all want to get yours serviced I'm using an outfit called "Swiss-Tek" in NY. They specialize in Kern. I've used them before and they are very good.
I had an aluminum tripod for my other DKM-1 and Jeff sent me a wood version for this one. It was kind of dirty and rough, but I've refurbised it and it is now in pretty good shape.
Yes, this is a wood leg tripod. Seems very stable.
Urs Reinhardt at SwissTek was very helpful to me when I was researching the instrument. He said he was too busy right now, but at the end of the year might be able to get to mine. (You must have an inside track! lol).
This one is wood. I can imagine the aluminum was a beast to keep level... Never thought about high marks. We seldom find ourselves setting up on a point like that (once every couple of years I'd guess), and I'm sure it is a pain. I was just impressed by how fast it sets up on a ground flush control point.
The tightest traverse that I ever ran was with the Kern DKM-1. It was soooo tight that one of the office personel thought it was pencil-whipped. Fortunalely, we ran one of the station set-up over later in the day because of fog in the early morning.
The tripods (wood) with the aluminum center leg were great for leap-frogging the gun and the prism set-ups.
yep, those Swiss theodolites are like rolex watches.
I've always wanted a Kern theodolite designed by Heinrich Wild.
I admire the way he was able to walk away his original company "Heinrich Wild, Werkstätte für Feinmechanik und Optik" because he knew his calling was to design instruments, not run a business.
It is kind of interesting that even the Kerns of the day were Wild designs (Dr. Wild, that is). He must have been a truly brilliant mind to have left that sort of legacy.
James,
Prior to founding Wild Heerbrugg, Wild worked for Zeiss where he designed the Th01. AAt Wild Heerbrugg he designed the original T2 and T3. At Kern, he designed the DKMM2 and DKM3. It's mind boggling that the top of the line instruments of the three giants of European optical design were all the product of one man.
Overview of the career of Heinrich Wild
Scroll down to page 20 in this 1977 California Surveyor Newsletter to read about Dr. Wild.
http://www.californiasurveyors.org/calsurveyor/CALSURV47.pdf
You'll pass some now vintage ads including one for Kern on the way.
A similar if not the same story was in an ACSM publication too.
One "problem" with the Kern theodolite tripod was you had to remember to lock the instrument in place. I worked for a Kern dealer where the owner of a local surveying and engineering company walked in with a sheepish look on his face and a Kern carrying case which we knew held a recently purchased 1" Kern optical theodolite. He set it on the counter, opened the case and the damage was obvious. Not the result of being in the path of vehicle, instead he had neglected to secure the instrument on the tripod head. Major repairs including replacing the standards meant it went off to Kern's New York service center for several thousand dollars of work. Can't remember the original cost of the instrument but I think it was probably close to $10,000. It came back like new condition.
Kern did finally design a spring loaded locking system that would secure the instrument when it was placed on the tripod although I think you still had to move the lever to make it tight.
One benefit of the Kern tripod system was the HI could be read on the centering rod. User would center the bubble on the rod and the instrument only required a small amount of additional leveling and the HI would not change because of the instrument and tripod design.
A disadvantage was Kern levels if you had them required a different tripod and it wasn't 5/8 x 11 either. Adapters were available and Kern eventually offered instruments which would fit in the Wild style tribrach. But, that was shortly before Wild Heerbrugg acquired Kern and quickly eliminated Kern designed products.
I was working on a long article about Heinrich Wild for Professional Surveyor when I quit as editor. My boss wanted it just to be a story about the tour they gave me of their facilities in Heerbrugg, with my lips firmly planted on a major advertisers a$$; but I was taking too much time trying to make it something more than "Oh the places I've been." They ended up cobbling together some piece of dross in it's place.
Javad has a similar history. He's affected the cutting edge of most of the GPS manufacturers out there, and seems to struggle with the business side of the equation (at least in terms of distribution).
A brief article from American Surveyor Magazine about Wild:
http://www.amerisurv.com/content/view/6080/136/
I just get a kick out of the old instruments; especially the European theodolites.
Everyone else is going high tech and asking, "Why do you want to do a sun shot when you can just GPS it." One thing is I like the simplicity of it; it doesn't have the black box quality that GPS has even if you understand and do all the processing. I make up the spreadsheet to calc a sun shot and I can understand what it is doing. Also where I work GPS often doesn't work well due to 200' tall trees. If I can get one GPS point in a clearing and no others I can always do a solar or star observation to get my Survey on State Plane although I don't think that meets our Public Resources Code requirements which are obsessed with GPS.
Most of the modern high tech instruments are designed for a 7 year service life and you might get 10 to 15 years of service out of them. I can use a 70s vintage T1 today and it still works just fine for the purpose. My 1970± Dietzgen 1' Transit works as well today as the day it came out of the Factory. Same for a 1950s K+E Paragon or 1930s Transit of your choice as long as they are still in working order and have been treated well. Some of the Transits on ebay look like they have been used as a hammer to pound in the stakes as well as turn angles.
Kern adapters
I found some weird looking adapters squirreled away in a drawer looking for something else.
Just now I was looking at a DKM1 on ebay and he had a photo of the bottom.
It looks the same so apparently we may have some Kern adapters although there is no Kern instrument I have ever seen in our office. Maybe it got "surveyed" out years ago. Surveyed is the State of California jargon or official term for surplusing something out. The first time I heard it I wondered what the Surveyors were doing selling old vehicles and desks, etc.
I have a DKM1 and wooden centering leg tripod that I've had for about 30 years. I bought an adapter from Swisstek so that I can use my Topcon Hipers on the Kern tripod, and then I drop on the DKM1 on the tripod if I need a precise shot to a pin I couldn't occupy with the GPS. The Kern and case can fit right in a carpenter's nail pouch. It sounds great, but in truth I don't use it that much. The tough part is the distance measurement from the Kern tripod to the pin. I have a Leica disto on the centering leg for that, but it's tough on shots longer than 40 feet or so.
I started out with a 20" Kern theodolite in 1974. I still have it in the attic along with a Kern aluminum tripod and eyepiece for sun shots. It was a sweet instrument at that time. I think the only problem that I ever had with it was that the vertical leveling screws would sometimes slightly turn on their own.
My new Leitz C-1
just got delivered from Mr. Opperman today. Looks like it has been taken care of quite well.B-)