Ancient Egypt. The rope.
Ancient Rome. The chariot. (conquest)
England, and essential Europe, stone walls, via agreements.
USA
Compass, and chain.
Early transits, and chain.
Vernier transits.
Modern world.
Wild T- series. And tape. Especially the t-2, ww2 leftovers. And tape. The real workhorse of the port ww2 industrial era was the t-2.
Finally, the edm, total station, and now the GPS system, satellite based, to map the mess, built by all of the above.
The modern surveyor is charged with knowing all the inherent strengths, and weaknesses of prior equipment.
Retracement is an exercise in knowledge, without the benefit of experience. That is, the modern practitioner is often NOT well versed in historic surveying methods.
And, this has led to pincushioning, and broken retracement methods.
Nate
Here's an interesting read along those same lines. It fascinates me.
http://www.traianvs.net/pdfs/surveying.pdf
Nate The Surveyor, post: 450031, member: 291 wrote: Ancient Egypt. The rope.
Ancient Rome. The chariot. (conquest)
England, and essential Europe, stone walls, via agreements.
USA
Compass, and chain.
Early transits, and chain.
Vernier transits.
Modern world.
Wild T- series. And tape. Especially the t-2, ww2 leftovers. And tape. The real workhorse of the port ww2 industrial era was the t-2.
Finally, the edm, total station, and now the GPS system, satellite based, to map the mess, built by all of the above.
The modern surveyor is charged with knowing all the inherent strengths, and weaknesses of prior equipment.
Retracement is an exercise in knowledge, without the benefit of experience. That is, the modern practitioner is often NOT well versed in historic surveying methods.
And, this has led to pincushioning, and broken retracement methods.
Nate
Geodesy is a18th c European achievement. Mason and Dixon used British made instruments. The Academy of Sciences Paris measured the shape and size of the globe, 1760. France's topographic maps were based on quads, and triangulation, at 1:86,400 started in 1750. (Wild, Kent, Jena, Leitz, Leica, instruments are European .)
Cadastral surveying dates to 17th c.
The Coast Survey had a great challenge. And stood on the shoulders of those that came before them. And the PLSS is a large task with a lot of technical challenges to be sure.
(I have a Berger, lufkin and K&E chains. But little else "made in the USA".)
Here's a great web site of an interesting guy I stumbled across:
http://www.dehilster.info/index.php
http://www.dehilster.info/index.php&apos ;">
He's not only got a great collection, but works on and understands them too.