I'm a novelist working on my latest book, which has elements of surveying during the 1960s. I'd like to make sure my book is historically accurate.
In my teenage year's, during this era, I worked first as a chainman, then later as a cadet surveyor, a profession I ultimately did not pursue (I ended up studying for a Bachelor of Science in computing -- It wasn't called Information Technology then).
It was in 1965 in Queensland, Australia where (and when) I was measuring with both 100 foot and 300 foot "chains" that were steel bands about 1/4" wide marked with brass ferrules every 10 feet with the last ten feet on each end marked every foot and I think the last foot was marked in inches. They were rolled up for storage on narrow wooden spools. The end of the "chain" had a leather thong to hold when tensioning. Is my memory correct about the graduations?
We used inclinometers to ascertain level, or if it was too steep, to measure the gradient. We used spring balances to tension the chain. I remember once we obtained an official standards chain to calibrate our working chains. It was one of the exercises I had to do as a cadet.
If my memory is correct, we tensioned the chain to a value that was dependent on the temperature. The hotter the day, the less tension. I can't be certain of this because we may have used a standard tension and then just adjusted the mark based on temperature and catenary. Is that how it was?
It has been a long time since I worked in the surveying field and I have forgotten some of the procedures and calls and am confused with calls I made while doing celestial navigation using a sextant on board sailing vessels in the 1980s. When I was doing theodolite work, I recall giving commands to the chainman such as "right a foot ... right an inch ..." but I can't remember what I shouted when the chainman's plum bob string was right on the crosshairs and I wanted him to drop the plum bob to mark the spot. I'm trying to get the calls correct. The calls were important as we were surveying roads that were sometimes busy with traffic and clarity of commands were important. Later, we used walkie-talkies, particularly when we were using the 300 foot chain. What commands and calls are typically used?
About a decade ago, I rented a theodolite to do a contour survey of land that I bought prior to building my house. It was a dream! All done with infrared and reflectors, automatically calculating the horizontal distance when sighting down a slope. What a change from the 1960s! I had my wife holding the reflector and tromping up and down the slope all day. She was not a happy camper!
Thank you for your help,
Peter
In New Zealand the chains were marked in chains and links, not feet. Later ones were metric. Tension was a steady 7lb pull. That did not change depending on temperature, but temperature was recorded and corrected for. We would call 'mark'. Yes chaining across a busy road was a complete nightmare
Thanks, Jim.
I'm pretty sure that the steel bands we used were 100 feet long. From elementary school, I was familiar with yards, chains, and even leagues. We were told that a cricket pitch was one chain long. Area was in roods, perches, and acres. It was all a complicated system to convert from one to the other. I'm thankful for the metric system! I was a chainman long before we had metrication in Australia.
I think the reason we used 100 and 300 foot "chains" was that I worked for the Main Roads Department of Queensland, rather than for surveyors marking out house allotments. These distance were more rational for marking out the centerline of a road, particularly when we were marking out transition curves.
Now that you mention it, I remember that we did use a standard pull. I can't remember what it was, but it was strong enough that I do remember thinking, "Hurry up and drop the damn plumb bob!" when I was on the other end of the chain. Perhaps it was more than 7 lbs. I know it required some effort for both chainmen at either end of the chain to remain steady. It was relatively straight forward when holding at the hip, but when I was holding over my head it, was a struggle.
Peter.
historically accurate for 1965 in Queensland... your memory is the best resource, unless you can find someone for That Location in that era.
there are many differences in practice, even within the same state or a decade different. Even no many firms had/have practices that differ from others in the same town.
Trust your memory, and good luck on your book
but I can't remember what I shouted when the chainman's plum bob string was right on the crosshairs and I wanted him to drop the plum bob to mark the spot.
I would shout "good!"
Also, when chaining and the correct foot was reached, I would shout "chain!" I was the rear chainman.
If only RADU was around to fill in the details! miss that guy!
When we were marking out a straight centerline of the road and pegging every 100 feet, the process we used was:
- The lead chainman would pace ahead pulling the "chain" to what he guessed was about right (I used to count 33 as I figured my stride was about a yard).
- The rear chainman would follow behind the leather strap on the end of steel band until he saw it was getting close to the last peg and shout to the lead chainman to stop.
- The rear chainman would bring out an inclinometer to determine where on our bodies we would hold our end of the chain.
- Out would come the plumb bobs.
- The rear chainman would set up over the mark (a galvanized roofing nail) pushed into the ground.
- The two chainmen would do a rough "pull up" of the chain to determine the approximate spot.
- The lead chainman would clear away a bare patch about 1 - 2 foot diameter of ground in the general area of the spot.
- The lead chainman would attach the spring balance to the end of the chain and slowly bring up the tension.
- The rear chainman would shout something as soon as he saw the plumb bob was steady over the centre of the nail.
- The surveyor would direct the lead chainman left or right until his plumb bob string was right on the vertical crosshair and then shout the command.
- At far distances or in in heat shimmer when the surveyor could not see the plumb bob string, we would hold a "picket paper" against the string facing the theodolite. A picket paper was a rectangular piece of heavy-weight paper about 4" x 2" and coloured in two vertical bands of red and yellow. We would make sure the string was on the line between the red and yellow band. We used picket papers on "pickets" that we made by cutting a 2" diameter sapling, sharpening the base 3" to drive into the ground, cutting a sloping notch near the base to hammer the picket in the ground and then sharpening the top 8" to a very fine point. We did all this with our axe. We would pierce the picket paper in two places with the fine, sharp tip so the vertical line between the red and yellow was in a vertical line with the tip. We would plumb bob the tip over the mark. The surveyor could sight on the picket from a long distance and pickets were not too long of a length that he could set up his theodolite over the top of it.
- The lead chainman would then push a roofing nail into the ground, pull a white painted wooden peg out of one of the sugar sacks he carried that was full of pegs and place it near the nail.
- The lead chainman would pull out of a second sugar sack, a white painted 2" x 1" x 2' wooden stake called a "finder", write the centerline distance on the finder with an indelible marker, and place it beside the peg. The top 2" of the finder was sometimes painted red.
- The lead chainman would start walking ahead the next 100 feet. and the process was repeated
Usually there was a third chainman whose job was to drive in the peg. When I first started, this was my job. As soon as the rear chainman moved out of the way, the pegger would:
- Take two "arrows" off his belt. Arrows were 1 foot long pieces of straight stiff steel wires (we usually made them out of fencing wire) that had a small eye bent around into one end, and the other end was filed to a point, hence the name "arrow".
- Take out two roofing nails out of his pouch.
- Arrange the arrows on the ground at right angles and push a roofing nails through each eye of the arrow so the sharp points intersected the nail that marked the spot (triangulation)
- The pegger would swing the arrows to the side, remove the marking nail, and drive in a peg at that spot using a sledgehammer.
- The pegger would swing the arrows back and where they intersected in the peg, he would drive a roofing nail into the top of the peg about 1/4", then jiggle the nail out, leaving a small hole.
- The pegger would then pull out a set of ten metal stamps with numerals 0 - 9 and stamp the centerline distance on top of the peg.
- The pegger would use the arrows to check if the peg and moved.
- If the peg had moved, he would pound the ground on one of the sides of the peg to move it back into position
- The pegger would rub a bit of dirt on the top of the peg which would better show the dot and the stamped distance.
- The final job would be to drive the finder in the ground about six inches in front of the peg with the writing on the finder facing the peg.
The worst time I had was when the spot was right in the centre of a bull ant's nest. The lead and rear chainmen were careful not to disturb the ants while they worked, but when they were done, the rear chainman thoroughly disturbed the nest so that when I came along to do the pegging, there were thousands of angry, biting, stinging ants about an inch long that would jump up onto my legs and attack me! They hurt, but green ants stings were worse.
Peter
My Dad was probably in his surveying prime in the 60s. He kept many of the old school ways. I never thought it at the time, but learning old school was a huge advantage to me as a young man. I remember "chaining" when I was about 12 and could hold the tension (barely) Dad pulled. As I got older it never seemed to get easier, I think because the stronger I got, the harder Dad pulled. I was giving line with the transit at that age and turning angles at 13 or so. We used a dip needle to find corners. None of our equipment required batteries at that time. If it rained, you put your ball cap on the instrument and protected the field book from rain with your life. I remember "wiggling in" to get on line between two points and estimating stadia distance to a range pole. Fun in the rural Georgia sun.
One of the more fascinating experiences I had was re-establishing historical surveys. We had ancient records of the first surveys that were done and we needed to pick up those permanent benchmarks. In those days, surveyors working in the sand dunes along the southeast Queensland coast would dig a hole about three feet deep, plant a beer bottle so the mark was the centre of the opening, and bury it. Coming back many decades later, the wind might have blown many more feet of sand over the beer bottle and, because it was glass, we couldn't use metal detectors. Also, because it was glass, we couldn't use shovels either for fear of breaking the bottle. We had to dig by hand, feeling through the sand every inch of the way and hope we wouldn't cut our hands on an already broken bottle.
Other permanent benchmarks were nails hammered into truncated pyramids cut into the heartwood of an extending root from hardwood trees such as Bloodwood or Ironbark (the preferred tree). Shields were cut out of the sapwood to expose the heartwood. We would chisel the government arrow at the top and then chisel the benchmark identifier in the middle of shield. Over decades, the sapwood would grow over the shield and cover it. The only indication that there was information under the healed portion was that you could see a shield shape in the bark. We would cut around the outline of the shield with our axes then hammer the inside portion with the back of the axe until the new sapwood would pop off, revealing the ancient benchmark.
Fun and games!
Peter
Excellent description of your past experience. Please note that my surveying career began in 1986, however one of my party chiefs began his surveying career in the 1960s. We, no doubt, used many older methods from that decade. Thanks for your interesting post.
