Nates thread about tape splicing reminds me of the days before total stations and data collectors when we would stretch a 100 ft steel tape along random or centerline every station and throw off right angles with a 90?ø prism to take transit notes. 100 scale was drawn into a field book and more detailed areas were drawn at 20 scale on a table on a roll of mylar 24 " wide. Our "topo" tapes usually had 5 to 10 splices before they were discarded. Regularly would pound out (flatten) kinks. One of the duties for the green horns on their first rain day was to pound the kinks out of the cloth tape. An initiation so to speak. There was always a bet made how long it would take them to figure out that there weren't any.?ÿ
There were some amazing note takers and drawings made with handwriting and drafting that looked like it had to be a machine doing it. Some were a work of art. The 20 scale drawings were traced onto plan sheets for design. Those who took transit notes in the field very long ran circles around the draftsman in the office. I had a 20 scale roll of mylar I drafted in the field in my home office for years. I couldn't bring myself to throw it out knowing what effort had been made to develop it. It had a mile or so of ground features and SUE depicted before SUE was cool. I used the drawing to prove I could draft to the examining board when I was licensed. They were duly impressed although it didn't prove a darn thing about what I knew about preparing a survey plat other than I could probably draft one. They must have been convinced otherwise. I must have answered the center of section location question to their liking. ?????ÿ
My notes were always sloppy.?ÿ As my Grandpa used to say, "Sometimes I can't read my own handwriting after it has cooled down."?ÿ However, it was rare that I didn't already have the key elements of the notes stuck in my brain.
Before my time at my prior job the old surveyor told me they took a drafter with portable drafting board, Monroe calculator and drafting arm into the field. The topos were drawn in the field as they went. This was not a plane table, it was an actual pencil drafter in the field. The transit operator called out angle and distance (stadia most likely but they may have taped more critical things) and the drafter plotted it connecting the dots as they went. Old school F2F. They also directly followed the contours.
My notes are messy, but fairly good for content. I have a tendency to get the colored pens in the office and calculate, cross reference, and conclude things until the page is too full.
@bill93?ÿ
similar here, mini colored sharpies for the win.
You couldn't do that where I currently work because it's not worth the time, although it's a superior product.
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