I blue-topped a good part of the General Motors Plant site in '71 & '72 with an 1899 Buff and Buff level. Ran into it in the attic while digging Christmas lights back out.
Last time I looked through it (1995 or so) the spider webs had deteriorated. I Guess replacing those is a lost art now.
4 leveling screws. GAH!
Oldest things I've touched is a Sokkia Set3 and I found an old Lietz SDR2 in a draw. I put it back really quickly.
My Pop...hahahaha
I believe it was a K & E Engineers Transit ca. 1913, we used it to level the sawmill rails. Other than that, I gues I go back to the old inverted image T-2 ...
-JD-
I used a (teledyne) Gurley 20" transit with my dad. Dad bought it new in the late 70's or early 80's... but c'mon... It could have easily been straight out of the 30's, 40's, or 50's.
I used to know how to work a slide rule & log tables. Those are really old. Does that count?
That paceing instrument that wears my boots is getting pretty old.
Plus I can still work a plumb bob that my grandpa gave me to go along with the 2' level that still works.
> My Pop...hahahaha
You beat me to it. I was going to say my grandfather. He had a few instruments from the 1800's. They were for display in his office and not for use (or for children my age to touch). I am sure he used some of the old ones as his first day of surveying was in 1951 (2 days after his 18th birthday).
Not soliciting business here but...
Hayes Instrument Company service department can replace the crosshairs in old instruments. We usually have a female black widow spider in a glass aquarium (no water) to provide the spiderweb filaments when needed.
Not sure if we have a live spider at present or not.
That's easy...
Plumb Bob!
Hasn't changed much in a LONG time.
🙂
Loyal
The old Buff and Buff factory building shown on the inside lid is now a six family condominium.
http://www.realtor.com/property-search/Jamaica-Plain_MA/329R_Lamartine-St?source=web
Speaking about the plumb bob which generally points from head to foot, also knowing that an Aussie's feet and my feet are closer together when we stand on the planet than our heads are, there must be a place where gravity shifts. Where being and on one side of that line, the bob hangs down, cross the line and it points in the opposite direction, never noticed such a thing at the equator so that point must be elsewhere, anyone know?
jud.
Jud
Somewhere between here and Pellucidar I suppose.
🙂
Loyal
That's sad. My dad used to take his transits in to Buff & Buff every year for cleaning and adjusting. Dad and Buff & Buff are gone, but I still have the transits - A THS of unknown age (that I learned on) and a Schneider bought in the 1970s.
According to the Jamaica Plain Historical Society, some of the tools, parts, spirit bubbles, etc., used at the Buff and Buff factory are now kept at the Davistown Museum, in Liberty, Maine (between Belfast and Augusta) on Route 173.
The museum also has a Buff and Buff theodolite which was purchased elsewhere.
Back in the day when our 30" K & E gun was being serviced, my mentor would bring out a 30" 1870's K & E gun with a compass under the telescope. He kept to 1870's gun serviced just in case it was needed for extended use. Those were the days of strings on your plumb bobs not those reel thingees!
In 1983, I worked on a crew that used a 20 second Gurlet transit that the leveling screws were worn oval and smooth on. We had a Zeise NI2 level, and a 100 foot fit tape. We currently use a Wild T-3 that was made in the 50's. The oldest EDM that I used was an HP 3800. I have 4 Ashtech LXiI GPS units that have very low serial numbers, and a Leitz SetII with a 4 digit serial number. At work, we have the first Leica NA 2000 that was sold west of the Mississippi river. We have some maps in our file room from the 1800's.
I can't claim I really used it, but I did get to point the Burt Solar Compass in my avatar picture to bring the sun image back between the lines.
Other than that, I've made quite a few observations with the Dietzgen 30" transit.
A compass.
Wayne,
In high school and college I ran a Dietzgen Mircoglide (with teflon grooves) Vector Type Log Log Slide Rule. Still have it and the manual. When I started we used Monroe machines and 3" thick books of trig tables. One those books I still have. My mentor while we were using the Monroes had a computer (think 1968, I don't remember the brand) that was 2' wide, almost 3' long and 1.5' high. It eat taped together computer punch cards for the programs. To traverse it would eat a few cards then ask for the bearing, eat a few more cards ask for the distance, eat a few more cards then on the screen would come up the latitude and departure. Then you took the cards piled up behind the card reader and did your next course and distince.
In my early 20's I worked with this guy names Bill back in the 80's he was in his 60's and while Bill was not an instrument exactly, he certainly was an old tool.