How did land surveyors, survey before electronics?
January 6, 2010 – 6:58 pmI often wonder how on earth did old land surveyors survey in remote areas with little distinguishing landmark features? Were they accurate? Can their accuracy affect landholders of today if they stuffed up? If it was cloudy could they still work? It just seems that we rely on GPS allot now, but it would be still good to know how they did it before all the gadgets of today were in existence. Yours answers would be gratefully accepted.
3 Responses to “How did land surveyors, survey before electronics?”
with long steel measuring tapes, and levels, and transits.
in class, i think we had a 100′ tape, but i’m sure there were some longer than that.
they also used chains to measure distance, before long steel tapes were available.
when measuring, one had to take temperature into account, because steel expands with heat.
they were reasonably accurate.
but over long distances, errors could build up.
their accuracy could affect landholders today, but probably not in built up areas.
By linlyons on Jan 6, 2010
Good question. I’ve thought about this as well. I guess they would have used alot of trigonometry. Near my mums place there is this old survey marker on top of a large hill which was used in the 1800’s. It is about 4 metres tall so it can be seen through the trees and i guess surveyors would have used it as a reference point while working in the valley below.
By bobbobby on Jan 6, 2010
they used trigonometry, a sextant, and essentially a yardstick
basically, a lot of angles
By Blake D on Jan 6, 2010