This is by far one of the very best videos that I have seen on Surveying, and I have watched 99.9 percent of all of these on You Tube. I would love to see one with you using the Chain and explaining how it works and all the other things you talked about. This is simply outstanding and far more interesting than watching someone stand behind a computer mounted on 3 legs. This video should have 5 stars for its common sense value. Thumbs up and please make more like this.
As a cowboy/rancher/land manager I can assure you that he is 100% correct when he says surveyors are who really settled the West. That said, I wouldn't exactly paint the surveying community with a broad brush of innocence.
I don't believe Kentucky and Tennessee use the PLSS. Portions of the states do but finding any recorded data on those portions is a huge pain. Occupation along PLS lines is typically pretty clear though.
How did they accommodate for magnetic declination when they made to first survey maps? How did they correct for elevation gain/loss when using the chain? (I imagine that is where a level sight and trigonometry might be handy) Was there a built-in level for the compass disc, or a way to align the disc in two dimensions with the plumb?
Surveying has long used astronomic observations (solar and Polaris) to establish "true" meridians and determine declination for compass direction correction. Burt's Solar Compass was really the first instrument that integrated solar observations with magnetic readings to to reliably determine declination in the field. Surveyor's compasses also incorporated bubbles to allow instrument levelling. As for chaining distances, in some east coast jurisdictions prior to the early 1800s, distances were assumed to be along the ground rather than horizontal (more common in mountainous terrain). Otherwise, the chain was often leveled "by eye." For example, from Surveyor General Jared Mansfield's 1804 PLS Instructions: "In all measurements, the level or horizontal length is to be taken not that which arises from measuring over the surface of the ground, when it should happen to be uneven & hilly, for this purpose the chainman, in ascending or descending hills must alternately let down one end of the chain to the ground & raise the other to a level as nearly as may be, from the end of which a plumb should be let fall to ascertain the spot for setting the tally rod or stick & where the land is very steep, it will be necessary to shorten the chain by doubling the links together, so as to obtain the true horizontal measure."
This is by far one of the very best videos that I have seen on Surveying, and I have watched 99.9 percent of all of these on You Tube. I would love to see one with you using the Chain and explaining how it works and all the other things you talked about. This is simply outstanding and far more interesting than watching someone stand behind a computer mounted on 3 legs. This video should have 5 stars for its common sense value. Thumbs up and please make more like this.
As a cowboy/rancher/land manager I can assure you that he is 100% correct when he says surveyors are who really settled the West. That said, I wouldn't exactly paint the surveying community with a broad brush of innocence.
I don't believe Kentucky and Tennessee use the PLSS. Portions of the states do but finding any recorded data on those portions is a huge pain. Occupation along PLS lines is typically pretty clear though.
I see us surveyors still do not get the love we deserve
How did they accommodate for magnetic declination when they made to first survey maps? How did they correct for elevation gain/loss when using the chain? (I imagine that is where a level sight and trigonometry might be handy) Was there a built-in level for the compass disc, or a way to align the disc in two dimensions with the plumb?
Surveying has long used astronomic observations (solar and Polaris) to establish "true" meridians and determine declination for compass direction correction. Burt's Solar Compass was really the first instrument that integrated solar observations with magnetic readings to to reliably determine declination in the field. Surveyor's compasses also incorporated bubbles to allow instrument levelling.
As for chaining distances, in some east coast jurisdictions prior to the early 1800s, distances were assumed to be along the ground rather than horizontal (more common in mountainous terrain). Otherwise, the chain was often leveled "by eye." For example, from Surveyor General Jared Mansfield's 1804 PLS Instructions:
"In all measurements, the level or horizontal length is to be taken not that which arises from measuring over the surface of the ground, when it should happen to be uneven & hilly, for this purpose the chainman, in ascending or descending hills must alternately let down one end of the chain to the ground & raise the other to a level as nearly as may be, from the end of which a plumb should be let fall to ascertain the spot for setting the tally rod or stick & where the land is very steep, it will be necessary to shorten the chain by doubling the links together, so as to obtain the true horizontal measure."
@@NLCTestPrep Thanks for the clarifications. Respect to the surveyors of yesteryear and today!
I'm getting paid better than ever, but had to go to the city to get the better job.