Tuesday, 11 August 2015

Some Details About Surveying

By Carey Bourdier


There have been many jobs of great importance throughout history, and the job of a surveyor has certainly been a very crucial profession. Surveyors have been used since the earliest civilizations to help with construction and the creation of boundary lines. Many of our best statesmen worked as surveyors including both President Washington and also President Lincoln. There are many different types of surveying, and each type has different tasks and requires different training.

You probably knew that surveyors often have the important tasks of defining exactly where land boundaries should be set, but you might not have known that this type of surveying is known as cadastral surveying. Determining who owns a specific piece of land or where a city or country's boundary exists has been a hugely important task since the earliest civilizations existed.

There are several different tools that surveyors use to accomplish boundary-related tasks, as well as many other surveying and construction tasks. The theodolite is helpful for measuring angles, whether they are horizontal or vertical. In the earliest times, a groma was an ancient sighting instrument that both the Mesopotamians and Egyptians used among other groups. Egyptians also used measuring ropes and plumb bobs to help with surveying jobs, including the monumental task of designing and building the Pyramids.

While surveyors throughout history have been used to create boundary lines and create detailed maps of both land and sea. This has many practical applications. For instance, mining operations need to map what lies underground in order to safely drill for everything from coal to oil.

In addition, surveyors map the bottom of the ocean floor for many purposes. A surveyor's map of the sea floor can be used for navigational purposes so that submarines and submersibles can navigate under water safely. One of the most important tools for many underground mining jobs is called a total station. This is a device that includes an electronic theodolite and an electronic distance meter.

The task of cartography or mapmaking has been a huge job of surveyors and is certainly related to the task of setting boundary lines. Surveyors such as Lewis and Clark, for example, traveled throughout the Louisiana Purchase to create maps of this newly purchased portion of the United States. This was a monumental task, and not only did they create maps, they also had to provide a detailed account of the flora and fauna of the area and determine the best areas as to where settlements could be built.




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