Surveying Equipment

A Quick Look At Antique Survey Equipments

The range of antique survey equipments was mostly made of wood, brass, and aluminum. Today you will find the instruments partly or completely made of steel, iron, ebony, celluloid, ivory, and plastic. Many survey equipments were needle instruments and their magnetic needles failed to point to the north properly in case there were local interferences like iron.

Other equipments or devices used included circumfertentors, sextrants, and quadrants which are used most commonly in maritime navigation. The survey compasses were also the standard device employed in day-to-day use. The earliest equipments were made of brass or wood. The compasses that were used include plain, railroad compasses, vernier, mining, and the solar compasses. Each of these had different uses and accomplished different tasks. Solar compasses and mining compasses were used for mining and other applications.

The earlier survey instruments made of wood were unfinished and usually made of tight grained woods which could resist water very well. The antique brass equipments were also unfinished and failed to retain the shine. In the mid-1800s, the instrument makers began to develop finished brass equipments with dark finishes that helped to reduce the glare--this eased the eye strain-- and also the dark finish helped to make the heating of the instrument even.

After 1900, the bright brass finishes lost their originality. Some of the surveying equipments used earlier were the ebony hand level used to measure vertical angles, alidade used on a plane table to measure the vertical and horizontal angles and distances, altaazimuth instrument used for horizontal and vertical angles to fix position, barometer and aneroid to measure elevations and to determine vertical distance, base line bar, chronograph that measures time, chronometer, clinometer, and compasses. The compasses determine the magnetic directions and are of various kinds.

There are other numerous antique equipments used in the past. They are the cross surveyors to lay out 90 and 45 degree angles, current meter for measuring the rate of water flow in streams, gradiometer that measures inclines and level lines of sight, heliostat used for making survey points visible at long distances and particularly used in triangulation surveys. The pedometer measures speed for estimation of distances, the plane table which is a drafting board used to make maps with the aid of alidade, plumb bob for alignment, quadrant to measure the angular relation between two objects are also some more antique instruments used earlier.

Not only these, there is a long list of antique survey equipments that were being used earlier, but now there are much more advanced instruments used for surveys.