Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
important learning resource for students who are studying land surveying at the
college level and who hope to become licensed. Because this topic focuses on
boundaries, it is not intended to replace a general textbook covering all types of
surveying, such as construction and topographic surveying. However, because it
integrates legal, technical and operational aspects of boundary surveying it will
help a student develop an overall view of how surveys are performed.
The technical methods and equipment used in boundary surveying have
changed as a result of the widespread adoption of computers and other electron-
ics. Total stations (electronic theodolites) and global positioning systems (GPS)
have replaced transits and steel tapes. Data collectors have replaced ield topics.
Computers have replaced calculators for most surveying calculations. Large for-
mat plotters have replaced drawing plans by hand. However, these changes have
no effect on old boundary surveys which have endured for generations. Stone
boundary markers and piles of stones set in the 1800s are still routinely found in
fields and in the woods. Plans and deeds created and recorded in the same period
are still found in recorder's offices throughout the country. Boundary surveying
is inextricably tied to history. Surveyors and others, who need to understand how
a boundary originated and how it should be reestablished today, must be familiar
the methods and equipment that were used when the boundary was first created.
With some modern texts on land surveying, the emphasis is on the new, the lat-
est equipment and techniques that are being used today. Although there is noth-
ing wrong with this approach, indeed surveyors must understand and be adept at
using the latest technology, in this topic we will not ignore the past. We will learn
about transits, theodolites, steel tapes, rods, chains, links, magnetic compasses and
other equipment and methods that were used by past surveyors. It has been said
that when a surveyor needs to reestablish boundaries that were created a hundred
or more years ago, the new surveyor must “follow in the footsteps of the original
surveyor”. We cannot hope to follow in these footsteps unless we understand the
methods and equipment used by the original surveyor.
Even if the reader never needs to interpret a deed written or a plan drafted in
the 1800s, having an appreciation of the history will help place modern practices
in context. Surveying technology was much simpler when transits rather than GPS
receivers were used for making measurements. Surveyors using chains and steel
tapes actually made measurements using their own hands. Today, using electron-
ics, measurements are much more abstract because the surveyor is not actually
doing the measuring—electromagnetic waves and microprocessors now do the
work. For readers unfamiliar with surveying measurements, the relative simplicity
of early measurement techniques will provide a solid foundation from which cur-
rent techniques may be more readily understood.
In some ways, the technical aspects of boundary surveying have gotten easier
with the advent of electronic instruments. When compared to the skill required to
use a steel tape and theodolite or transit, which took years of experience to perfect,
modern instruments and global positioning have made accurate measurements
available to nearly anyone who understands the technology. These new capa-
bilities threaten to oversimplify the real challenges faced by today's professional
