Surveying

Surveying is the branch of civil engineering which deals with measurement of

relative positions of an object on earth’s surface by measuring the horizontal distances,
elevations, directions, and angles. Surveying is typically used to locate and measure
property lines; to lay out buildings, bridges, channels, highways, sewers, and pipelines
for construction; to locate stations for launching and tracking satellites; and to obtain
topographic information for mapping and charting. It is generally classified into two
categories: Plane surveying (for smaller areas) and Geodetic surveying (for very large
areas).

In surveying, measurements may be made directly, electronically, by the use of

optical instruments, by computations from known lines and angles, or by combination
methods. Instruments used for direct linear measurements include the Gunter's chain
(known also as the surveyor's chain), which is 66 ft (20 m) long and divided into 100
links; the engineer's chain, 100 ft (30 m) long and also consisting of 100 links; the tape,
usually of steel, which has largely superseded chains; and the rod. Tapes and rods made
of Invar metal (an alloy of steel and nickel) are used for very precise work because of
their low coefficient of thermal expansion. In many situations electronic instruments,
such as the geodimeter, which uses light waves, and the tellurometer, which uses
microwaves, provide a more convenient and more accurate means of determining
distance than do tapes and rods. The height of points in relation to a datum line (usually
mean sea level) is measured with a leveling instrument consisting of a telescope fitted
with a spirit level and usually mounted on a tripod. It is used in conjunction with a
leveling rod placed at the point to be measured and sighted through the telescope.

Surveys based on photographs are especially useful in rugged or inaccessible

country and for reconnaissance surveys for construction, mapping, or military purposes.
In air photographs, errors resulting from tilt of the airplane or arising from distortion of
ground relief may be corrected in part by checking against control points fixed by
ground surveys and by taking overlapping photographs and matching and assembling
the relatively undistorted central portions into a mosaic. These are usually examined
stereoscopically.
Astrolabe

An astrolabe is a two-dimensional model of the celestial

sphere, it is a n ancestor or today’s computer. The name
has its origins from the Greek
words astron and lambanien meaning "the one who catches
the heavenly bodies”. An astrolabe is an instrument that
once was the most used, multipurpose astronomical
instrument.

The astrolabe is made up of several pieces joined through

a central hole by a pin secured with a wedge. The basic parts of an astrolabe are:

 Mater (Latin word for Mother) -The instrument’s largest part, the disk and base
of an astrolabe.
 Plate (also known as womb for others) - engraved with a planispheric projection
of the earth at a particular latitude, making it possible to locate objects in the
celestial sphere. The rim of the plate is divided into the 24 hours of the day,
marked by letters of the alphabet.
 Rete (Net) - plate is a rotating planispheric projection of the sky showing the
signs of the zodiac and various individual stars, a fretwork that allows you to see
the engraved plate beneath it.
 Label - a pivoting straight-edge that extends across the rim of the plate to the
very edge of the mater.
 Alidade – allows the user to take the altitude of a celestial object.

With an astrolabe, an astronomer could make quite accurate measurements of the:

 position of celestial objects

 measure the time of the night (or of the day, using it as a mobile sundial or, more
accurately by measuring the altitude of the sun)
 measure the time of the year,
 compute what part of the sky is visible at any time,
 determine the altitude of any object over the horizon,
 determine the current latitude, and
  determine (very accurately) the NPS orientation.

Transit

The predecessor of the American transit was the

prominent English theodolite, an instrument first
appearing in the early 16th century, and the
circumferentor compass, a variation of the American
vernier compass.

The transit, throughout its years of development, lent itself well to adaptations
for specialty use.  In 1867 William Schmoltz adapted William Burt's solar attachment to
the transit.  This allowed for location of the true meridian by solar observations,
therefore bypassing the often inaccurate magnetic readings.  In 1869 Benjamin S.
Lyman devised a solar apparatus that fir below the horizontal plate of the transit.  An
inclined standard transit instrument with a solar attachment was invented by R. R.
Siebert of the U. S. Coastal Survey.

Another series of rare adaptations of the transit evolved for use in mines, since
mine surveying presented special problems.  The conventional transit was unable to
give readings of extreme vertical angles up and down steep shafts and slopes, because
the line-of-sight would be obscured by the horizontal plate.  Then all of them designed
so that the line-of-sight would bypass the horizontal plate and allow for vertical
sightings.  Some of the more scarce designs include the inclined standard transit,
Blattner's hinge-standard model, and Buff and Berger's duplex telescope-bearing transit
designed in 1889.  Both instruments were fit with telescopic standards that extended
beyond the vertical plane of the horizontal circle.  One form of mining instrument that
gained popularity, due to its ease of ability to convert, was the auxiliary, or double-
telescope mining transit.  This was basically a standard from of transit with a detachable
second telescope and counter weight.  The points of attachment were at the ends of the
telescope axis, outside the standards.  Other designs included attachment of the
auxiliary telescope to the existing telescope as well as to the outside of the standards.

A transit level is an optical instrument, or a telescope, complete with a built-in

spirit level that is mounted on a tripod. Transit Levels are mainly used for surveying and
building. It is used to establish a reference line or provide readings of angles in precise
measurements. Transit levels are very precise and are calibrated to indicate true
horizontal and provide a reading of the angle of inclination in degrees, minutes and
seconds.
 Semicircumferentor

The form was introduced in Philippe Danfrie's,

Déclaration de l’usage du graphomètre (Paris, 1597) and
the term "graphometer" was popular with French
geodesists. The preferable English-language terms were
semicircle or semicircumferentors.

The Graphometer/Semicircle/Semicircumferentor is a surveying instrument used

for angle measurements. It consists of a semicircular limb divided into 180 degrees and
sometimes subdivided into minutes. The limb is subtended by the diameter with two
sights at its ends. In the middle of the diameter a "box and needle" (acompass) is fixed.
On the same middle the alidade with two other sights is fitted. The device is mounted on
a staff via a ball and socket joint. In effect the device is a half-circumferentor. For
convenience, sometimes another half-circle from 180 to 360 degrees may be graduated
in another line on the limb.

Further uses of the graphometer are the same as those of the circumferentor.

The surveyor's compass is usually the larger and more accurate instrument, and
is generally used on a stand or tripod. This surveyor's compass consists of a long, thin,
pointed needle of magnetized steel with a small conical-shaped bearing of agate
material at the centre. The end of this needle which points north, the north end, is
differentiated from the other end, the south end, by a small metal pin which passes
horizontally through the needle near its north end. The agate bearing works on a pointed
pivot of hard steel carried at the centre of the low cylindrical metal box (140mm in
diameter). Attached to the opposite ends of this box are two sighting vanes with two
slow motion screws and clamps which enable a definite line of sight to be defined or
laid out. The instrument can either be screwed on to a tripod or remain hand-held for the
purpose of measuring magnetic bearings.  The metal box carries inside it, three
graduated horizontal circles: top and lower circles 0-360 degrees, third circle in
quadrants 0-90 degrees, with the N and S directions identified as zero points and the E
and W directions are labelled as 90 degrees each.  The lower horizontal circle can read
to 3 minutes directly on the vernier. The azimuths are commonly measured on the top
circle clockwise from north through 360 degrees. A disc of glass, fitting on top of the
metal case, protects the needle and graduated circles.

In this instrument, the needle remains in a fixed position (the position of the

magnetic south to north line), while the two upper graduated circles, together with the
line of sight, rotate about the vertical axis.
 Plane Table

The first plane table consisted of wooden boards

placed together to form a table about 14 x 11" mounted
on a tripod. A paper or cardboard sheet was placed on
top of this board. The planimetric map or traverse was
drawn on a paper.

The early plane table was a tool that is used the

intersection of lines to locate points plotted on the paper
on the table. It uses compass needle to level the table and
if the needle was level then it is close enough. Then, sight a point that needed to be
located with the alidade and draw a line on the board. If the object is close enough to the
table then the distance could be chained and if chaining was not practical then you could
sighted from another location, giving you an intersection of lines which results to the
location desired.

The second phase brought about a name change from plain table to plane table.
By the middle to the end of the 19th century, the instrument became in shape and size
the plane table most surveyors would recognize. The alidade now had a telescope. The
table was about 2' square and was mounted on a tripod with an adjustable mount for
leveling and rotating the table to orientate to north. The alidade had a vertical circle to
turn a vertical angle and calculate the difference in elevation between points.

Phase three in plane table design came in the later part of the 20th century when
the automatic compensating level was introduced. The automatic compensator was
added to the alidade to speed up the leveling process. This greatly enhanced the field
speed by which topographic work could be performed. The automatic compensator
alidade found great favor in the hands of companies doing mapping and traverse work
for oil and gas exploration.

It is said that The Plane Table Surveying is the fast method of surveying. This
type of surveying simultaneously plots the plan and observes the field.
 Dioptra/Dioptre

A dioptra (Greek: διόπτρα) is a classical astronomical and

surveying instrument, dating from the 3rd century BCE.  It is a
sighting tube or, alternatively, a rod with a sight at both ends, attached
to a stand. If fitted with protractors and could be used to
measure angles.

Greek astronomers used the dioptra to measure the positions of

stars; both Euclid and Geminus refer to the dioptra in their
astronomical works. By the time of Ptolemy (2nd century CE), it was obsolete as an
astronomical instrument, having been replaced by the armillary sphere.

Heron of Alexandria wrote on the use of diopter, ascribing a horizontal and a

vertical limb to the instrument. By this, he achieved a proper measuring device. It can
be used for the construction of plans, for leveling, measuring fields, measuring angles,
finding area of a triangle or for measuring distances and heights of places that cannot be
reached.

Instruments based on the diopter mechanism were developed in sixteenth

century in Europe. According to the Isaac Moreno Gallo, “in the (“books of engines and
machines”) by Juanel Turriano but attributed to Juan de Lastanosa, several of these
instruments are brought together, in particular the ingenious Geometric Quadrant, which
was simply a diopter fitted to a square limb, and which allowed simple operations to be
performed by means of the technique of the similarity of triangles.”

According to Isaac Moreno Gallano, from an analysis of models proposed in

modern times, it can be seen that it is extremely complicated to set them up and that
they depend a great deal on the precision of their construction for their correct
functioning. Their overall precision cannot be exact since the designs are inadequate to
keep the adjustment after swiveling in the horizontal and vertical planes even if it has a
vertical adjustment.

The diopter was used extensively on aqueduct building projects. Screw turns on

several different parts of the instrument made it easy to calibrate for very precise
measurements.
Roman Groma

The principal Roman surveying instrument was

the groma. It was regarded as the tool most typical of a
surveyor; it appeared in stylised form on the tomb of
Lucius Aebutius Faustus. According to some authors,
this instrument is already known in Greece and came to
Rome through Etruscan culture.

Groma consists of a combination of a cross with

arms at right angles, hanging plum lines in the bottom and a vertical foot to adjust this
combination in a horizontal plane. It can be said that groma is a low precision
instrument as it is subjected to errors from its construction and by the effects of external
agents.

The groma was used in military and civilian surveying but it is no use for
determining the boundaries of properties. Although groma is an inadequate instrument
for such tasks, it is still associated with Roman surveyors, probably because of the ritual
characteristics represented by both the instrument and the surveying process.

Groma is the principal tool used by the Roman surveyors to trace on the ground
simple and orthogonal alignments, necessary to the construction of roads, city, temples
and agricultural lands subdivision. There are four major parts to the Groma:  the cross,
the plummets, the staff and the swing arm. The cross was made of two 36" wooden
arms that perpendicularly intersected each other at their respective midpoints.  This
created a cross with 4-18" radial arms extending every 90 degrees. An angle bracket
was attached to the center to hold the arms true to 90 degrees.  At the ends of the arms
were metal supports.  In the center of the cross was a bronze socket, which rotated on
the swivel peg that is fixed to the bracket.  At the end of each arm hangs a single plumb
bob, with each plumb bob measuring eighty centimeters from its counterpart at the other
end of the arm with an even weight.

This instrument was set up by first striking the lower part of the rod into the
ground.  It was placed at a known distance from the control point so that the center of
the cross staff could be aligned over the mark by turning the rotating arms. The
agrimensore then sights beside the two plumb lines suspended from the end cross and
orient where the distant mark would be placed. The same procedure would be
performed on the other set of lines, which would create the right angle.
 Libella

The Greeks borrowed this device at an early date

and used it extensively. It was first called staphyle or
‘grape’, referring to the plumb bob then called diabetes
‘strider’ after its two equal legs like a pair of compass.
Theon of Alexandria mentions the same device under the
alternative name of alpharion, alpha-shape and
alphadion. Then the A-frame level was called labella by the Romans.

Another levelling instrument used by the Romans was the simple libella. It

consisted of a frame in the shape of the letter A, with the addition of a horizontal bar on
top. From the apex a plumbline was suspended that coincided with a mark on the lower
crossbar when the instrument was level. Other marks could have been added to indicate
other slopes, but there is no evidence that this was done (Hauck, 1988:43).

The A-frame level is a standard tool for leveling the foundations and wall
courses of buildings under construction. For most purposes it was no doubt entirely
adequate, but for large structures, its accuracy necessarily depended on four factors. If it
was not very precisely made it could mislead. Even given precision of manufacturer, the
smaller it was, the less accurate the results. Its plumb was liable to sway in the wind.
And even in a total calm it would be impossible to align the plumb-line with absolute
precision over the mark on the cross-bar, given that both had an appreciable thickness.
(M. J. T. Lewis, 2001).

This tool had a plumbline suspended from its apex that coincided with a mark on
the crossbar at the center of the tool’s frame. This tool was critical in building entire
civilizations, and beyond determining plumb and level, the libella also acted as a square
and even a ruler if needed. The Egyptians built the pyramids and the Greeks built
ancient temples—all with the help of the level.
 Gunter’s Chain

Gunter's chain was designed and introduced in

1620 by English clergyman and mathematician Edmund
Gunter (1581–1626). Enabling plots of land to be
accurately surveyed and plotted, for legal and
commercial purposes. The chain is divided into 100
links, marked off into groups of 10 by brass rings which
simplify intermediate measurement. Each link is 7.92
inches long, with 10 links making slightly less than 6 feet 8 inches. The full length of
the chain is 66 feet.

The method of surveying a field or other parcel of land was to determine corners
and other significant locations, and then to measure the distance between them, taking
two points at a time. The surveyor is assisted by a chainman. A ranging rod is then
placed in the ground at the destination point. Starting at the originating point the chain
is laid out towards the ranging rod, and the surveyor then directs the chainman to make
the chain perfectly straight and pointing directly at the ranging rod. A pin is put in the
ground at the forward end of the chain, and the chain is moved forward so that its hind
end is at that point, and the chain is extended again towards the destination point. This
process is called ranging, or in the US, chaining; it is repeated until the destination rod
is reached, when the surveyor notes how many full lengths (chains) have been laid, and
he can then directly read how many links (one-hundredth parts of the chain) are in the
distance being measured. Then the whole process is repeated for all other pairs of points
required. And on sloping land, the chain was to be "leveled" by raising one end as
needed, so that undulations did not increase the apparent length of the side or the area of
the tract.

Gunter’s chains are no longer manufactured and are seldom, if ever, used today.
Nevertheless, the many chain surveys on record oblige the modern practitioner to
understand the limits of accuracy possible with this equipment, and the conversion of
distances recorded in chains and links to feet or meters.
 Chorobates

Throughout history, interpretations as to the

shape and working of this instrument differed greatly
because the original illustrations had been lost according
to Vituvrius. A short historical overview of these
interpretations leads firstly to one of the oldest
representations known: the first edition of the Ten Books
of Architecture entirely in French in 1547. From the same century, the first Castilian-
Language edition by Miguel de Utrea in 1582 and the “books of engines and machines”
named as being by Juanelo Turriano but attributed to Juan de Lastonosa contains very
similar representations of the chorobates, essentially a ruler on a vertical leg.

In 1673, the Frenchman Claude Perrault translated Vituvrius and made a

different interpretation by converging the board strip ending in brackets and supported
by a vertical leg of the oldest editions into a table supported on four legs. Works
published late in Spain also adopted the Perrault design.

Lastly, Adam popularizes the chorobates table-type and reduced its size to 1.5m
in order to make it more manageable and made a series of measurement in the ruins of
Pompeii.

The Romans developed a very efficient and accurate instrument which could
measure modest gradients over long distances which led to the development of roads
and aqueducts in Ancient Rome.

The instrument known as the chorobates was described by Marcus Vitruvius

Pollio as the way that the Roman surveyors checked levels. They were using the
chorobates instrument, which was used to build water channels and roads. The
instrument was a 6.5 m long table with a thorough of 2 m in length. The table was
horizontally plumbed first and then the water level in the ooze (water puddle) was
checked then the horizontal direction was observed with the diopter.

The Groma, the Dioptra and the Chorobates represent some of the essential
instruments used by the Romans in their engineering projects.  They provided the
surveyors with a means of establishing vertical and horizontal alignment.
 Merchet

About 4000 B.C., Chaldeans used a device known

as “merchet” for measuring time and meridian. It consists
of a slotted palm leaf through which to sight and a
bracket from which the plumb bob was suspended, then a
line was projected by sighting through the slot and past
the plumb-bob string. Egyptian hieroglyphics indicated
that merchet were used for the alignment of temples and pyramids with the true north
and with great accuracy.

The merchet was a staff with a wide notched top.  The notch was a long slit
through which the instrument operator aligned a fixed plumb-line and the "rope-men". 
This enabled them to measure long lines effectively.

The device is fairly simple. A merkhet includes a straight bar attached to a

plumb line, a weighted line which can be used to establish a straight vertical line to the
ground. To use the merkhet, the device was aligned with the North star, and a second
merkhet would be used to establish a North-south meridian. This line could be used to
align a structure, or as a reference point to track the movement of stars in the sky. By
making note of when particular stars crossed the meridian, the user could determine the
time. Astronomers also used merkhets to map the skies and to make observations, often
with the assistance of a bay, a specially designed tool used for sighting. During the day,
when the stars are not visible, a sundial would have been used to mark the passing of
the hours.

A bay was used in combination with a merkhet, which doubled as a plumb bob
and a sundial. In the day, the bay would cast a shadow that could be aligned rather
accurately because of the slit in the top. Either could be used to find true North, for
instance by bisecting the angle of the rising and setting of a celestial body over a
horizontal plane ), or by observing the alignment of a pair of selected stars (Spence
2000).
REFERENCES

Chaucer, G. (2002). A Treatise on the Astrolabe (Vol. 6). University of Oklahoma

Press.

http://www.traianvs.net/pdfs/2004_roman_surveying.pdf

https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/MP/nbsmiscellaneouspub272.pdf

https://theconstructor.org/surveying/plane-table-surveying-methods-examples/12877/

https://vm.civeng.unsw.edu.au/surveying/f_pall/html/s4.html

https://www.fig.net/resources/proceedings/fig_proceedings/fig2018/ppt/fig10a/FIG10A
_hosbas_pirti_et_al_9296_ppt.pdf

Islam, M. T. CHAIN AND TAPE SURVEY.

Lewis, M. J. T., & Lewis, M. J. T. (2001). Surveying instruments of Greece and Rome.

Cambridge University Press.

Meech, Karen. "Astrolabes." Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii. Last

updated May 12, 2003. (April 17, 2012) http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/tops/astlabe.html

Michael Jonathan Taunton Lewis (2001), Surveying Instruments of Greece and Rome,

Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521792975

Michael Jonathan Taunton Lewis (2001), Surveying Instruments of Greece and Rome,

Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521792975

Plane Table Surveying and Examples

Rossi, Cesare & Ceccarelli, Marco & Cigola, Michela. (2011). The groma, the
surveyor's cross and the chorobates. In-depth notes on the design of old instruments and
their use. Disegnare Idee Immagini. 22. 22-33.

Transit Levels: All About Transit Levels. Johnson Level & Tool Mfg. Co., Inc.
Retrieved from:
https://www.johnsonlevel.com/News/TransitLevelsAllAboutTran