Surveying Novice


In my early teens, I learned to set up, level, and take readings from a surveyor's compass, taught by a neighbor who worked professionally in the field and from whom, along with his oldest son, I was occasionally a Surveyor's Chainman. For my Boy Scout merit badge in Surveying, I also carried out plane-table surveying and even made a homemade alidade and a clinonometer. I also did rough field surveys, using a pocket compass for sighting and my stride for measuring. Moreover, relating to the historical research I have conducted as a Title Searcher, I have often looked up old land surveys and redrawn them, plotting with protractor and scale to reconstruct an area's historical boundaries, as shown in the accompanying picture.






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