Category Archives: Evolution of Land Survey Technology
These articles trace land survey measurement technology from the time of early mapping in Western Canada to the relatively recent application of GPS technology. They depict the greatest evolution in land surveying technology in history – the period from about 1960 to the early 2000s. This period witnessed the transformation in measurement technology from transit and chain to GPS, and in survey computation from logarithms to the sophisticated programs and computers of the early 21st Century. They were originally published from 2021 to 2023 in ALS News, a quarterly publication of the Alberta Land Surveyors Association.
21. Too Cumbersome for the Field – Mechanical Calculators
The introduction of logarithms for calculations, followed by the invention of the slide rule, predated...
22. A Dying Art – Drafting becomes Impersonal
In Article 19, There were no Stories about Drafting, it was stated that drafting survey...
23. Pain or Panacea – Chains to Feet to Metres
Land surveyors in Canada for decades before the 1970s had been used to working in...
24. A WWI Story – A.J. Tremblay’s Transit
One hundred and three years ago on June 28, 1919, Germany and the Allied Nations...
25. Have you Ever Looked Through a View-Master? – Stereoscopes
Have you ever looked through a View-Master to view scenes in 3-D? Images of the...
26. It’s a Theodolite – and a Level
A unique instrument in the collection is one that can either be a theodolite or...
27. Adieu to the Level Bubble – Automatic Levels
Automatic levels use compensating devices, for example a pendulum apparatus, in place of the bubble.
28. A Human Dynamo – J.H. Holloway ALS#134
Several objects in the artifact collection belonged to J. (Jack) H. Holloway, ALS#134. Jack Holloway...
29. 1960s to 2000s – A Period of Change
it was stated that many objects in the collection depict the greatest evolution in land...
30. Mainframe Computing in the 1960s and 1970s
In 1969, the Canadian Institute of Surveying Control Survey Committee solicited several federal, provincial and...