PERSONALIA

Abstract

The death occurred suddenly on 2nd February, 1935, of Mr. WILLIAM ERNEST BARRON,of Fort Jameson, Northern Rhodesia. Mr. Barron, who was 55 years of age, held the Certificate of Land and Mine Surveyor of the School of Mines, University of Otago, New Zealand, and the Mine Surveyor's certificate of competency, Transvaal, and in 1913 was licensed as a surveyor in Northern Nigeria. In 1921 he was licensed as a surveyor for private practice in Northern Rhodesia. He was for over four years Chief Surveyor to the Van Ryn Gold Mines Estate, Ltd., and for two years to the Bantjes Consolidated Mines, Ltd., and for some time to Modderfontein East, Ltd. He was first employed in Northern Rhodesia as Mine Captain in charge of survey work at Broken Hill Mine, and from 1923 to 1928 was engaged by the Rhodesia Broken Hill Development Co., Ltd., in the survey and setting out of all work in connexion with that Company's Hydro-Electric Power Scheme at Mulungushi. Upon the completion of this work, in which Mr. Barron showed the greatest skill and accuracy under difficult conditions, he was engaged by the North Charterland Exploration Company as surveyor, and at the time of his death he was carrying out the survey of that Company's Land Concession, an area of 10,000 square miles on the south-eastern border of Northern Rhodesia. By his death the survey profession has lost an able and keen personality, and he will be greatly missed by the many friends he made in this country. He leaves a widow and son to mourn his loss.     

THE DOMINION LAND SURVEYOR: SOME HISTORICAL FACTS,HIS TRAINING AND QUALIFICATIONS

Abstract

The Dominion of Canada, with an area approximating that of Europe, is the largest and most populous of the great self-governing Dominions of the British Empire. Through the British North America Act, 1st July 1867, the Union of Upper and Lower Canada, with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, were united to form the Dominion, Upper and Lower Canada being designated as the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. An expansion was made possible on 19th November 1869 by the Deed of Surrender to the Crown of the Hudson's Bay Company's territorial, rights in the Northwest. On 12th May 1870 the Province of Manitoba was established, and on 15th July the Northwest Territories were transferred to the Dominion, and Manitoba was admitted into Confederation. Although the boundaries of Manitoba have since been enlarged and those of the Northwest Territories diminished through the creation in 1905 of the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, the control of the resources and public lands in the West remained under Dominion authority until the year 1930. By this brief statement we are enabled to understand the background of what has developed into the largest connected and systematic Public Lands Survey in any country, that of the Canadian Northwest; and this survey is unique in having been performed under one organization.     

TRAVERSING WITH THEODOLITE AND CHAIN

Abstract

As Mr H. F. Rainsford (E.S.R., no. 37, vol. v, July 1940) says, the ordinary accurate survey traverse, through its “ordinariness,” has been neglected in the printed word. The technique—perfected by much practice—has been handed down by word of mouth only from father to son, from surveyor to pupil.     

THE SURVEYOR's PYTHAGORAS

Abstract

DURING the course of his work a surveyor often has to solve a right-angled triangle in which one side is very small in comparison with the two others. As the orders of magnitude of the sides in such a triangle differ so widely, a simplified formula can be substituted for that of Pythagoras.     

“BUGS” THAT BITE THE SURVEYOR

Abstract

The preservation of health is of paramount importance to the surveyor, who often has to carry out his work in a tropical or subtropical climate, and soon, discovers that loss of time through sickness means uneconomical surveying. It is not realized by everyone that enormous casualties are still caused among modern armies by disease; the best way of illustrating this fact is to quote figures for the last thirty years.     

HEIGHT CONTROL IN AIR-PHOTO SURVEY

Abstract

1. An air-photo survey of part of Southern Palestine was carried out in 1938, both field-work and plotting being executed by the same surveyor, a comparative newcomer to this type of work, who therefore equipped himself with Lieut Salt's valuable book (Professional Papers of the Air Survey Committee, no. 8, 1933) for guidance. The area covered was very broken barren country and the contours became the principal features of the map, so that a great many spot-heights were necessary and certain deviations in detail from the routine laid down in the Paper suggested themselves.     

THE LAY-OUT OF THE EAST AFRICAN ARC

Abstract

The only essential difference between geodetic triangulation and any other of the fifteen “orders” of triangulation—which were once proposed, and happily rejected, at an International Conference—is that steps are taken to secure the high degree of accuracy necessary over the large areas to be covered. Some of the steps taken to secure increased accuracy may well be used to insure economy in secondary work, as for instance the use of fewer readings of a large instrument, or the use of luminous signals in conditions of poor visibility; while any surveyor may at any time have to connect his work to a geodetic triangulation, using much the same methods.     

THE TRAINING OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS IN MALAYA

Abstract

The subject of the training of European surveyors has received a great deal of attention in the course of the last two Empire Conferences, but little or no mention has been made of the native surveyor, his education, work, and prospects. The subject is very important, however, and the account of the training of Africans for the N. Rhodesia Survey, which appeared in vol. iii, no. 21 of the Empire Survey Review, was read with considerable interest. It may not be out of place, therefore, to introduce this paper on the means adopted in Malaya to recruit and train an efficient staff of subordinates or “Technical Assistants” as they are termed locally.     

AIR SURVEY: THE ADJUSTMENT OF STRIP PLOTS

Abstract

An outstanding problem in topographical air surveying which faces the practical air surveyor almost daily is that of adjusting the plot along the lateral overlap between two strips.     

The Seventeenth-century Maps and Surveys of William Fowler

Abstract

Despite the recent publication of several dictionaries of surveyors and cartographers, little is known of the professional and personal background of the majority of such practitioners. This lack of detailed biographical analysis is particularly applicable to the surveyor in the seventeenth century. This paper examines the activities of one of the most prolific west Midlands' estate surveyors in that century, William Fowler. Present knowledge of surveying practice in that period is reviewed and Fowler's work is compared to this pattern. An appendix details Fowler's extant maps and surveys.     

FINANCIAL CRISIS AND SURVEY—A UNITED STATES PRECEDENT

Abstract

It generally happens that, when trade is bad and there is a sharp drop in the revenue of a country such as to necessitate immediate economy, one of the first of the public services to be affected is survey; and, of all the different branches of surveying, the one that suffers most is usually the trigonometrical surveyor its equivalent. This is in spite of the fact that, taking the long view, the tdgonometrical survey is perhaps the most fundamental of all. The trouble is, of course, that it is very difficult for the non-technical individual or official to appreciate the importance of the work—indeed, it is doubtful if all surveyors realise this.     

AERIAL CAMERA CALIBRATION

Abstract

Accidents will happen and the surveyor is therefore sometimes required to do the best he can with photographs taken with an uncalibrated camera which is not available for subsequent calibration. This note outlines a method by which an approximate principal distance can be obtained for high oblique air photographs from points appearing in the photographs.     

CURVATURE AND REFRACTION TABLES FOR TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS

Abstract

In a series of articles published at different times in the Empire Survey, Review, the writer has stressed the utility of the slide rule in topographical work for both mapping and engineering purposes. It is his opinion that every topographical surveyor should be thoroughly conversant with the slide rule, and that there is no difficulty in teaching anyone, even with limited educational qualifications, all that is necessary about if. One advantage of its use is that the plotting-scale divisions need not represent any simple multiple or fraction of the normal units of length, but can be chosen so that the subdivisions cause no undue eye strain. This plotting scale can then be used for work on any scale, all necessary tables being calculated and constants adopted for use with it, without any extra work being required. A scale of I/250 (I foot divided into 25 main and 250 minor divisions) was found to meet the case.     

SOLUTION OF PROBLEM IN THE SUBDIVISION OF A TRIANGLE

Abstract

The division of a triangle into three lots of equal area by lines, drawn from a point within it perpendicular to the sides, appears at first sight to be a very simple problem, in which an average surveyor would experience no difficulty in performing the necessary computations for the determination of the position of the required point where the division lines meet.     

NOTES ON THE FIXING OF ASTRONOMICAL POSITIONS

Abstract

Except in the sphere of geodetic surveys, there seems to be a lamentable lack of helpful publications for the field surveyor. Comparative methods and standards of accuracy to be expected according to the type of instrument used are rarely to be found in print, and that is the only excuse for the following critical summary of some observations made during the winter of 1933–4.     

MAP-GRIDS

Abstract

To the average man the sight of the Fellows of an Oxford college losing their tempers over the meaning of a Greek particle would certainly have something of the comic. No doubt it would seem just as comic to him that there should be any controversy over such a minor matter as map-grids. Yet they have some importance to the surveyor. What exactly is a map-grid?     

LINEAR UNITS,OLD AND NEW

Abstract

Units of length are tools of the surveyor. Even should he himself, as is unlikely, evince no interest in their origin, he may reckon on being consulted at some time by someone who is interested. And if to such an inquiry he replies that his business ends with a knowledge of their use, it is to be feared that knowledge of their present use would not be held to excuse ignorance of their past history.     

FIGURES OF REFERENCE FOR THE EARTH

Abstract

1. The object of this note is to clear up what I believe to be some misconceptions regarding the use of a reference system by a surveyor of the earth's surface. In his article “An Aspect of Attraction”, E.S.R., No. 7, pp. 24–8, Major M. Hotine expressed doubts as to the validity of the process usually followed. I may say at once that I consider these doubts are unfounded.