HISTORY OF SURVEYING

The earliest preserved writings on surveying are those of Heron the Elder; a Greek
who lived in Alexandria about 150-100 B.C. His writings include a treatise, Dioptra (Surveyor's
Transit); a geometry book, Measurement; and an optical work, Mirrors. In Measurement, he
describes the method used in determining the area of a triangle from the lengths of three sides.
Thedioptra could be used for measuring angles and levelling (Fig. l.l).

In contrast to the Greeks, the Romans were more interested in practical applications of
mathematics and surveying for civil and military works. To layout a route for a road the Roman
surveyors used a few simple instruments for establishing horizontal lines and right angles. For
laying out right angles, they used a groma adopted from an Egyptian device. For long distance
measurement between cities, the Romans had an ingenious invention, the hodometer.
With the fall of the Roman empire, the ancient civilized world came to an end. All
technical disciplines, including surveying were no longer needed when even the basic laws
protecting life and property could not be enforced. During the Dark ages, the" art of surveying "
was almost forgotten. It was not until the beginning of Renaissance that a revival in exploration
and trade created new interest in western world in navigation, astronomy, cartography and
surveying.
During the thirteenth century, the magnetic compass was invented by Neckarn, Don
Englishman as an aid to navigation. In 1571 Thomas Digges an English mathematician known as
the father of modern surveying published a book describing a new "topographical instrument"
developed from the quadrant which became known as the "theodelitus", This simple instrument
had all the essential features of modern theodolite except for the telescope. The plane table was
described almost in its present form by Jean Practorius in 1590.
Development of the telescope in the late sixteenth century greatly increased the speed and
accuracy of surveying. Although several scientists share credit for this discovery, it was Galilee
Galilei who perfected the instrument in 1609. The first man who attempted to tie established
points together by triangulation was a young Dutch mathematics professor Willebrod Snellvan
Roijen (1531-1626).
By the end of the eighteenth century many instruments and tools used by modern
surveyors had been developed. The Construction and Principal Uses of Mathematical
Instruments published in 1723 by French writer Nicholas Bion showed sketches of rulers,
compasses, dividers. protractors and pantograph. Also shown were ropes, rods, chains and pins
for surveying plus angle and level instruments mounted on tripods.
Advances of eighteenth century left nineteenth century engineers and surveyors a
remarkable heritage in tools and instruments. Surveying methods and instruments used at the
beginning of the twentieth century were basically the same as those used in the nineteenth
century. However new light weight metals and more advanced callibration techniques resulted in
development of lighter and more accurate instruments needed for the precise layout requirements
of high speed railroads and highways.
Use of aerial photography for mapping began in the 1910s, and advanced rapidly during the
following decades. By 1950 photogramrnetric methods had revolutionized survey procedures,
especially in route surveying and site selection.

MODERN TRENDS lN SURVEYING

Recent developments in photogrammetric and surveying equipment have been
closely associated with advances in electronic and computer technologies. Electronic distance
measuring instruments for ground surveying now are capable of printing output data in machine-
readable language for computer input and/or combining distance and angle measurements for
direct readout of horizontal and vertical distances to the nearest0.001 of a centimetre. The
incorporation of data collectors and electronic field books with interface to computer, printer, and
plotter devices has resulted in the era of total station surveying. The recent refinement in global
positioning systems and techniques developed for military navigation has led to yet another
dramatic change in surveying instrumentation.
Inertial surveying, with its miniaturized packaging of accelerometers and gyroscopes and
satellite radio surveying have already revolutionized geodetic control surveying and promises to
impact all phases of the surveying process. The principal change in levelling instruments has
been widespread adoption of the automatic level in which the main level bubble has been
replaced with a pendulum device which after the instrument has been rough levelled,
automatically levels the line of sight. Lasers are being used for acquisition of vertical control
data in photograrnrnetry and for providing line and grade in construction related surveying.
As a result of the technological breakthroughs in surveying and mapping the
survey engineer of 1990s must be better trained in a much broader field of science than the
surveyor of even a decade ago. A background in higher mathematics, computer technology,
photogrammetry, geodetic science and electronics is necessary for today's survey engineer to
compete in this rapidly expanding discipline.