A History of Surveying

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A History of Surveying
Most images have been provided by Ken Allred,
ALS, CLS and Patrick Ringwood, BCLS, CLS
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From Eratosthenes to GPD
Eratosthenes 276 B.C.
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3800 BC
The oldest known topographic map on a clay tablet
of a northern part of Mesopotamia
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Cadastral Plan - Mesopatamia - 1700 BC
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Zechariah 21
I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and
behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.
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The Rope Stretchers
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Early Egyptian Civilization

• The Pyramids
• Pythagoras
• Flooding of the Nile
• Early cadastral records to 3400 BC

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Ancient Boundary Stone
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1st Century 11th Century

• Compass developed
• Chinese invention - south pointing spoon
  (lodestone)
• Used as a divining tool in the practice of feng
  shui
• Magnetized needles used as direction pointers in
  the 8th century AD in China
• Ca. 850 and 1050 common as marine navigational
  aids

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Gerard Mercator c. 1550
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1571
Leonard Digges Invented the Theodolite - England
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The Sextant - 1730
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Early Explorers

• Samuel de Champlain
• Peter Fidler
• David Thompson
• Captain James Cook

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Samuel de Champlain 1608
Samuel de Champlain
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Philip Turnor Peter Fidler
Lake Athabasca - 1791
From the book Canadas Forgotten Surveyor by
Peter Fidler
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David Thompson Columbia River 1806
David Thompson
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Peter Fidler
Elk Point, Alberta
From the ALS News Magazine
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Surveyors and Statesmen
Mount Rushmore Three Surveyors and another guy!
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George Washington
Surveyor 1747-1752
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Surveying

• Essential for settlement
• Early land information system

From an ALSA Brochure
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Technological Revolution

• 1950
• Geodimeter
• Tellurometer
• 1970
• Desk Top Computer
• Total Stations
• 1990
• Geographic Information Systems
• Satellite Positioning Systems
• 2000
• High Resolution Imagery

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Global Positioning Systems
Selective availability turned off in 2000