Originally Posted by rockinbbar
Originally Posted by There_Ya_Go
Originally Posted by rockinbbar
Originally Posted by There_Ya_Go
Originally Posted by wldthg
What Idaho_ Shooter said--- The first glance at the photo of the box reminded me of the old wooded boxes surveyors instruments were stored in. There is a special way one hand throws ( rolls up a steel tape ) by hand in a figure 8 shape then snaps it into a circular shape. This would just roll the tape up. The eye in the drum looks like it was made to accept the leather thong at the end of the tape.


Yep, that's what is called "throwing a chain". The steel tape was 66 feet in length, one chain. Ten square chains = one acre. A more modern surveyor might have used a hundred-footer. Now I think they all use lasers. Throwing a chain took a little practice, but once you got the hang of it it was easy. Key is to take up the chain in equal lengths before trying to throw it. No surveyor would have wanted or needed anything as convoluted as the OP's item in order to store a chain. A simple reel or throwing it would suffice.


Now they all use GPS. wink


That's probably right. Another way for them to get away with not marking the lines. Take the easiest roundabout route to set or locate the corners, then the person needing to know where the line runs has to hire another surveyor or run it himself using good ol' bearings and distances.


"Get away with"?

I see there's some confusion on what a survey is, and what a surveyor does.

A survey is a reflection of legal markers on the ground to mark said property, along with supporting documents, legal description, and accompanying signed and sealed plat.

Of course I would have my crews cut down brush along property lines, and even set points online so that land owners who can't read survey maps can find their way to the back corners... grin .....for a price.

Had one guy call up and complain that he couldn't "find the string".

Ummm... What string, Sir?

"You know, the survey string between the points on the front to the back. That's what a survey is."

Ummm... No. That's not what a survey is, but I can send my crew back out there to run some string for about $800 more. He didn't want string that badly. smile


I figured there would be a surveyor in the crowd that would get his hackles up over what I said! :-)) Not confused at all as to what a survey is. But there is a difference between establishing a line on a map and marking a line on the ground. My issue is that sometimes surveyors will find or establish the two points on the ground that define a line, but there is no marking of said line between the two points. I can well read a survey or a legal description, but when trying to find property line (in my case for the purpose of a timber sale), there is often no sign of the line between points. Me and my hand compass do the best we can through the jungle that is eastern NC, but if I am off by a fraction of a degree in a line of perhaps several thousand feet, or if my estimation of the distance is off, I may not find the iron at the other end of the line, especially if it is not marked either. Even if the line was shrubbed out by the surveyor, if it was done only a few years back, it may be undiscernable by the time I get there. But I have found lines that were run 50 or more years ago when the surveyors went to the minor trouble of side-chopping a few trees along the way, and marking witness trees around the irons. No string required.

The biggest problem our country has is not systemic racism, it's systemic stupidity.