The Indianapolis journal., 1904-02-14

UcfE - upOIl, OF TO one VINO views IL
chiefly as scenery, the instru-
ments wherewith men of more exact minds
measure it on the advent of a new railway,
the building of a canal or turnpike. or the
establishment of a land boundary, are usu-
ally somewhat mysterious. But these
curious instruments are literally the first
tools of the progress of civilization; wher-
ever a new country is to be opened up
and civilization let in the surveyor and his
mysterious apparatus march at the head
of the procession. He preceded the locomo-
tive across the Rockies, laying out the
thousands and thousands of miles of the
Long Trail he staked out Oklahoma,
and he will soon be operating on the new
Alaskan boundary, the Panama canal and
the corners and angles of the many thou
sand acres the United States has Just
bought OF the much discussed Friars to
turn into homesteads for a peaceful Fill
pino tenantry.
Until within comparatively recent years,
however, surveying hardly ranked as one
OF the professions that yearly absorbed
a large number of young Americans, nor
was 1t the exact science it has become since
the development of railroads, canals and
other engineering projects, and the rise
In the value of city real estate TO the
point where the slightest error may easily
involve considerable sums of money. The
old-time surveyor, for example, trusted en-
out boundaries, while his modern prototype
practically throws the compass overheard
and works entirely on a mathematically
precise basis or carefully-eS established lines
and angles. The surveyor To to-day, there
fore, must be carefully educated as any
other scientific observer, and here in Bos-
ton with the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology hardly a stones throw from
the Public Library one of the most fire.
quent spectacles is that of a group of
students making a practical but uncOm-
mercial survey of some portion of the city.
THE INSTRUMENT ROOM.
These students come and go. but the
mysterious apparatus of their profession
has a permanent home in the instrument
room" of the institute, where the mystery
ceases for whoever is permitted to exam
inc ii and learn its uses. There is the
shining little telescope, for example, mount
ed on tripod and looking for all the
world like an accidental combination of
an amateur photographer and honest sea
captain; we have all seen IL in operation
and wondered what on earth the owners
were doing with it, 1t is what is techni-
cally called n transit, and perhaps the most
remarkable thing about it is that certain
family or spiders cooperate with the lens
makers in producing it. If you look through
the eyepiece you will find the field OF
vision crossed by a horizontal and per-
pendicular line of great value in exactly
fixing the location of any spot you look at.
ana these liners are the contribution or
the industrious spider. For the surveyors $
purposes the lines are necessary. and they
must be very fine, being. Of course, greatly
magnifed in the telescope On that ac-
count ordinary silk thread is too coarse.
so the telescope maker uses the much more
delicate strand taken from Il spiders web:
moreover. he has found exactly the spider
TO produce thread of just the right thick
ness, and keeps him busly spinning fla
ments for the surveyors s transit.
The principle of the transit Is compar-
atively simple. once you understand IT,
though il requires much practice 10 make
the young surveyor perfect in its handling
The instrument is really a revolving tel
escope mounted on a plane that can be
made absolutely parallel TO the earth's sur
face. When the surveyor peers through
his telescope at another surveyor standing
with a pole or suspended plumbbob n hun
dred or more yards away, he is simply de-