1. A History of Surveying
Introduction:
Purpose
Varied Career
Outdoors
Technical
Dealing with people
Legal
Artistic
Varied Employment
Private Practice
Industry – Resources
- Construction
Government
Education
Public Service
Most images have been provided by Ken Allred, ALS, CLS and Patrick Ringwood, BCLS, CLS

2. From Eratosthenes to GPD
Presentation will deal with the progression of the surveying profession over the past 10,000 years.
We’ll talk about:
Purpose of Cadastral Surveying
Touch on key technological developments
Exploration and the development of the New World
Role of Surveyors in Development
Eratosthenes 276 B.C.

3. 3800 BC
The oldest known topographic map on a clay tablet of a northern part of Mesopotamia

4. Cadastral Plan - Mesopatamia - 1700 BC

5. Zechariah 2:1
I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.

6. The Rope Stretchers Fresco in the Tomb of Menna – Thebes, Egypt
2000 BC

7. Early Egyptian Civilization
The Pyramids
Pythagoras
Flooding of the Nile
Early cadastral records to 3400 BC
3/4/5 triangle
6th Century BC

8. Ancient Boundary Stone
-and boundary monuments
1550 BC

9. Compass developed 1st Century – 11th Century
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
Compass was not initially used to tell direction until the 9th century
Compasses were used as survey instruments on this continent until the mid 19th century. Even in the last century they were used for rough measurements.

10. Gerard Mercator – c. 1550
Survey and Mapping developments in the 16th Century expanded the horizons of European settlement. Was largely led by men skilled in navigation – early surveyors.

11. Leonard Digges Invented the Theodolite - England
1571
Leonard Digges Invented the Theodolite - England

12. The Sextant

13. Early Explorers Samuel de Champlain Peter Fidler David Thompson
Captain James Cook
Sextant, chronometer, compass – mostly used astronomical observations

14. Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain 1608
Champlain and his astrolabe – Nepean Point - Ottawa

15. Philip Turnor & Peter Fidler
Peter Fidler – Canada’s Forgotten Surveyor – James MacGregor
Lake Athabasca
From the book: Canada’s Forgotten Surveyor by Peter Fidler

16. David Thompson Columbia River 1806
David Thompson and Peter Fidler were cohorts with the HBC but Thomson grew impatient with the HBC lack of interest in accurate charting. DT joined the NW Company – His chats were the most comprehensive and most accurate maps of Western Canada and the NW US until the late 1800’s
Natives called David Thompson “koo-koo-sint” The man who looks at the stars!

17. Peter Fidler
Elk Point, Alberta
From the ALS News Magazine

18. Surveyors and Statesmen
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln – all were surveyors in their early careers.
Mount Rushmore: Three Surveyors and another guy!

19. George Washington
Surveyor

20. Surveying Essential for settlement Early land information system
In the book “North-west of Sixteen” James MacGregor tells of his father in 1904, when seeking out his homestead north of Edmonton, finding the “stake” that marked the southwest corner of his quarter section.
Sculpture sits on the main floor of the Provincial Museum in Edmonton
From an ALSA Brochure

21. Technological Revolution
1950
Geodimeter
Tellurometer
1970
Desk Top Computer
Total Stations
1990
Geographic Information Systems
Satellite Positioning Systems
2000
High Resolution Imagery

22. Selective availability turned off in 2000
Global Positioning Systems
Selective availability turned off in 2000