Vintage Surveying

The passion for my former profession came from my father, who like me was a licensed professional Ontario Land Surveyor (OLS) for most of his working career. The vintage photo at the top of the “Vintage Surveying Ephemera” page shows

The “Vintage Field Instruments” category in the main drop-down menu is split into sub-menus to separate items from the 2 key types of precision field instruments that were central to the Land Surveying profession from c.mid 1800’s to the 1950’s.

Throughout the period from the mid 1800’s to the mid or late 1900’s, the most common tools for accurately measuring land & moderate distances were the “Gunter’s or Surveyor’s Chain” invented c.1620 by Englishman, Edmund Gunter & the “Surveyor’s Steel

Throughout history, “Plumb Bobs” were one of the most basic, but vital tools in the tool boxes of Land Surveyors, Engineers & Builders. Used by Land Surveyors since the earliest days of the profession, the advent of digital & optical

Vintage Ephemera: “Ephemera are generally things that are printed for a specific occasion or purpose & aren’t meant to last after their original use ……… Even though they were originally produced to have a short life span, ephemera that are preserved in archives”

The ‘’Vintage Drafting’’ section contains items from my personal ‘’Vintage Land Surveying’’ collection that are generally related to the creation of final Survey Plans (technical drawings) for the period between the mid 1800’s to roughly the mid 1900’s. In the

This “Vintage Other“ section is a “catch-all” for “Miscellaneous Vintage Surveying Equipment & Accessories“ from my personal collection that don’t fit neatly into the defined drop-down menu categories in this website. ……. I’ve only recently started populating this web site

This Month's Feature

About

Vintage Field Instruments

Vintage Measuring Tapes & Chains

Vintage Plumb Bobs

Vintage Ephemera

Vintage Drafting

Vintage Other

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