Theodolite, surveying vital tools

The Lens of Precision: Unveiling Image-Assisted Total Stations

2024-07-04T13:19:00.001-07:00

Chapter 1: The Dawn of IATS

In the quiet corners of surveyor’s workshops, where the scent of aged paper mingles with the hum of electronic devices, a new chapter unfolds. It’s the story of the Image-Assisted Total Stations (IATS), born at the intersection of tradition and innovation.

Our protagonist, the seasoned surveyor, once wielded a classic theodolite—a sturdy instrument with brass accents and glass eyepieces. Its purpose? To measure angles with unwavering precision. But theodolites, like old sages, had their limitations. They whispered secrets of distant peaks and hidden valleys, yet their gaze remained fixed on the horizon.

Chapter 2: The Marriage of Optics and Pixels

Enter the IATS—a hybrid creature with the heart of a theodolite and the eyes of a camera. Picture it: atop a tripod, its sleek body adorned with sensors and lenses. The surveyor adjusts the eyepiece, not to peer through glass, but to frame reality in pixels. The IATS captures the landscape—an intricate tapestry of contours, buildings, and ancient oaks.

Chapter 3: The Dance of Precision

The IATS dances to a new rhythm. It doesn’t merely measure angles; it sees them. As the surveyor pans across the skyline, the image sensor records every detail—the rusty weathervane atop the church spire, the gnarled roots of an oak tree, and the distant glimmer of a river. Theodolites of old would envy its vision.

Chapter 4: Applications Unveiled

Structural Guardianship:

The IATS patrols bridges and skyscrapers, vigilant in its duty. It detects shifts—subtle tremors or creeping deformations. Engineers pore over its data, ensuring the safety of millions who traverse those steel sinews.

Geo-Monitoring Secrets:

On rocky cliffs and unstable slopes, the IATS stands sentinel. It watches for landslides, rockfalls, and the slow erosion of time. Its images reveal the Earth’s whispers—the gradual retreat of a coastline or the sudden collapse of a sea cave.

Chapter 5: The Surveyor’s Oath

The surveyor, once tethered to the ground, now roams with purpose. Armed with the IATS, they traverse forests, traverse deserts, and traverse the boundaries of possibility. They no longer squint through eyepieces; they interpret pixels, decode landscapes, and safeguard our world.

And so, dear reader, when you glimpse a surveyor on a hilltop, know that they carry more than a tool—they carry a legacy. Theodolites may fade into memory, but the IATS? It gazes into the future, pixel by pixel, angle by angle.

The story of the first all-Ireland mapping survey 200 years ago

2024-06-28T20:36:00.001-07:00

By Catherine Porter, UL and Keith Lilley, QUB

Maps help us to connect with our localities and many of us are familiar with maps of our local area. Historic maps in particular provide us with an important window onto our past and reveal how a place has changed over time. This year marks two centuries since the beginnings of the most detailed historic land survey of Ireland. Led by the British military led Ordnance Survey (OS), and popularised in the 1980s through Brian Friel’s play, 'Translations’, the impacts and traces of the survey on Ireland’s landscape are still seen today.

We often will turn to the first edition Ordnance Survey maps to explore the townlands of our ancestors (perhaps where our families still live today), or to figure out the location of a particular building, well or a stream, or simply explore the complex geographies and histories of the island. The historic outputs of the Ordnance Survey challenge us too in how to reconcile the complex cultural heritage and legacies of the survey with what was the most detailed country-wide large-scale mapping and survey in the world at the time.

The cultural complexities of the OS in Ireland are recorded in a variety of source materials, not just maps. In various archives, museums and repositories across Ireland and Great Britain lie correspondence, statistical accounts, drawings and sketches, and comprehensive lists of place names, providing a pre-famine record of Ireland and its population.

How and why the survey began

In early nineteenth century Ireland, land taxation based on the county cess, and earlier surveys such as the Strafford and Down surveys of the seventeenth century, were deemed an inaccurate reflection of land value. In March 1824, a Select Committee on the Survey and Valuation of Ireland was set up to explore a detailed revaluation of the land. A recommendation by Thomas Colby of the British Ordnance Survey, and later placed in charge of the Irish survey, was to incorporate townlands, and that to do so would require ‘a scale of six inches to one English mile’ (Item 1, Colby’s ‘Instructions for the Interior Survey of Ireland’, 1825).

The geographic extent of the survey also required bespoke instruments to deal with the inclement weather and to construct an accurate framework of invisible triangles from the tallest mountain tops to the smallest hills, based on a minutely accurate base line near Lough Foyle (remember your trigonometry from school!), which lies between Derry and Donegal. These same techniques and equipment were later applied to other colonial mapping exercises elsewhere in the world.

Placing boundaries

Determining the shape and size of the smallest administrative boundaries in Ireland, the townland, was far from simple. The engineer and civilian, Richard Griffith, led the ‘boundary team’ in setting out the limits and margins for every townland on the island.

As with modern property boundaries, informants often disagreed, and disputes were common. Step by step and with the assistance of local civilians, Griffith and his staff not only marked and defined known townland boundaries, but they also removed reference to the historic land divisions such as the ploughland, tate and ballibo, and created new townlands through a process of addition, amalgamation and splitting of land to form the townlands we are familiar with today.

Placing names

Core to any map are place names, but determining how these would be printed on the final cartography was a complex process. The Topographical Department led by John O’Donovan (Seán Ó Donnabháin) referred to a multitude of written authorities and travelled Ireland collecting and compiling lists of the historical forms to determine the final map presentation of place.

The details recorded by the OS field ‘name books’ are a core source material for today’s linguists and historians in charting the changes to place names and the Irish language across time and geography. Similar to townland boundaries, those authorities consulted differed in opinion and O’Donovan often sought out what he termed ‘the last of the aborigines’ (Irish speakers) to assist him in determining the place names and their histories.

Placing people

The memoir scheme, originally devised as a supplement to the maps, had military and civilian teams collect and collate details on the landscape, nature, geology, history, infrastructure, people and culture, and make ‘suggestions for improvement’. This important record of pre-famine Ireland unfortunately covers only the north of the island – the scheme was cancelled in 1840 - and shows, in particular, connections between the people and their ancient roots.

It also reveals the bias of some OS staff, especially evident in their ethnographic study of people and culture. Irish homes were frequently described as less clean and the habits of the people less virtuous, inferior, and generally ‘uncivilised’ when compared to the Scottish and English settlers who were remarked on as being industrious, neat and the cause of what was deemed as ‘improvement’ in a parish.

The complex cultural histories and legacies of the OS in Ireland cannot be denied, but nor can the achievement of the venture overall in setting down the bounds and place names for a whole country two centuries ago.

From late June 2024, there will be the opportunity to explore four of the key OS source materials through a free online resource developed by researchers based at the University of Limerick and Queen’s University Belfast through the project, ‘OS200: Digitally Remapping Ireland’s Ordnance Survey Heritage’. More about the project, team and partners can be found at the project website or on social media.

About theodolite

2024-05-28T01:10:00.001-07:00

Types of Theodolites

There are two different kinds of theodolites: digital and non digital. Non digital theodolites are rarely used anymore. Digital theodolites consist of a telescope that is mounted on a base, as well as an electronic readout screen that is used to display horizontal and vertical angles. Digital theodolites are convenient because the digital readouts take the place of traditional graduated circles and this creates more accurate readings.

Parts of a Theodolite

Like other leveling instruments, a theodolite consists of a telescope mounted on a base. The telescope has a sight on the top of it that is used to align the target. The instrument has a focusing knob that is used to make the object clear. The telescope contains an eyepiece that the user looks through to find the target being sighted. An objective lens is also located on the telescope, but is on the opposite end as the eyepiece. The objective lens is used to sight the object, and with the help of the mirrors inside the telescope, allows the object to be magnified. The theodolite's base is threaded for easy mounting on a tripod.

How Does a Theodolite Work?

A theodolite works by combining optical plummets (or plumb bobs), a spirit (bubble level), and graduated circles to find vertical and horizontal angles in surveying. An optical plummet ensures the theodolite is placed as close to exactly vertical above the survey point. The internal spirit level makes sure the device is level to to the horizon. The graduated circles, one vertical and one horizontal, allow the user to actually survey for angles.

How to Use a Theodolite

Mark the point at which the theodolite will be set up with a surveyor’s nail or a stake. This point is the basis for measuring angles and distances.
Set up the tripod. Make sure the height of the tripod allows the instrument (the theodolite) to be eye-level. The centered hole of the mounting plate should be over the nail or stake.
Drive the tripod legs into the ground using the brackets on the sides of each leg.
Mount the theodolite by placing it atop the tripod, and screw it in place with the mounting knob.
Measure the height between the ground and the instrument. This will be used a reference to other stations.
Level the theodolite by adjusting the tripod legs and using the bulls-eye level. You can make slight tunings with the leveling knobs to get it just right.
Adjust the small sight (the vertical plummet) found on the bottom of the theodolite. The vertical plummet allows you to do ensure the instrument remains over the nail or stake. Adjust the plummet using the knobs on the bottom.
Aim the crosshairs in the main scope at the point to be measured. Use the locking knobs on the side of the theodolite to keep it aimed on the point. Record the horizontal and vertical angles using the viewing scope found on the theodolite’s side.

Theodolite vs Transit Level

A theodolite is a precision instrument used for measuring angles both horizontally and vertically. Theodolites can rotate along their horizontal axis as well as their vertical axis. Theodolites have a lot in common with transits.

A transit is a surveying instrument that also takes accurate angular measurements. Along with the transit, theodolites have mounted telescopes that can be rotated in different directions. Both theodolites and transits can be used for similar projects, but there are slight differences between the two instruments. Transits use vernier scales and external graduated metal circles for angular readings. Theodolites use enclosed graduated circles and angular readings are taken using an internal magnifying optical system. Theodolites tend to have a more precise reading and provide greater accuracy in measuring angles than transits do.

Theodolites are mainly used for surveying, but they are also useful in these applications:

Navigating
Meteorology
Laying out building corners and lines
Measuring and laying out angles and straight lines
Aligning wood frame walls
Forming panels
Plumbing a column or building corner

Advantages of Using a Theodolite

Theodolites have many advantages when compared to other leveling instruments:

Greater accuracy.
Internal magnifying optical system.
Electronic readings.
Horizontal circles can be instantly zeroed or set to any other value.
Horizontal circle readings can be taken either to the left or right of zero.
Repeat readings are unnecessary.

Theodolites have an internal optical device that makes reading circles much more accurate than other instruments. Also, because the theodolite allows you to take fewer repeat readings, these measurements can be made much more quickly. Theodolites with optical instruments have advantages over other layout tools. They have more precise measurements, they are unaffected by wind or other weather factors, and they can be used on both flat ground and sloped ground.

Caring For a Digital Theodolite and Helpful Hints

Like other instruments, theodolites require proper care and maintenance to ensure the best results and reduce wear and tear on the instrument.

Do not submerge instrument in water or any other chemical.
Do not drop instrument.
Make sure theodolite is locked in its case while transporting.
When raining, use cover over instrument.
Do not look directly into the sunlight through the telescope on the instrument.
Using a wooden tripod can protect the instrument from vibrations better than an aluminum tripod would.
Using the sunshade attachment is important; any sudden temperature changes can cause incorrect readings.
Never hold the instrument by the telescope.
Always have a substantial level of battery power on your instrument.
Always clean the instrument after using.
- Dust in the case or on the instrument can cause damage.

If the theodolite is damp or wet, allow it time to dry out before storing it in its case.
When storing, make sure that the telescope on the instrument is in the vertical position.
When the theodolite is being re-leveled, the position over the ground point must be checked and rechecked to ensure the same position.
When the theodolite is being repositioned over a ground point, the level must be checked and rechecked to ensure its accuracy.

Laser Level v Theodolite

2024-05-26T05:14:00.001-07:00

Both laser levels and theodolites are key instruments in the construction and survey industry and since their introduction in the last 50 years they have become the cornerstone for set-out and site levelling in the industry.

Having an understanding of the differences between a laser level and a theodolite is fundamental to all leveling and set-out tasks and construction contractors need to be aware that they designed for different tasks and have quite different capabilities.

In simplistic terms, laser levels are simpler to use, while theodolite is more versatile and used on a wider range of tasks.

Laser Levels

A laser level projects a laser beam onto a surface directly or via a receiver which picks up the beam to create a perfectly level line or plane.

It is generally used for creating a level or straight line over a relatively short distance and is the instrument of choice for builders, concreters and interior fit-out trades where accuracy and a perfectly level line is required either in a horizontal or vertical plane.

Many advanced laser levels have a slope mode capability that can deviate from a true 0° or 90° line but again this is for the objective of creating a straight line.

From a layman’s point of view think of a laser level as the way to ensure the structure is level and plumb. These are easy to use and quick to set up and are commonly used now by all trades and increasingly by DIYers.

Theodolites

On the other hand, a theodolite is typically used for more complex tasks that require measuring angles and distances in both vertical and horizontal planes and often over longer distances.

It has a telescopic sight that can be angled and rotated to measure angles of a distant object or reference point.

Theodolites are usually used by surveyors, civil contractors, earthmoving contractors, and builders for setting out infrastructure such as roads, earthworks and set out of building foundations and the other structural components that fit around a more complex structure.

Often a theodolite is used in conjunction with GPS receivers or more comprehensive total stations to provide even more precise measurements and data and due to their versatility and the complexity of information and measurements that they can provide they are usually operated by specialists in their respective field.

As always when providing a professional construction service, it is best practice to use high quality reputable brands of instruments and these include iMEX and Topcon for laser levels and Topcon for theodolites.

Smartphones Open Up Science to Everyone

2014-01-13T10:49:00.000-08:00

That smartphone in your purse or pocket isn’t just for viewing movies and checking Facebook. By putting data collection, visualization and learning in the palm of your hand, it’s helping to transform science education and open up unprecedented opportunities for citizen science.

That’s the message of a persuasive new peer-reviewed commentary published by two Duke Univ. faculty members in EOS, the weekly magazine of the American Geophysical Union.

“With more than 6 billion smartphones and mobile devices being used worldwide, this technology presents enormous possibilities – especially for the environmental sciences,” says Zackary Johnson, Arthur P. Kaupe Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

“We need to stop telling students, ‘It’s time for class; put your smartphones away,’ and start telling them, ‘Take your phones out now and let’s use them for science,’” Johnson says.

In the commentary, Johnson and fellow Duke Marine Lab faculty member David W. Johnston share detailed examples of some of the ways they and other geoscientists around the world are using the small but sophisticated handheld devices in the classroom, lab and field.

“We’re using them to search textbooks and reference works; share lab protocols; access notes and teaching tools; record real-time field data; take measurements and images – the list of functions grows with each new device or app,” says Johnston, assistant professor of the practice of marine conservation and ecology. “The new Android smartphone has a thermometer, compass, gyro, GPS, barometer and proximity sensors – all in addition to its standard audio, video and photo interfaces. It’s crazy what these devices can do now.”

In an undergraduate-level ocean ecosystem course Johnson teaches, students use smartphones to take photos of ocean color. Using the phones’ sensors and data processing tools, they can break the color of the water down into its three primary colors and develop algorithms to calculate algae populations in that part of the ocean.

“This is exactly the same as what sophisticated satellite imagery does. Only now, students can do it with their smartphones,” Johnson says. “They are functioning as very low Earth-orbiting satellites!”

Graduate students in Johnston’s marine mammal courses use a smartphone app to measure an equally challenging environmental parameter: distance to objects. Measuring these distances is a fundamental way scientists measure species populations in the ocean. It traditionally involves expensive equipment with considerable error associated with the measurements. Using an advanced view-finding app called Theodolite (http://hunter.pairsite.com/theodolite), students learn how do it in less time with less error.

“Examples like these make a strong case for how smartphones and mobile devices fit into the best practices way of teaching,” Johnson stresses. “They help us be more effective teachers through increased emphasis on experiential learning.”

Citizen science is already benefitting from the new technologies.

“There are literally hundreds of apps and sensors now that allow anyone with a smartphone to record scientific observations,” Johnston says.

Working with researchers from the Murdoch Univ. Cetacean Research Unit (www.mucru.org) in Australia and the nonprofit Marine Ventures Foundation (www.marineventures.org), his team recently helped develop an app for the Coastal Walkabout project (www.coastalwalkabout.org) in Western Australia. The app, which can be downloaded for free, lets people record sightings of marine and estuarine animals and transmit a photo or video of the animal, along with its species identification and the location and time of the sighting, to an open-access database.

“Start to finish, the whole process takes maybe 30 seconds. It’s nearly as easy as sending a text,” Johnston says.

The beauty of apps like this, he says, is that they’re win-win. Citizens get a voice, and a role, in monitoring and protecting their local environment. And scientists get access to data that may be missed otherwise.

Powerful as they are, smartphones and mobile devices will never replace everything educators do in the classroom, Johnson and Johnston stress. Care must be taken to balance open-ended discovery with structured educational experiences for students and citizens alike. “Achieving the right balance will take some trial and error,” Johnson says, “but ultimately we’re confident it will be a true success story for science education.”

The GPM team has made up the time lost due to weather delays

2014-01-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

After a holiday break, final tests for the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory resumed on Dec. 30, 2013, with alignment measurements. The spacecraft's instruments and components, such as star trackers and thrusters, are attached to the main body in specific configurations. Spacecraft alignment measurement is analogous to alignment for the wheels of a car. The Core Observatory measurements ensure that no parts have shifted during its transportation from the United States to Japan, so they will work as expected.

Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) is an international satellite mission to provide next-generation observations of rain and snow worldwide every three hours. NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will launch a “Core” satellite carrying advanced instruments that will set a new standard for precipitation measurements from space. The data they provide will be used to unify precipitation measurements made by an international network of partner satellites to quantify when, where, and how much it rains or snows around the world.

The GPM mission will help advance our understanding of Earth's water and energy cycles, improve the forecasting of extreme events that cause natural disasters, and extend current capabilities of using satellite precipitation information to directly benefit society. The GPM Core Observatory is currently being built at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., which is home to a Class 10,000 High Bay Cleanroom.

For the test, small cubes are placed at each part that needs checking and an instrument called a theodolite, similar to a surveyor's instrument, makes exact measurements. Measurements are taken in both the horizontal and vertical orientations of the spacecraft, in order to "see" each cube, and were completed as expected with no problems.

In addition, the GPM team has made up the time lost due to weather delays during the satellite shipment in November. They are currently on schedule for the remainder of testing, which continues with a check of the propulsion system. The GPM Core Observatory is scheduled for launch from JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center between 1:07 p.m. and 3:07 p.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 27 (3:07 a.m. to 5:07 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Friday, Feb. 28).

Why Sygic India Released Its GPS Android App For Free

2013-09-24T23:54:00.001-07:00

Offline mobile mapping service SygicSygic has dropped the Rs 1,399 fee of its Sygic India: GPS Navigation Android app. Following this, Android users in India will be able to download the app and maps for free. Note that Sygic’s iPhone app, which also uses data from MapmyIndia, is still priced at Rs 1,399 ($27.99).

Sygic’s maps are powered by MapmyIndia, an Indian location based mapping service. The company claims that it provides navigation in 115 countries with integrated data from travel and mapping companies such as TomTom and TripAdvisor. Some of the features included in the Sygic navigation app are turn by turn voice guided GPS navigation, 3D cities and languages, voice guidance in more than 40 languages, multi stop routes and drag & drop route editing, speed limit display and audio warning, road incident sharing with other drivers, SOS/help to find assistance, spoken street names in American and British English, Interative maps, POI, pedestrian navigation and stopwatch for outdoor activities.

An article by TechCrunch hints that poor sales in India resulted in this price drop. Sygic CEO Michael Stencl told the publication they reported daily sales of only around $250, which is about a sixth of its US app sales. Credit card penetration is India is extremely low making it difficult for developers to monetize their apps. Note that Google Play Store only allows users to make a payment through credit card. We wonder why Google hasn’t rolled out carrier billing on the Play Store, since it has already tied up with RCOM and Uninor.

Besides this, users also use Google Maps on their device for their mapping needs, which are quite good and a default mapping service on their device.The only reason it fails is because of offline navigation features, which apps like Sygic can capitalize on.

Sygic’s navigation competes with mapping services such as Google Maps, Nokia owned maps and location service company NAVTEQ, TomTom, among others. Tom Tom’s Android navigation app for India is priced at Rs 2,050. Google offers it’s navigation app for free and had recently acquired an Israeli location based service startup Waze for an undisclosed amount, adding real time traffic information to its app.

In September 2012, Virbisol, an IT consulting company, had launched Traffic Genie, an app on Android and iOS platform that updates real time traffic information in Bangalore. Nokia Navigation also recently extended real time traffic updates on web based maps to mobile maps and navigation app, Nokia Drive, on its Symbian and Windows Phone smartphones. Apart from that MapMyIndia also provides real time traffic updates in select few places.

the Protestant Protest put Ballymoney into the press headlines across the United Kingdom

2013-09-22T21:01:00.001-07:00

BALLYMONEY Museum manager Keith Beattie is organising a centenary event in the Town Hall on October 24 to mark what he describes as a ‘political anomaly’, when 400 to 500 liberal protestants assembled in the Ballymoney area to proclaim their message that “self-government…would pave the way to civil and religious freedom which we do not now possess and give scope for a spirit of citizenship.”

“In the early 20th century the political lines in Ulster were clearly defined,” writes Beattie in the foreword to an account of the enigmatic ‘Protestant Protest’ of 1913. There were the two sides in the well-known argument, outlined in Beattie’s foreword as “the Unionists, from Protestant Communities, (who) vehemently resisted Home Rule; against them were Roman Catholic Nationalists who were growing increasingly impatient to see an Irish Parliament in Dublin.”

The title of the book about the Town Hall protest, published by Ballymoney’s Ullans Centre, puts North Antrim’s curious revolt in context, calling it A Ripple in the Pond.

The event organisers hoped it would be the beginning of a major thrust for Home Rule and some described it as a ‘grand success’. Other contemporary commentators termed it ‘a political illusion’. The Presbyterian weekly publication The Witness stated ‘the hum of a corner (the Route) is not the buzz of a province.’ A later counter-demonstration proclaimed the Protestant Home Rulers as ‘rare birds’.

There are a variety views and differing analysis of what went before, during, and after the Town Hall gathering but two elements of the historic narrative are for sure - it was part of a liberal Protestant movement which condemned the stance taken by the Unionist establishment, and it was packed with drama!

The organisers argued about and questioned each others’ motives, insults flew, tempers frayed, plans and strategies were won and lost, Roger Casement was hounded by besotted lover Ada McNeill, and there were (unfounded) rumours of a plot to disrupt the meeting by ‘a band of Orange rowdies to drown the speakers.’

Historian J.R.B McMinn describes the event questioningly as “a Nationalist mirage?” adding “it was to be the final manifestation of the North Antrim constituency’s Protestant liberal tradition before the outbreak of the First World War.”

Locally the gathering will always be linked to Rev J.B. Armour, but it seems to have been devised and instigated by Captain Jack White D.S.O. though records reveal that Sir Roger Casement “appears to have had much the same idea”, claims J.R.B. McMinn, describing both men as “incurable romantics” in their different ways.

McMinn reckons they chose Ballymoney as the venue “largely because of its traditional reputation as a centre of radical, anti-Unionist politics.” Guest speakers Casement, White and Alice Stopford Green were on the Town Hall stage along with over 30 other like-minded stalwarts.

It was a hugely colourful platform party! Broughshane-born Boer War hero Captain White was married to a half-Spanish Roman Catholic wife, despite opposition from both their families.

“With my bible and shillelagh,” White stated “I went to the Route to chase the most elusive of all hares, the spirit of ’98.”

McMinn’s description of the Captain proposes an enigmatic character who knew little of Irish history or politics - an “ex-soldier, ex-tramp, ex-lumberjack, a devotee of Bergeson and Marx, fresh from a Tolstoyan community in Gloucester…”

Rev J.B Armour and another of the speakers, Dr. Thomas Taggart, both had their qualms about White who confidently expected them “to respond to the predestined something I felt in myself.” According to Armour, who considered White to be (at least) ‘peculiar’, Roger Casement had suggested a similar kind of meeting as the Captain and his newly formed committee was organising.

McMinn recounts that Casement “hoped, with the assistance of every drop of fenian blood ‘in my soul’ to ‘light a fire’ which would ‘set the Antrim hills ablaze’ and would ‘unite (for I think it is possible) Presbyterian and Catholic farmers and townsmen at Ballymoney in a clear message to Ireland’”

Armour and White countered Casement’s ‘Irish-Ireland’ agenda by limiting the meeting to Protestants, trumpeting their essential message that not all Protestants supported Carson.

The path to the Protestant Protest was a rocky one, cobbled with behind-the-scenes controversy, debate and disagreement, but ultimately the veteran Ballymoney Protestant Liberal John McElderry agreed to preside over the proceedings and a cast of speakers was decided.

The event was considered to be something of a security risk and the authorities were fearful for the safety of the speakers and the attendees. Ticket holders only were allowed entrance to the Town Hall. It was reported that 80 additional police were drafted in, but there were no disturbances.

An amusing side-show transpired when two unsuspecting land surveyors arrived in the town centre with their theodolite and tripod on their car’s back seat. “In the darkness the police mistook their theodolite and levelling staff for a dismantled Maxim Nordenfeldt gun,” quotes McMinn. The police were just about to arrest the two surveyors “when the mistake was realised.”

Across the road, “the interior of the Town Hall was (very significantly) decorated with Union Jacks and other flags. Over the platform was a large panel inscribed ‘No provisional or provincial government for us.’”

The speakers pledged lawful opposition to Carson’s Unionism and called for the government to bring “all Irishmen together in one common field of national effort.”

The complete “almost verbatim report of the principle speeches” was later recorded in a hefty one-penny pamphlet entitled ‘A Protestant Protest’. Most commentators agree that “the speeches were based on romantic ideals rather than political reality.”

The event began with a resolution setting out the organisers’ objectives which “far from proclaiming a Republic,” most commentators recount “called upon the Government of Britain to intervene and take action against Carson and the anti-Home rule movement.”

Captain White then attempted to explain why so many Protestants were opposed to Home Rule, with pro-Home Rule historian and Meath-born Anglican Alice Stopford Green giving a similar address “with a message of ecumenical exhortation to her fellow Protestants” surmises the book A Ripple in the Pond “playing down the feared influence of the Roman Catholic Church and reminding her co-religionists who, in her eyes, the real enemy was.”

Captain White contended that “the Protestants of Ulster are afraid of Rome Rule, (with) undue preference given to Catholics and interference in politics and in education on the part of the priests. Were it not for that fear there is not a man in this hall tonight but knows that the opposition to Home Rule here in the North would collapse through want of fuel. But I propose to show,” continued the Captain “throughout the past there has never been a…demand for a free and united Ireland, but the authority of Rome opposed it or gave it a tardy and reluctant support.”

Stopford Green reminded the audience how co-operation and unity of purpose between Presbyterians and Roman Catholics had been achieved in the past. “Never has there been in Ireland a persecution of Protestants for religion’s sake,” she stressed, adding that the Presbyterians “have been the Church of the people, not of the aristocracy or of a political hierarchy. They have suffered with the Irish people,” she stated, “and stood by them in the old days. They have nobly shown the virtues that spring from a true democracy and high human fellowship.”

This theme continued throughout all of the speeches, seemingly a re-assural to Protestants rather than a stamp of approval on Home Rule.

“Certainly, all of those who addressed the meeting were in favour of Home Rule,” observes the book A Ripple in the Pond, “but all for different reasons.”

Casement was the third speaker, undaunted by the presence in the audience of his unrequited lover Ada McNeill. He continued the previous speakers’ themes of reconciliation, stressing the need to look to Ireland’s past. He argued that politics were as important as “the welfare of the common country of Ireland.”

Casement strongly maintained that the exclusion of Ulster would not be a solution to the Home Rule crisis. “We want Ulster for Ireland and Ireland for Ulster,” he concluded dramatically. The gathering ended with everyone singing the National Anthem.

Despite Casement’s intentions, the Protestant Protest did not “set the Antrim hills ablaze”, and no further meetings took place. In contrast, an anti-Home Rule meeting was held in the same building a month later and the surrounding streets were apparently packed with crowds.

Local historian Alex Blair notes that the Protestant Protest “put Ballymoney into the press headlines across the United Kingdom. All the big London papers had a representative in the Town Hall and The London Times carried an editorial as well as a report.” The lack of support for the cause showed that Protestant Home Rulers were, as one journalist of the time wrote, ‘rare birds’.

Land surveyors needed for yacht measurement

2011-08-07T02:15:00.001-07:00

ORCi is a rating system that has evolved from IMS and is partly dependent on accurate hull data so that a boat’s potential performance can be calculated.

The hull file is a 3D model collected using a reflector-less total station; the model is used in the ORC Manager 2 software in conjunction with data from in water tests of the boat’s righting moment and measurement of the rig and sails to produce a detailed rating.

Measurement of a boat’s hull typically takes one day on the hardstand, but needs some preparation and follow up data editing to complete the entire hull measurement process.

Ian Souter, land surveyor and Sydney-based sailor, is currently assisting Yachting Australia with measurement.

“The measurement process is pretty simple for someone who has the gear, can operate a theodolite, and has an understanding of either dinghy class measurement, or rating systems,” he said. “Now that we’ve done a couple of complete hull measurements, and with my background as an International 420 class measurer, it’s an easy enough task for us.”

In-water testing, such as inclining and measurement of the freeboards, rig and sails required by ORCi, are a separate process undertaken by a Yachting Australia appointed Measurer and can be done at any other time.

So that it can maintain its capacity to service this area of the sport, Yachting Australia is looking to increase its network of people who have the appropriate skills and experience to measure hulls for ORCi.

Land surveyors with access to a reflector-less total station and sundry surveying equipment, who also have a strong background in ocean racing, rating systems or class measurement, can contact Glen Stanaway at Yachting Australia by emailing glen.stanaway@yachting.org.au or by phoning 02 8424 7408.

Priority areas for Yachting Australia are Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth, with boats currently awaiting opportunity to be measured. Yachting Australia would like to hear from interested land surveyors in these cities as soon as possible.

Details about ORCi can be found at: www.yachting.org.au/orc and www.orc.org/

Hunter Research and Technology is pleased to show Theodolite app for iPad 2

2011-03-28T22:43:00.000-07:00

Hunter Research and Technology today is pleased to announce that its popular Theodolite app series is now available in a special new version for iPad 2. Theodolite HD is a viewfinder-based compass, GPS, map, zoom camera, rangefinder, and two-axis inclinometer. The app looks to repeat the success it has had on iPhone, becoming the #1 selling paid navigation app in the US iTunes store in December 2009 and September 2010. Theodolite has been featured numerous times in iTunes, including “Rewind 2010: Hot Trends in Apps” and “Augmented Reality: The World Around You”.

Theodolite HD overlays real-time information about position, altitude, bearing, range, and horizontal/vertical inclination on the iPad’s live camera image, turning iPad 2 into a sophisticated electronic viewfinder. Theodolite HD lets users take geo-stamped and geo-tagged camera images and screenshots directly from the app with 2X and 4X digital zoom options, and has a fast photography engine with buffered background image saves. Uses are endless, and the app is great for navigation, outdoor sports, home projects, and photography. Theodolite has a strong professional customer base, and is used in the field by surveyors, geologists, architects, engineers, military personnel, competitive sportsmen, and search and rescue workers around the world.
The new flagship of the Theodolite series, Theodolite HD includes features for serious users such as a zero reference angle mode, an A-B calculator for height, distance, heading, position, triangulation, and relative angles, a built-in map with standard, satellite, and hybrid views, two mil-based rangefinders, colored lens filters to improve use in dark conditions and preserve night vision, e-mail export with KML data, system-wide clipboard integration, percent grade display, optical rangefinders, military grid reference system (MGRS) coordinates, universal transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates, and four latitude/longitude formats.
The software implements an advanced “fusion” algorithm that combines gyro and magnetometer data to provide a more accurate, more responsive, and more robust compass measurement. Theodolite is able to provide stable compass bearing to any landmarks visible in the camera viewfinder, regardless of how the user holds or points the device. This provides a significant increase in utility over traditional palm held compasses and compass apps.
Device Requirements:
* iPad 2 Wi-Fi and iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G
* Requires iOS 4.3 or later
* 3.8 MB
Pricing and Availability:
Theodolite HD 2.4 is available for $3.99 on the iTunes App Store and works on all versions of the iPad 2. Users with iPhones and 4th-generation iPod touch devices can check out the Theodolite Free, Basic, and Pro apps for free, $1.99, and $3.99, respectively. More information, including screenshots, is available on the Hunter Research and Technology website. Media professionals interested in reviewing Theodolite HD can request a promotional code to download the app from iTunes at no cost.

Hunter Research and Technology today is pleased to announce the release of Theodolite 2.3 on the iTunes

2011-02-15T18:21:00.000-08:00

Hunter Research and Technology today is pleased to announce the release of Theodolite 2.3 on the iTunes App Store. This novel multi-function augmented reality viewfinder app serves as a compass, GPS, map, zoom camera, rangefinder, and two-axis inclinometer. Theodolite has been featured numerous times in iTunes, including “Rewind 2010: Hot Trends in Apps” and “Augmented Reality: The World Around You”. It was the #1 selling US Navigation app in December 2009 and September 2010.

Based on the concept of a centuries-old astronomical instrument, Theodolite overlays real-time information about position, altitude, bearing, range, and horizontal/vertical inclination on the iPhone’s live camera image, turning the iPhone into a sophisticated electronic viewfinder. Theodolite lets users take geo-stamped and geo-tagged camera images directly from the app, with 2X and 4X digital zoom options, and contains a built-in map with standard, satellite, and hybrid views. Uses are endless, and the app is great for navigation, outdoor sports, home projects, and photography. Theodolite is used in the field by surveyors, geologists, avalanche researchers, military personnel, and search and rescue workers around the world.

Theodolite comes in three versions – Free, Basic, and Pro – to cover a range of customer needs. The flagship Theodolite Pro includes features for serious users, such as a zero reference angle mode, an A-B calculator for height, distance, heading, position, triangulation, and relative angles, e-mail export with KML data, system-wide clipboard integration, percent grade display, optical rangefinders, military grid reference system (MGRS) coordinates, universal transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates, and four latitude/longitude formats.

Version 2.3 of Theodolite implements performance improvements for smoother rendering, lower CPU usage, and a reduction in overall memory usage. The app also sports a refined UI look and feel. Basic and Pro versions of the app now take high res 960×640 screenshots on devices with a Retina display and include a faster photography engine with buffered image saves. Theodolite Pro adds colored lens filters to improve use in dark conditions and preserve night vision, a recalibration of optical rangefinders with proper lens specs on all devices, and an additional mil-based rangefinder. With these new capabilities, Theodolite continues its role as a technology demonstrator app, showcasing the latest and greatest in iOS hardware and software capabilities.

Pricing and Availability:
As the name suggests, the demo version “Theodolite Free” is available for free on the iTunes App Store. The mid level “Theodolite Basic” costs $1.99 (USD), and the full-featured “Theodolite Pro” is $3.99. Theodolite runs on any iPhone with iOS 4.1 or later and also works on the new 4th generation iPod touch. More information, including screenshots, is available on the Hunter Research and Technology website. Media professionals interested in reviewing Theodolite can request a promotional code to download the apps from iTunes at no cost.

Nikon NE-103 Series electronic digital theodolites from TDS

2011-02-09T23:55:00.000-08:00

Easy-to-use, accurate instruments for construction and survey environments. Designed for general construction and survey applications, Nikon NE-103 Series electronic digital theodolites from TDS give you accurate measurements in an affordable, easy-to-use platform. Nikon NE-100 Series theodolites can run 48 hours under normal operating conditions on a set of six AA alkaline batteries. Each of the four models has an ergonomic keypad with one-touch keys for all functions and a large, backlit LCD display help you work productively in the field.

One-touch keys for common functions. NE-103 series theodolites feature five easy-to-use, one-touch keys: four to perform all common functions and a fifth to control the backlit LCD display and reticle illumination. You can instantly convert vertical angles to percent of grade, reset the horizontal angle to zero and lock the horizontal angle displayed on the LCD while you reposition or repeat a measurement. The 103 model offers 5-Inch angle accuracy. Extra light for dark conditions this series features a built-in reticle illuminator and backlit LCD display that allow you to work inside buildings as well as in tunnels, mines and other environments with little or no light. These features also come in handy during low-light conditions outdoors, such as near dawn or dusk. Rugged, all-weather reliability. With the Nikon NE-103 Series theodolite models, you can count on reliable performance in tough conditions.

It has a higher rating of IP56 which means it is waterproof and dustproof. Works longer on standard AA batteries Unlike other instruments that require specialized batteries, it uses six standard AA alkaline batteries. Those batteries can power all models for about 48 hours. A three-level bar graph on the LCD screen displays remaining battery power. Built to perform, it performs well in rugged environments.It has a vertical compensator.

Museum acquires artifacts of tragic polar expedition by theodolite

2011-01-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

Museum officials recently acquired the artifacts from a descendant of the late Charles Wright, the Toronto man who found the bodies of Scott and his comrades after they perished on their return from the Pole a century ago.
One of the instruments, a theodolite, is the navigation tool that helped Wright plot a route across the icy expanses of Antarctica to eventually locate the dead bodies of Scott and his companions frozen inside their snow-shrouded tent.
The other is a roughly crafted sundial given to Wright as a memento on the Beardmore Glacier by the expedition’s chief scientist, Edward Wilson, in December 1911. “Uncle Bill” Wilson was among those who died with Scott, pinned for days at their last camp by a ferocious storm.
The artifacts were originally among a treasure trove of Wright’s Antarctic memorabilia, most of which was sold piecemeal last Sept. 22 in London, England, by the Christie’s auction house.
But the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board refused to let the theodolite and sundial out of the country, citing the “significance of their association with the Scott expedition and with a Canadian scientist recognized in his own right.”
The federal body is a watchdog that keeps important cultural artifacts in Canada.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum then made a successful offer to Adrian Raeside, Wright’s grandson, and the two relics of Antarctica’s golden age of exploration will soon go on public display in Ottawa.
The review board also refused Christie’s an export permit for Wright’s box camera, and it was purchased in Canada last fall for $21,600 by an unidentified buyer believed to reside in British Columbia.
Wright’s medals and decorations, also restricted to Canada, were sold for more than $96,000 to a mystery bidder.
Science museum officials said they cannot disclose what they paid for the theodolite and sundial, under rules that protect the seller’s privacy.
Raeside, a well-established editorial cartoonist living in Whistler, B.C., recently wrote a book about his grandfather after visiting some of the Antarctic locales of Scott’s expedition. He is also working on a film.
Scott’s adventure in the south is one of the best-loved tales of exploration, even though he died on the return journey from the Pole and was beaten to the prize by upstart Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen more than a month earlier. The British team found Amundsen’s tent at the Pole with letters awaiting them inside.
But the full story of Scott’s death march might never have been told had Wright not spotted a speck of dark material slightly off the trail of the search party. Inspecting it, he found a snow-covered tent with the frozen bodies of Scott and two other men. Also inside were Scott’s now-famous diaries that told the horrid tale — diaries that have never been out of print since.
That contrasts sharply with another famous polar expedition that also ended in tragedy. Sir John Franklin died in Canada’s Arctic in 1847 after his two ships failed to find a northwest passage through the thick Arctic ice.
Dozens of rescue ships were dispatched to locate him, but none ever did and the full story of his demise remains a mystery even today. Franklin’s grave has never been found.
The science museum plans to display the Wright objects in the next few weeks as part of its current Franklin exhibition, “Echoes in the Ice: History, Mystery, and Frozen Corpses,” which ends March 20.
The theodolite is a telescope-like instrument made of brass and platinum, its dials and eyepiece covered with soft Chamois leather to protect fingers and eyes in the bitter Antarctic cold. One of six built in 1910 for Scott’s expedition by T. Cooke and Sons Ltd., an English manufacturer based in York, the precision device was assigned to Wright for his fieldwork as a glaciologist and navigator.
The rough sundial was crafted at Scott’s base hut by motor engineer Bernard Day, likely using plywood from a packing case. Designed specifically for use in high latitudes, it is accurate to within about 15 minutes but was not for most science work, which relied on much more precise chronometers.
Senior museum official Randall Brooks says the two objects are a highlight of his career, ranking alongside artifacts belonging to Canadian Nobel-prize winning scientists John Polanyi and Gerhard Herzberg.
“The sundial is quite unusual and was designed specifically for use at high latitudes where the sun rotates around the sky during the summer without setting,” said Brooks, vice-president of collection and research. “I’ve never seen one like it.”
The remainder of Wright’s Antarctic possessions appear now to be scattered around the globe. Daughter Pat Wright sold her father’s diaries to the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, England, for 12,000 pounds in 1988. And some of the material from last September’s Christie’s auction — including photographs and a pair of skis — was sent as far afield as New Zealand.
Scott was a heroic figure for decades after his death, inspiring a feature film, a symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams and a spate of memoirs. His standing has diminished since the 1980s, though, as polar historians began to question his preparations and stiff leadership style.
Wright, who died 1975 in retirement on Salt Spring Island, B.C., spent the rest of a brilliant scientific career in Britain helping to develop early radio and radar. Reticent all his life about his south-polar experiences, his diaries and memoirs reveal a deep resentment that Scott had not properly provisioned his hard-working field parties.
Wright, knighted in 1946, believed trail rations were far too small, and half-starved men pulling heavy sledges readily succumbed to the cold and bad weather.

Theodolite runs on any iPhone with iOS 4.1 or later and also works on the new 4th generation iPod touch

2010-12-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

Hunter Research and Technology today is pleased to announce the release of Theodolite 2.2 on the iTunes App Store. This novel multi-function augmented reality viewfinder app serves as a compass, GPS, map, zoom camera, rangefinder, and two-axis inclinometer. Theodolite became the #1 selling navigation app in the US App Store in December 2009 and September 2010.

Based on the concept of a centuries-old astronomical instrument, Theodolite overlays real-time information about position, altitude, bearing, range, and horizontal/vertical inclination on the iPhone's live camera image, turning the iPhone into a sophisticated electronic viewfinder. Theodolite lets users take geo-stamped camera images directly from the app with 2X and 4X digital zoom options, and contains a built-in map with standard, satellite, and hybrid views. Uses are endless, and the app is great for navigation, outdoor sports, home projects, and photography. Theodolite is used in the field by surveyors, geologists, architects, engineers, military personnel, competitive sportsmen, and search and rescue workers around the world.

Theodolite comes in three versions - Free, Basic, and Pro - to cover a range of customer needs. The flagship Theodolite Pro includes features for serious users, such as a zero reference angle mode, an A-B calculator for height, distance, heading, position, triangulation, and relative angles, e-mail export with KML data, system-wide clipboard integration, percent grade display, optical rangefinders, military grid reference system (MGRS) coordinates, universal transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates, and four latitude/longitude formats.

Version 2.2 of Theodolite adds enhanced photo geo-tagging features long requested by users. These features were finally made possible by recent iOS 4.1 and 4.2 updates. In addition to stamping geographical data on photos and screenshots as an overlay, Theodolite now writes geographical metadata into the image's EXIF header. This allows geo-tag aware applications, mapping tools, and image processing utilities to read this metadata from Theodolite photos and screenshots and use it for a variety of purposes. Metadata written into images by Theodolite includes latitude, longitude, altitude, bearing, map datum, compass convention (magnetic or true), and optional user notes.

With these new capabilities, Theodolite continues its role as a technology demonstrator app, showcasing the latest and greatest in iOS hardware and software capabilities. Version 2.2 also brings along new icon artwork, to better emphasize the app's augmented reality viewfinder features.

Theodolite runs on any iPhone with iOS 4.1 or later and also works on the new 4th generation iPod touch. On iPhone 4, the software implements an advanced "fusion" algorithm that combines gyro and magnetometer data. This fusion approach provides a more accurate, more responsive, and more robust compass measurement that automatically corrects for gyro drift and minimizes effects of magnetic interference. By simultaneously using the iPhone 4's three-axis gyro and three-component magnetometer, Theodolite is able to provide stable compass bearing to any landmarks visible in the camera viewfinder, regardless of how the user holds or points the device. This provides a significant increase in utility over traditional palm held compasses and compass apps.

Pricing and Availability:
As the name suggests, the demo version "Theodolite Free" is available for free on the iTunes App Store. The mid level "Theodolite Basic" costs $1.99, and the full featured "Theodolite Pro" is $3.99. More information, including screenshots, is available on the Hunter Research and Technology website. Media professionals interested in reviewing Theodolite can request a promotional code to download the apps from iTunes at no cost.

iPhone applications for winter

2010-11-25T02:21:00.000-08:00

From condition reports to bargains on ski and snowboard equipment, here are some of the top iPhone applications to check out this season.

The North Face Snow Report
Since its launch last year, North Face’s free Snow Report has widely become the go-to app for conditions, with a mix of social media so users can see what others are saying about snowfall totals and other resort-related news with the built-in Twitter feature. The link to a resort’s webcam provides an instant look at the mountain, and mapping technology allows the user a hassle-free location feature. For backcountry enthusiasts, North Face this year released the free Trailhead, an app that finds trails and hikes based on your location and tracks your speed, distance, and elevation with GPS (Global Positioning System).

Ski and Snow Report
While not quite as dynamic as North Face’s version, the free Ski and Snow Report from Skireport.com tends to load a lot quicker. The app allows you to search and save your favorite resorts for easy access. Each resort report contains first-hand accounts and photos from others, both of which are nice resources, especially if you don’t always buy the resort’s ballooned snow report.

OnTheSnow Gear Guide
Thanks to OnTheSnow’s comprehensive app, prospective equipment buyers can head to their retail shop with all the information they need. The Gear Guide features detailed information on more than 230 pieces of ski and snowboard gear. Get reviews, pricing, and technical specifications, all of which you can compare against other products.

RealSki
Like a technological window, RealSki utilizes augmented reality technology to provide enhanced details about one’s surroundings. The free application, which requires a minimum of 3GS on the iPhone, will label trails, chairlifts, and other resort amenities simply by holding your phone as if you were going to snap a photo. Data pertaining to your immediate location will pop up on the screen, providing a precise way to determine locale. The technology can’t be used everywhere, but a handful of New England resorts are RealSki-ready, including Sunday River, Stowe, Jay Peak, and Loon.

Theodolite
Diving a little deeper into augmented reality technology is Theodolite, which displays real-time information about altitude, position, and inclination. If lost in the backcountry, it could provide a valuable tool for navigating back to civilization, provided you have a signal, of course. Three versions are available: Free, Basic ($1.99), and Pro ($3.99).

ITrailMap
The days of fumbling with a map on a windy lift ride are over. ITrailMap compiles the official maps for more than 650 resorts worldwide into one convenient app. While the free version allows the ability to download and store maps, iTrailMap 3D ($4.99) goes a step further, combining the traditional maps with GPS and 3-D technology, allowing you to track your vertical and distance skied, and upload those stats to Google Earth.
The Weather Channel
No weather app delivers so much simplicity with so many options. The Weather Channel remains the gold standard for pinpointing outdoor plans with its ease of use and the ability to transition between stored locations instantly, a tool that allows skiers and riders to try to discover which area is forecast to get more snow on any given day. The free version also includes animated radar and regionalized video forecasts. Upgrade to The Weather Channel Max ($3.99), and you’ll also receive traffic cameras and customizable maps.

Adaptunes
Whether you should be cruising down the mountain with your earbuds in is probably arguable. But in any case, the 99-cent Adaptunes will make sure you hear the music over the wind with an app that automatically adjusts your volume based on speed. Simply select the sort of activity you’re performing and volume control will be based on your movements.

Backcountry
For those thinking about getting into the backcountry experience, Backcountry provides invaluable tools for the novice. Find hikes in your area, including a GPS-led guide leading you to your start point, as well as tips and a checklist for venturing out into the mountains. Free.

Tapped
A handful of New England resorts — Sunday River, Okemo, Smuggler’s Notch, and Stratton — host Tapped, a free app that allows you to locate yourself with GPS on each resort’s specific trail map. You will also have the ability to locate family members and friends with a sharing function, locate key resources at the mountain, get up-to-the-minute resort information including snowfall and lift status, and record your tracks and log your vertical for the day.

Steep and Cheap
A longtime favorite online retailer for outdoor enthusiasts, Steep and Cheap released its first app this year, providing some of the best deals available. If you have used Steep and Cheap, it’s the same deal with the free app, one item at a time for sale for a limited amount of time, or until supply runs out.

Skullcandy
Outdoor action sports retailer Skullcandy gets into the mobile business with its free 3-in-1 app, providing the latest weather and conditions related to surfing, skating, and skiing and riding. Additionally, you will be able to stream music from over 50 artists, and watch action sports videos created by the Skullcandy team. Due to some mature material, this app is recommended for those over age 12.

Lessons from an Awalkhed school

2010-11-08T19:31:00.000-08:00

Tucked in a small hamlet of Maharashtra, a primary school for tribal children has displayed that collective efforts can reap benefits for the entire village. Awalkhed is a small village in the Nashik district of Maharashtra. This village, which was otherwise reeling under acute water shortage, although being equated to Chirapunji, has made an effort to find a solution by successfully harvesting rain water for fulfilling its water needs.

With some parts of the country receiving heavy rainfall, while others getting less than normal rain, there is lower productivity, crop loss and agricultural distress. This state of affairs need not always be the case. One can harvest rain water and make sure that it percolates into the soil and replenishes ground water.

Aseema Educational Trust, an NGO working for the upliftment of tribal children, is running a primary school for the tribal children in Awalkhed village, Igatpuri taluk, Nasik district of Maharashtra. This school has made efforts to conserve water on its 14-acre campus. In spite of receiving an annual average rainfall of 3000-3500 mm in this village, there is an acute shortage of drinking water during the summer. The village was reeling under water crisis. A simple exercise on the school campus worked wonders for the community.
Aseema, with sought guidance from Raghavendra Rao, a consultant and an expert on organic agriculture and ecosystem development, took up the task of conservation of water on their school campus. The campus has an open well which fulfilled the drinking water needs of the communities around. It was important to keep the well recharged at all times.

The intention of the consultant was to demonstrate how plentiful rain water could be conserved through the summer to sustain both the well for drinking and the fields for agriculture, was translated into this. This was done in hope that the villagers could adopt these practices for water conservation in their own lands.

The entire plot was surveyed by Raghavendra Rao and a comprehensive rain-water harvesting plan was drawn up. Raghavendra says, “this was done by walking around and deciding on appropriate places where run-off rainwater could be harvested.” Since the topography is undulating and the hill sides are steep, contour lines were marked using a theodolite, a measuring instrument, and trenches were dug along them. He adds, “the bunding was done starting from the ridge to the valley. This ensured that the rainwater was harvested where it fell, and the run-off, if any, did not acquire erosive force to wash the top soil away.”

In the valleys between the hillocks, a series of check dams were constructed to slow down the run-off water and give it a chance to infiltrate into the ground.

Ecologically self-sustaining system

Once the earthwork was completed and physical structures were constructed, the task of planting a diversity of fast-growing nitrogen-fixing and multi-purpose tree, shrub and herb species was undertaken so as to make the entire area a self-sustaining ecological system producing food, fruit, fibre, fertiliser and fuel wood was undertaken. Species like mango, guava, jackfruit, jamun, sapota, fig, ber, etc were planted to transform the patch into a fruit orchard. Soon, a small area of the flat land will be turned in to a green patch of diverse vegetables, cereals and pulses. This will ensure nutritious food for the children. Besides, the children get to know a thing or two about farming and water conservation practices.

Raghavendra exclaims, “the well is now getting recharged by subterranean streams, when it doesn't rain.” This gets rejuvenated because of the water harvesting work undertaken in the campus. The task has been accomplished in less than two years. As the ecosystem evolves and gets more complex, it will produce a diversity of food, fodder for livestock and serve as a habitat for birds, reptiles and insects.

Raghavendra Rao asserts that similar work can be accomplished in all the vastly degraded areas of our country. A demonstration such as this was accomplished with the participation of the community. This may also have the added effect of encouraging villagers in the surrounding communities to do similar things on their lands. With a little effort one can convert unproductive lands into oases of productivity - a mission for a greener, food and water secure country.

Newest iTunes Featured with Theodolite Augmented Reality Viewfinder App

2010-11-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hunter Research and Technology has announced that its Theodolite app series is included in the new "The World Around You - Augmented Reality Apps" feature in the iTunes App Store. Theodolite serves as a compass, GPS, map, zoom camera, rangefinder, and two-axis inclinometer. The app became the #1 selling navigation app in the US iTunes store in December 2009 and September 2010.

Based on the concept of a centuries-old astronomical instrument, Theodolite overlays real-time information about position, altitude, bearing, range, and horizontal/vertical inclination on the iPhone's live camera image, turning the iPhone into a sophisticated electronic viewfinder. Theodolite lets users take geo-stamped camera images directly from the app with 2X and 4X digital zoom options, and contains a built-in map with standard, satellite, and hybrid views. Uses are endless, and the app is great for navigation, outdoor sports, home projects, and photography. Theodolite is used in the field by surveyors, geologists, architects, engineers, military personnel, competitive sportsmen, and search and rescue workers around the world.

Theodolite comes in three versions - Free, Basic, and Pro - to cover a range of customer needs. The flagship Theodolite Pro includes features for serious users, such as a zero reference angle mode, an A-B calculator for height, distance, heading, position, triangulation, and relative angles, e-mail export with KML data, system-wide clipboard integration, percent grade display, optical rangefinders, military grid reference system (MGRS) coordinates, universal transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates, and four latitude/longitude formats.

Theodolite runs on any iPhone with iOS 4 and also works on the new 4th generation iPod touch. On iPhone 4, the software implements an advanced "fusion" algorithm that combines gyro and magnetometer data. This fusion approach provides a more accurate, more responsive, and more robust compass measurement that automatically corrects for gyro drift and minimizes effects of magnetic interference. By simultaneously using the iPhone 4's three-axis gyro and three-component magnetometer, Theodolite is able to provide stable compass bearing to any landmarks visible in the camera viewfinder, regardless of how the user holds or points the device. This provides a significant increase in utility over traditional palm held compasses and compass apps.

Pricing and Availability:
As the name suggests, the demo version "Theodolite Free" is available for free on the iTunes App Store. The mid level "Theodolite Basic" costs $1.99 (USD), and the full featured "Theodolite Pro" is $3.99. More information, including screenshots, is available on the Hunter Research and Technology website. Media professionals interested in reviewing Theodolite can request a promotional code to download the apps from iTunes at no cost.

iTunes has Theodolite 2.0

2010-08-24T02:30:00.001-07:00

Virginia based Hunter Research and Technology today announces Theodolite 2.0 on the iTunes App Store. This novel multi-function augmented reality app serves as a compass, GPS, map, zoom camera, rangefinder, and two-axis inclinometer. Version 2.0 adds multitasking support and background task completion for iOS 4, a new optical-mechanical calibration, use of the iPhone 4 gyro for improved inclinometer measurements, and high resolution artwork for the iPhone 4 Retina display.

Williamsburg Virginia – Hunter Research and Technology today announces the immediate worldwide availability of Theodolite 2.0 on the iTunes App Store. This novel multi-function augmented reality app for the iPhone serves as a compass, GPS, map, zoom camera, rangefinder, and two-axis inclinometer. Theodolite became the #1 selling navigation app in the US and UK App Stores in December 2009 after being featured by Apple in the New and Noteworthy category of the iTunes App Store, and broke into the Top 40 Paid Apps ranking in the US and Top 20 in the UK.

Based on the concept of a centuries-old astronomical instrument, Theodolite overlays real-time information about position, altitude, bearing, range, and horizontal/vertical inclination on the iPhone’s live camera image, turning the iPhone into a sophisticated viewfinder. Theodolite lets users take geo-stamped camera images directly from the app with 2X and 4X digital zoom options, and contains a built-in map with standard, satellite, and hybrid views. Uses are endless, and the app is great fornavigation , construction, hiking, boating, hunting, sightseeing, photography, and sports. The app is used in specialty fields by surveyors, geologists, architects, engineers, military personnel, and search and rescue workers around the world.

Theodolite comes in three versions – Free, Basic, and Pro – to cover a range of customer needs. The flagship Theodolite Pro includes features for serious users, such as a zero reference angle mode, an A-B calculator for height, distance, heading, position, triangulation, and relative angles, e-mail export with KML data, system-wide clipboard integration, percent grade display, optical rangefinders, military grid reference system (MGRS) coordinates, universal transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates, and four latitude/longitude formats.

Version 2.0 of Theodolite adds multitasking support and background task completion for iOS 4, along with revised graphics and a new optical-mechanical calibration. The app now makes use of the iPhone 4 gyro for improved inclinometer measurements, and includes high resolution artwork for the iPhone 4 Retina display. The result is a more accurate, more responsive display with amazing visual fidelity and detail.

“The iPhone 4 is an amazing sensor device, with improved horizontal and vertical GPS accuracy, a more robust magnetometer implementation, an improved 12-bit accelerometer, and a new MEMS gyro”, said Dr. Craig Hunter, Theodolite developer. “Combined with the stunning Retina display and an advanced SDK, it’s an engineer’s dream device that is ideal for augmented reality applications. I’m pleased that Theodolite is continuing its role as a technology demonstrator, showcasing the latest and greatest in iPhone hardware and software capabilities”.

Pricing and Availability:
As the name suggests, the demo version “Theodolite Free” is available for free on the iTunes App Store. The mid level “Theodolite Basic” costs $1.99 (USD), and the full featured “Theodolite Pro” is $3.99. The apps run on iPhones with OS 4.0 or later. GPS functionality requires an iPhone 3G, 3GS, or 4. Compass functionality requires an iPhone 3GS or 4. More information, including screenshots, is available on the Hunter Research and Technology website. Media professionals interested in reviewing Theodolite can request a promotional code to download the apps from iTunes at no cost.

Theodolite 2.0: http://hunter.pairsite.com/theodolite/
Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/theodolite-pro/id339393884?mt=8
Media Assets: http://hunter.pairsite.com/pr/

Hunter Research and Technology is run by Dr. Craig Hunter, a practicing engineer with 20 years of experience in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, and software development. Craig received the 2004 NASA Software of the Year Award and a 2004 Apple Design Award (Best Scientific Computing Solution on Mac OS X) for his work in softwaredevelopment . Craig founded Hunter Research and Technology in 2008 to create innovative and compelling apps that take advantage of the advanced hardware and software capabilities of iPhone OS devices. The company has 15 apps available on the iTunes App Store, and develops software and apps for a range of clients worldwide. iTunes, iPhone, iPod, and Retina display are registered trademarks of AppleComputer Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Gyrotheodolite

2010-06-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

A gyrotheodolite is used when the north-south reference bearing of the meridian is required in the absence of astronomical star sights. This mainly occurs in the underground mining industry and in tunnel engineering. For example, where a conduit must pass under a river, a vertical shaft on each side of the river might be connected by a horizontal tunnel. A gyrotheodolite can be operated at the surface and then again at the foot of the shafts to identify the directions needed to tunnel between the base of the two shafts. Unlike an artificial horizon or inertial navigation system, a gyrotheodolite cannot be relocated while it is operating. It must be restarted again at each site.

The gyrotheodolite comprises a normal theodolite with an attachment that contains a gyroscope mounted so as to sense rotation of the Earth and from that the alignment of the meridian. The meridian is the plane that contains both the axis of the Earth’s rotation and the observer. The intersection of the meridian plane with the horizontal contains the true north-south geographic reference bearing required. The gyrotheodolite is usually referred to as being able to determine or find true north.

A gyrotheodolite will function at the equator and in both the northern and southern hemispheres. The meridian is undefined at the geographic poles. A gyrotheodolite can not be used at the poles where the Earth’s axis is precisely perpendicular to the horizontal axis of the spinner, indeed it is not normally used within about 15 degrees of the pole because the east-west component of the Earth’s rotation is insufficient to obtain reliable results. When available, astronomical star sights are able to give the meridian bearing to better than one hundred times the accuracy of the gyrotheodolite. Where this extra precision is not required, the gyrotheodolite is able to produce a result quickly without the need for night observations.

The strange huge meteor-procession

2010-06-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

What did American poet Walt Whitman mean by "the strange huge meteor-procession" that went "shooting over our heads" with "its balls of unearthly light"? These phrases appear in a short poem from Whitman's Leaves of Grass titled "Year of Meteors. (1859-60)."

It's 150 years later, and now we know. The July 2010 issue of Sky & Telescope gives full details of a new finding by Texas State University astronomer Donald W. Olson and colleagues. This press release summarizes their results, and the article is already making waves in the general media, such as New Scientist, the Los Angeles Times, or even the Tehran Times.

The Texas team links Whitman's words to a very rare celestial spectacle — a string of fireballs that marched, duckling style, across the evening sky for residents of the U.S. Northeast on July 20, 1860. The researchers clinch their case with a little-known but beautiful painting, The Meteor of 1860, by Frederic Church.

Frederic Church's home, Olana, offers a spectacular vista over the Hudson River.
Roger Sinnott
This is the latest in a remarkable series of projects that Olson and his honors classes have tackled during the past two decades. And this time, I got to tag along and see them in action.

For last summer's research trip, Olson headed to the Hudson/Catskill area of New York with coauthor (and English professor) Marilynn Olson, colleague Russell Doescher, and honors student Ava Pope. The prime attraction was Church's magnificent home, Olana, now a museum. The staff let us spend a whole day, poring through archives to look for clues about Church's
comings and goings in the summer of 1860.

Church was on his honeymoon, and Olana was still but a gleam in his eyes. So the newlyweds might have stayed in Catskill with Theodore Cole, a close friend and the son of Thomas Cole, a fellow artist of the Hudson River Valley School. It's tempting to imagine the couple enjoying the night air, perhaps on the Cole house's wide porch, when the meteors soared by.

The Texas researchers check out the home of Thomas and Theodore Cole, situated in Catskill, New York, directly across the Hudson River from Olana. In 1860, unlike today, there would have been a grand view from this porch to the south, where the meteor procession passed.
Roger Sinnott
Porches! Does anyone use them anymore? People certainly did in 1860, as we learned while going through an extensive paper by James H. Coffin in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge (Vol. XVI). Coffin trudged across New England with a theodolite, interviewing all the eyewitnesses he could. He found 16 in his own hometown of Easton, Pennsylvania, crediting his good luck to "the prevalent custom of our people, to sit at the front doors of their houses in summer evenings."

Coffin's exhaustive study helped the team get a clear idea how the meteor procession must have looked, not just to Frederic Church in Catskill, but also to Walt Whitman in New York City.

This is not the first time an Olson-led team has identified a chance celestial event as the catalyst for a great poet or artist's work. Six years ago they showed that Edvard Munch's haunting painting, The Scream, was not entirely a fantasy of the Norwegian artist's troubled mind. The Texas researchers learned that Munch was likely an eyewitness to a blood-red sky a few months after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, an event that vivified sunsets around the world and caused lurid twilights as far north as Oslo. The most famous versions of The Scream were painted several years after 1883.

Hey — want to hear the actual voice of Walt Whitman? The foremost American poet of his age died in 1892, but not before reciting a few lines from another poem of his, "America," into a wax-cylinder Edison phonograph

Antaresky's earth station antenna

2010-06-15T00:40:00.000-07:00

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Antesky has introduced a new 7.3m C/Ku-band earth station antenna. This antenna is suitable for all systems integrators seeking to bring their systems on line faster and more economically. The new antenna features advanced dual-reflector technology with 16-piece precision formed aluminum reflector assembly. The main reflector is self-aligning, eliminating the requirement for field alignment.

The 7.3-meter earth station antenna gives high gain and has closely controlled radiation pattern characteristics. Antesky ensures that the antenna can be field deployed, with minimal testing of G/T performance, to be fully certified on site.

For high durability and low upkeep, the 7.3m earth station antenna is constructed from precision-formed aluminum with a hot-dipped galvanized. For additional assurance, Antesky Corporation provides a 3-year warranty as a standard on the antenna's structural components.

The benefits of selecting Antesky antennas are: self-aligning reflectors without using theodolite and easy to install, guaranteed high-qualified antenna structure, lower commissioning costs, and an assurance of superior performance, and faster and cheaper system implementation.
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Whales hunting uses theodolite

2010-05-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

The odd underwater noise, an upsweeping "whoop," will start as quietly as conversation, rise as loud as traffic and peak at the din of a rock concert, all within one second.

Chances are, whales will listen. And without doubt, scientists will watch.

All of it is part of an experiment that Oregon State University marine researchers plan early next year during gray whale migrations. They hope to learn whether low-power acoustic devices -- this one emitting a single "whoop," then a rising "whoop-whoop-whoop," -- can prevent whales from approaching wave-energy platforms and cables that might one day occupy waters off Oregon and elsewhere.

But results could reach much farther, leading to help for marine mammals in peril worldwide.

"There are no tools of this nature in existence," says Bruce Mate, the director of the OSU's Marine Mammal Institute.

But first things first.

The $410,000 pilot project, paid for by the U.S. Energy Department, is a first step toward reducing potential risk to marine mammals by wave-energy technology.

Little is known about whether or how such technology might affect marine life. But some people worry about whales' potential to become entangled in underwater cables or debris attached to them, or to hurt themselves by ramming into platforms holding wave-energy gear.

"We're not saying wave energy devices have been shown to cause a problem" says Barb Lagerquist, an OSU senior faculty research assistant working with Mate on the project. "We're just saying it would be prudent to have something on the shelf."

Oregon hopes to become a leader in wave-energy technology. In 2007, OSU launched a test run of a wave-energy buoy. In 2008, the university won a five-year, $6.25 million grant to establish an ocean energy research center in Newport. At least one test device is expected to be anchored to the sea floor near Reedsport before the end of this year.

Mate and his crew applied for permits from the National Marine Fisheries Service to test acoustic devices. They expect to earn approval, in part because they plan to keep the noise to a level that carries no possibility of injuring the animals, simply of altering their behavior ever-so-slightly, Lagerquist says.

The entire population of eastern North Pacific gray whales -- an estimated 18,000 animals -- migrates past Oregon twice a year, heading south to breed and calve off Baja, Mexico, in winter, and returning north to feed in spring. In a 2008 study, Mate and his colleague, Joel Ortega, found that 61 percent of migrating gray whales spotted off the coast passed within three nautical miles of shore.

In proposals for wave energy, devices would be placed in that same slice of ocean.

Next year's study will run Jan. 1 through mid-April, ending before mothers and calves migrate north in May. Scientists will moor a sound device about the size of a carry-on suitcase a little shy of three miles offshore, due west of Yaquina Head. They plan to program the device so it emits the whoop sound three times a minute during a six-hour stretch each day. Otherwise, it will be silent.

On shore, observers will be equipped with binoculars and an instrument called a theodolite, which will allow them to scan the horizon and calculate distance to the whales, and the whales' latitude and longitude. They'll map the animals locations, determine their traveling speed, then compare how differently whales move when noise is being emitted, versus when the device is silent.

"Ideally," Mate says, "we'd like to see the whales respond to these pings by moving about 500 meters around the device, which adds just a tiny bit -- one 100th of 1 percent -- to their migration distance.

Acoustics have been used for many years to prevent entanglements in fishing nets, to reduce bycatch of dolphins and other marine mammals. And wildlife managers routinely use acoustic harassment to keep seals and sea lions away from aquaculture facilities or prime recreational salmon runs.

In 1985, after a humpback whale dubbed Humphrey wandered into San Francisco Bay and up the Sacramento River, numerous attempts to coax him back into salt water failed. He appeared to be dying when an acoustic specialist offered recordings he'd made of humpback feeding vocalizations, hoping it would lure the whale back to sea. The U.S. Navy provided the required underwater sound device.

After it was lowered into the river and the sounds filled the water, Humphrey surfaced, followed the boat carrying the device many miles back to the bay and finally, under the Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific, where he belonged.

How high Mt. Everest is?

2010-04-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

Any general knowledge buff will tell you that Mount Everest, straddling the border between China and Nepal, stands at precisely 8,848m, or 29,029ft, above sea level.

Except that this is not necessarily so.

The Nepalese and Chinese governments have agreed to disagree on its height after negotiations in Kathmandu this week over a question that has fascinated and frustrated cartographers for more than 150 years.

Nepal will continue to say that the world’s highest peak is 8,848m, based on an Indian survey in 1955 that measured it from the top of its cap.

China, meanwhile, will use a new figure of 8,844.43m, calculated in 2005 by its State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, which measured the height of the rock beneath the layers of snow and ice.

The two countries agreed to recognise each other’s figures and to acknowledge that they measured different things. Nepal, however, is still refusing to accept a figure of 8,850m that was calculated by an American expedition in 1999 using satellite positioning for the first time, and is now used by the US National Geographic Society.

Nor does the controversy end there. Many scientists believe that the mountain is becoming up to 4mm higher every year as the Indian sub-continent pushes into the rest of the Asian continent. Rising sea levels attributed to global warming are also confusing traditional methods of estimating sea level — the base from which the height of Everest and all other points on land are measured.

The debate over Everest’s height has been going on since the peak was identified in the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India that began in 1802 and lasted most of the 19th century.

Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor-General of India, was the first to note in 1847 that there appeared to be a peak even taller than Mount Kanchenjunga, in Sikkim — until then considered the world’s highest. He was unable to take an accurate theodolite reading, however, because Nepal would not allow British surveyors to enter.

In 1852 a young Indian mathematician called Radhanath Sickdhar became the first person to calculate the height of the mountain — then named Peak XV — at 8,840m. In 1856, after averaging out several readings,Waugh publicly declared that the mountain was “most probably the highest in the world”.

At the same time he sparked another controversy by proposing to name the mountain after his predecessor as Surveyor-General, Sir George Everest.

Everest opposed the idea because he said that local people could not pronounce his name but the Royal Geographic Society approved it in 1865 on the ground that there were too many different local names.

graduated magna cum laude from Wentworth Institute of Technology

2010-04-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

Andrew Meade, graduated magna cum laude from Wentworth Institute of Technology in May 2009. He received a bachelor of science degree in construction management.

A 2004 graduate of Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School, he son of Donna Meade of New Bedford.

Meade successfully completed a rigorous course load including construction project management, control and scheduling, advanced estimating and bid analysis, construction safety and risk management, construction business and finance, law and government regulations, materials and methods of construction I and II, electrical and mechanical building systems, surveying I, structural design I, II, and III, materials testing and quality control, and labor relations.

His training included work with the LEED/BIM seminar, Habitat for Humanity, ASC/AGC Northeast regional student competition, CMAA National conferences, AGC mentor program, ASCE workshop for student chapter leaders, the electronic total station, electronic theodolite, automatic level, and CNC/manual machining. He is also trained in software including Primavera, On-Screen Takeoff, Prolog Manager, Timberline, AutoCAD, iBidPro, Revit, BID2WIN, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Outlook, SolidWorks, Mastercam, and PC/Mac operating systems.

Meade has been certified in 10/30-hour OSHA, CPR/FA/AED, and has received his Class 1C/2A hoisting engineer license.

While at Wentworth, Meade was the president of the Sigma Lambda Chi International Construction Honor Society and vice president of the Wentworth Construction Management Club. He was also a member of the Associated General Contractors of America, the Omicron IV Chapter of Sigma Lambda Chi International Honor Society, the Massachusetts Alpha Chapter of Tau Alpha Pi National Honor Society, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Construction Management Association of America.

He has also been awarded the CMAA Education and Research Foundation National Scholarship, the Edward T. Kirkpatrick Cooperative Education Award, the Massachusetts Construction Advancement Program Scholarship, the AGC Education and Research Foundation Undergraduate Scholarship and, most recently, the Wentworth Alumni Association Graduate Recognition.

Meade is currently employed by Hensel Phelps Construction Company in Fayettville, NC. Previously, he worked as an assistant project engineer for Gilbane Building Company and as an assistant superintendent for P.J. Keating Company.

Now its maps are available on the web, Jonathan Brown plots a path through the history of the Ordnance Survey

2010-04-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

British wildernesses may be few and far between nowadays, but the urge to experience nature in the raw remains a primal impulse among the nation's hikers, bikers and fitness enthusiasts. And for anyone looking to venture into the great outdoors this weekend, an Ordnance Survey (OS) map remains the prerequisite piece of kit to be packed alongside an apple, a cagoul and a box of corned beef and pickle sandwiches to ensure a safe return from a day yomping across hill and dale.

Yesterday campaigners calling for greater availability of official data were joined by lovers of the British countryside in hailing a partial victory against the venerable state-mapping company, after it agreed to offer free and unrestricted access to most of its maps online.

The landmark decision by the OS followed a long public consultation designed to open up information sources gathered at the taxpayer's expense and to make them available to a new generation of users without charge. Among those welcoming the initiative was the creator of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who has been advising Gordon Brown on ways to liberate the Government's vast data banks to a new wave of entrepreneurs who, it is hoped, may be able to use them to create cutting-edge industries.
Ministers were forced to waive the long-guarded copyright in response to the huge amount of mapping information already available on the internet free of charge. Services such as Google Earth, Street View and Multimap have revolutionised the way that the public perceives and pays for cartographical information.

OS OpenData, which went online yesterday, will exist alongside an earlier data-sharing scheme called OS OpenSpace, which is also free to groups looking to create and reproduce their own maps. It has brought an end to the absurdity of schoolchildren having to write for permission to photocopy a map from their public library.

The popularity of the service was immediately evident as the OS website became locked up with users rushing to download maps of their area for the first time.

But not everyone was entirely happy. The Ramblers, a charity which represents Britain's army of hikers and walkers, criticised the omission of the most popular scale paper maps after it was confirmed that the free datasets would not include digital versions of 1:25,000 Explorer and 1:50,000 Landranger series.

The charity's chief executive, Tom Franklin, accused the Government of "losing its nerve". He said: "We know one of the reasons people don't walk more is that they don't know good places to walk, and access to mapping is essential in overcoming that barrier. And more people walking more often is something the Government agrees is a good thing, helping tackle obesity and even climate change."

The OS said the decision to leave out the best-selling paper maps, which retail for anything up to £15 each, was "in the national interest" and could "undermine the continued provision of a nationwide paper map series".

Today, the geographically curious among us love nothing more than poring over the exquisitely drawn contour lines and triangulation marks of an OS map. Yet while modern-day OS maps may be viewed as documents of peace, beneficial to health and the environment, their origins are soaked in the blood of Jacobite suppression.

According to Dr Richard Oliver's A Short History of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, the first modern maps took shape between 1747 and 1755. Their instigator was an ambitious military officer named Colonel David Watson, who served with the Army and also the Engineers of the Board of Ordnance. The painstaking work was carried out by the Lanarkshire-born surveyor William Roy, who went on to become the father of modern cartography, and the pioneering water colourist Paul Sandby, who helped turn the first maps into beautifully realised artworks. It was a primitive process by modern satellite-driven standards. The contour line was yet to be invented, and all distances were measured by 66ft lengths of chain.

The Jacobite uprising of 1745 had caused consternation to King George II, who urgently commissioned the Highlands survey as a means of pacifying the insurgent clansmen north of the border. Overseeing the project was the formidable figure of the Duke of Cumberland, later to achieve notoriety as the "Butcher" of Culloden, architect of the murderously one-sided battle where 2,000 Jacobites were killed or wounded at the cost of just 50 government lives.

Perhaps inevitably, however, it was to be events across the Channel that were to drive the next stage in development. A dispute between the Royal Societies of London and Paris saw the great and the good of the learned bodies try to resolve a long-running disagreement over the relative positions of their astronomical observatories. The system of triangulation settled the debate – a process whereby distances across water and other obstacles were measured for the first time using the angles of a fixed point.

Yet throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, conflict continued to fuel the need for ever more accurate and detailed maps. In England, the first charting of the rolling farmland of Kent and the marshes of Essex appeared amid mounting concern over the prospect of invasion by Napoleon's forces.

By the time that the Battle of Waterloo was won, everywhere south of Birmingham was mapped. The work was physically demanding and progress was slow. It was not until 1823 that the survey had inched its way northwards armed with the advanced Ramsden theodolite for measuring vertical angles. Thomas Colby, the longest serving Director General of the Ordnance Survey, walked 586 miles in 22 days during one reconnaissance journey.

In 1841, at the time of the railway boom, officials were granted the right by Parliament to enter property in order to measure it. But disputes over which scale to adopt and the distractions of mapping Ireland failed to stem the advance of the theodolite-wielding geodesists, who continued to press ahead with their task and who have been carefully measuring, mapping and remapping the whole of the UK on a near-constant basis ever since.

Dr Christopher Board, chairman of the Charles Close Society for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps, said the process of mapping the UK would never be complete and needed to remain largely state-funded. "If you left it to private industry you would find the most popular tourist areas would be mapped regularly and kept up to date, but there would be huge areas of agricultural land, moor or croft that would be left untouched," he said.