Thread: Mils and mrads

Originally Posted by XR500

Thats a bit of a blast from the past

As a schoolboy I remember being a chainman for my godfather, surveying out the new Wellington dump location: having to hold the spring balance to keep the chain at a predetermined tension. I wonder if surveyors these days get shown all this sort of gear, that is really only one-two generations old

Greetings XR500,
Talk about blast from the past. My first job, other than mowing lawns, was a two week stint as a chainman's assistant for the May school holidays about 1964. My father had wangled it for me. The work was plotting the centre line for part of the Napier Hastings Expressway. The surveyors had been through and put in some set out points and we were working between them putting in pegs every chain or so. Wet days were spent making pegs out of the totara beams from the old Mohaka Bridge from the Napier Taupo Road. These were split from sections of beam and then shaped with a very sharp tomahawk. And we think that recycling is something new.
Regards Grandpamac.