Surveying
Terms
- Call
- Any feature, landmark, or measurement called out in a survey. For
example, "two white oaks next to the creek" is a call.
- Chain
carrier - An assistant to the surveyor, the chain carriers moved
the surveying chain from one location to another under the direction of
the surveyor. This was a position of some responsibility, and the chain
carriers took an oath as "sworn chain carriers" that they
would do their job properly.
- Condition
- See Conditional line.
- Conditional
line - An agreed line between neighbors that has not been
surveyed.
- Corner
- The beginning or end point of any survey line. The term corner does
not imply the property was in any way square.
- Declination
- The difference between magnetic north and geographic (true)
north. Surveyors used a compass to determine the direction of survey
lines. Compasses point to magnetic north, rather than true north. This
declination error is measured in degrees, and can range from a few
degrees to ten degrees or more. Surveyors may have been instructed to
correct their surveys by a particular declination value. The value of
declination at any point on the earth is constantly changing because the
location of geographic north is drifting.
- First
station - See Point of Beginning
- Gore
- A thin triangular piece of land, the boundaries of which are defined
by surveys of adjacent properties. Loosely, an overlap or gap between
properties.
- Meander
- "with the meanders of the stream" means the survey
line follows the twists and turns of the stream.
- Out
- An 'out' was ten chains. When counting out long lines, the chain
carriers would put a stake at the end of a chain, move the chain and put
a stake at the end, and so on until they ran "out" of ten
stakes.
- Point
of Beginning - The starting point of the survey
- Plat
- A drawing of a parcel of land
|