The term field equipment, as used in this training manual, includes all devices, tools, and instrument accessories used in connection with field measurements.

If you are running a survey across rough terrain, the essential equipment you will need are various types of tools used for clearing the line; that is, for cutting down brush and other natural growth as necessary.

Surveying procedures usually permit the bypassing of large trees. Occasionally, however, it may be necessary to fell one of these. If heavy equipment is working in the vicinity, an EO may fell the tree with a bulldozer. The next best method is by means of a power-driven chain saw. In the absence of a chain saw, a one-man or two-man crosscut saw may be available. The machete and brush hook (fig. 11-32) are used for clearing small saplings, bushes, vines, and similar growth. Axes and hatchets (fig. 11-32) are used for felling trees and also for marking trees

by blazing. Files and stones are usual items of equipment for sharpening the edges of tools. Hubs, stakes, pipe, and other driven markers are often driven with the driving peen of a hatchet or a single-bit ax. A sledgehammer, however, is a more suitable tool for the purpose. A double-faced, long-handled sledgehammer is shown in figure 11-33. It is swung with both hands. There are also short-handled sledgehammers, swung with one hand. A sledgehammer is classified according to the weight of the head; common weights are 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 lb. The 8- and 10-lb weights are most commonly used. When the ground is too compact or too frozen to permit wooden stakes and hubs to be driven directly, the way for a stake or hub is opened by first driving in a heavy, conical-pointed steel bar, 10 to 16 in. long, called a bull-point. One of the heavy steel form pins, used to pin down side forms for concrete paving, can be used as a bull-point; however, the pyramidal pavement-breaker bit on a jack hammer (pneumatic hammer used to drive paving breaker bits, stone drills, and the like) makes a better bull-point. Because a jack hammer bit is made of high-carbon steel, it is liable to chip and mushroom when subjected to heavy pounding. Do not use a bull-point with a badly damaged head; it should be refinished by grinding or cutting off before being used to avoid injury to personnel.

In searching for hidden markers, you may need a shovel like the one shown in figure 11-34 for clearing top cover by careful digging. In soft ground, such as loose, sandy soil, you may prefer to use a square-pointed shovel or a probing steel rod to locate buried markers.

A pick (fig. 11-35) may be required to chip bituminous pavement off of manhole covers and for levering up covers. Sometimes a crowbar is needed for levering manhole covers.

Buried metal markers may be located with the help of a magnetic device called a dip needle or a battery-powered instrument, similar in principle to a mine detector, commonly called a pipe finder. These instruments are used in engineering surveys to locate utility pipelines, buried manhole and valve box covers, and the like. These instruments can generally be borrowed from the utilities division of the public works department (PWD) of the larger shore stations.

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