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Right on the money

Posted by Brad Friesen on December 03, 2008 at 07:42

When I was working as a surveyors' assistant It was explained to me thus: When the earliest surveyors do their work, they install "benchmarks", a 1" X 1" steel rod hammered into the ground at a known Location & elevation. Over time the top of these rods would tarnish an be hard to see in the viewfinder of a surveyor's transit. Putting a shiny coin on the top would render them visible & when the transit was sitting level precisely above it, you would be "right on the money".

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