Description.
Stadia marks on a crosshair while viewing a metric levelling rod.
The top mark is at 1.5 m and the lower is at 1.345 m. The distance
between the marks is 0.155 m, yielding a distance to the rod of 15.5
m.
An optical level consists of a precision telescope with crosshairs and
Stadia marks. The cross hairs are used to establish the level point on
the target, and the stadia allow range-finding; stadia are usually at
ratios of 100:1, in which case one metre between the stadia marks
on the levelling staff repesents 100 metres from the target.
The complete unit is normally mounted on a tripod, and the
telescope can freely rotate 360° in a horizontal plane. The surveyor
adjusts the instrument's level by coarse adjustment of the tripod
legs and fine adjustment using three precision levelling screws on
the instrument to make the rotational plane horizontal. The
surveyor does this with the use of a bull's eye level built into the
instrument mount.
The surveyor looks through the eyepiece of the telescope while an
assistant holds a vertical level staff which is a graduated in inches or
centimeters. The level staff is placed with its foot on the point for
which the level measurement is required. The telescope is rotated
and focused until the level staff is plainly visible in the crosshairs. In
the case of a tilting level, the fine level adjustment is made by an
altitude screw, using a high accuracy bubble level fixed to the
telescope. This can be viewed by a mirror whilst adjusting or the
ends of the bubble in a "split bubble" display can be viewed within
the telescope. This also allows assurance of the accurate level of the
telescope whilst the sight is being taken. However, in the case of an
automatic level, altitude adjustment is done automatically by a
suspended prism due to gravity, as long as the coarse levelling of the
instrument base is accurate within certain limits.
When level, the staff graduation reading at the crosshairs is
recorded, and an identifying mark or marker placed where the level
staff rested on the object or position being surveyed.
Invention of the Dumpy level
In 1832, English civil engineer and inventor William Gravatt, who
was commissioned to examine a scheme for the South Eastern
Railway's route from London to Dover, became frustrated with the
slow and cumbersome operation of the "Y" level during the survey
work, and devised the more transportable and easier to use dumpy
level.[1][2]
The telescope of the historic "y" level is held in two brass arms,
which are part of the mount and the telescope could be easily
removed to allow sighting reversal though 180 degrees or an axial
rotation of the telescope; both to compensate for optical collimation
errors. Because the telescope is not fixed to the level adjusting
mechanism, the Y instrument is assembled and disassembled for
each sighting station. However, the dumpy level is permanently
secured to its two support arms and the levelling mechanism,
thereby reducing measurement uncertainty and considerably
reducing the time taken to set up the instrument. The Dumpy uses
the same basic principle of level
Survey operation
Diagram showing relationship between two level staff, or rods,
shown as 1 and 3. The level line of sight is 2.
Main article: Levelling
After careful setup of the level, the height of the cross hairs is
determined by either sighting from a known benchmark with
known height determined by a previous survey or an arbitrary point
with an assumed height is used.
Sighting is done with an assistant surveyor who holds a graduated
staff vertical at the point under measurement. The surveyor rotates
the telescope until the graduated staff is in the cross hairs and
records the reading. This is repeated for all sightings from that
datum. Should the instrument be moved to another position within
sighting distance, it is re-levelled, and a sighting taken of a known
level in the previous survey. This relates any new levels to the
previous levels
VariantsEdit
The term dumpy level (also builder's level) endures despite the
evolution in design. They can be manual or automatic - the latter
being much quicker to set up.
A tilting level is a variant which has a precision vertical adjustment
screw which tilts both the telescope and the high accuracy bubble
level attached to it to make them level. This reduces the complete
reliance on the levelling accuracy of the instruments's bottom
mount, and the "split bubble" display gives additional assurance that
the telescope is level whilst taking the sight. This allows faster
operation as the bottom mount need not be truly level, though it will
introduce a slight error as the vertical axis of the mount is not
completely co-incident with the telescope centre. The split bubble
works by displaying half of both ends of the bubble side by side in
the telescope and when the curved ends are aligned it is level.
A modern automatic optical level with a horizontal transit readout
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