Home >> Collecting >> Antiques

How to Date a K&E Surveyors Transit

Since the beginnings of land ownership, the determination of borders of one piece of land and the next have required a method to measure the edges of the property. Surveyors used equipment to determine latitude and longitude so that a geographical description of a piece of land could determine ownership. A vital instrument for these measurements is a surveyor's transit. It measures the horizontal and vertical angle of land and, coupled with a distance measurement, allows a map of the land to be made. The tools used over the years for this purpose have relegated them into the category of antiques. Discerning the production date of a transit is important to collectors.

Instructions

- 1
  Examine the transit and locate any inscriptions or labels affixed or stamped on the unit by the manufacturer. To properly date the transit, it is important to reference any production marks and information. Stamps usually include the name of the manufacturer and may also include the model number and serial number of the particular unit. For K&E transits, the production stamp also included the latest date of patent issuance by the government.
- 2
  Write down the serial number of the particular transit you are interested in. Most manufacturing companies maintain records of the serial numbers of the units they produce. K&E maintained such a list from 1900 until it ceased production in 1969.
- 3
  Compare the serial number you wrote down with the listing of serial numbers produced by K&E to locate the year in which K&E manufactured your transit. You can find the listing of production year and serial numbers at the Virtual Museum of Surveying website. The Surveyor's Historical Society magazine, Backsights, published a listing of the production year and serial numbers in January 1991. A reproduction of that listing appears on the Virtual Museum's site.

Antiques