I am posting for Gary Hartsog of West Virginia. He asked the National Museum of Surveying if we could help him acquire first hand accounts on the utility of the mechanical instruments made by Qualitest and/or BOIF. Please help him out.
I am working on a petition for modification for a number of underground coal mining companies involving electronic surveying equipment. The coal companies are petitioning that electronic surveying instruments are safe to use with certain safety precautions while the US Dept. of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has argued that mechanical surveying transits/theodolites and nylon clad steel tapes are just as good and adequate for such surveying. When a part of the discussion turns to availability of mechanical instruments, MSHA says that new mechanical instruments are available from a company called Qualitest and/or BOIF and that therefore we don’t need to use electronic surveying equipment in the mine. (www.worldoftest.com and www.BOIF.com)
I have been unable to locate anyone with experience with the Qualitest or BOIF mechanical theodolites. I would appreciate being able to contact anyone with experience with these instruments, their use, their maintenance, and their reliability.
Gary M. Hartsog, PE & PS
Replies
christopher iam also in Ghana here the use of mechnical methods is available here.
All sort of machines for surveying are use by surveyors and it helps to improve accuracy of jobs
I cannot believe that in the US they are so backwards about UG mining. I am a New Zealander living in South Africa, where mining is a large sector of the economy and if you tried to get any surveyor to use mechanical methods they would laugh at you. It just goes to show how inward facing the US really is. Europe is the same as here, the technology is largely orientated towards electronic simpicily for the user with no risk to third parties.