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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Hi Allan:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Thanks for digging up the BBC’s Adam Hart Davies documentary series. Certainly, that does show some of the Roman’s surveying skills, but I think I must have conflated my memories
of his programmes with another which was much more specifically about the Roman skills in measuring in the vertical plane (for aqueducts), not just the horizontal plane (for roads).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">I must have seen another documentary, likely also from the BBC, specifically about aqueducts and the Roman “Chorobates” – see
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorobates">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorobates</a> an)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groma_(surveying)d">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groma_(surveying)d</a>
<a href="http://www.surveyhistory.org/roman_surveying1.htm">http://www.surveyhistory.org/roman_surveying1.htm</a>. Moreover my memory had somehow managed to confuse the Chorobates with the Groma (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groma_(surveying)">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groma_(surveying)</a>)!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Cheers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Brian Randell<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><b><span style="color:black">From:
</span></b><span style="color:black">Allan Olley <allan.olley@alumni.utoronto.ca><br>
<b>Date: </b>Friday, 25 October 2024 at 03:58<br>
<b>To: </b>herbert.bruderer@bluewin.ch <herbert.bruderer@bluewin.ch>, Brian Randell <brian.randell@newcastle.ac.uk><br>
<b>Cc: </b>Sigcis <members@sigcis.org><br>
<b>Subject: </b>Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Surveying instruments in the 17th century<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Hello,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">A search reveals the show in Question is What the Romans Did for Us (a six episode series from 2000), episode 4 Arteries of the Empire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">"Adam Hart-Davis analyses the Romans' ingenious surveying methods that enabled them to build their arrow-straight roads."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fl5ptx">https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fl5ptx</a><span style="color:black"> (available in the UK on BBC iPlayer)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fl5ptx" target="_blank"><span style="border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="240" height="135" style="width:2.5in;height:1.4062in" id="_x0000_i1026" src="cid:~WRD0000.jpg" alt="Image removed by sender."></span></a></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fl5ptx" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI Light",sans-serif;text-decoration:none">BBC Two - What the Romans Did for Us, Series 1, Arteries of the Empire</span></a><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI Light",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#666666">The Romans' ingenious surveying methods that enabled them to build arrow-straight roads.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#A6A6A6">www.bbc.co.uk<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">-- <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Yours Truly,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Allan Olley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Brian Randell
via Members <members@lists.sigcis.org><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, October 24, 2024 9:14 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> herbert.bruderer@bluewin.ch <herbert.bruderer@bluewin.ch><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Sigcis <members@sigcis.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Surveying instruments in the 17th century</span>
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<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Dear Herbert:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Many thanks – very interesting.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt">I’ve not paid much attention to the history of surveying instruments, but I do remember being impressed by a short program years ago on BBC TV in a series whose title was something like “What Did the Romans Do for Us?”. This
particular program was about their surveying techniques and tools, in particular those used for planning and constructing impressively lengthy aqueducts.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Cheers</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Brian</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:36.0pt">
On 24/10/2024, 11:15, "Members" <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt">Dear colleagues:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt">As these pictures show, surveying in the 17th century was very laborious:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt">Technical Marvels, Part 8: Historical Surveying Instruments – Communications of the ACM <<a href="https://cacm.acm.org/blogcacm/technical-marvels-part-8-historical-surveying-instruments/%3e">https://cacm.acm.org/blogcacm/technical-marvels-part-8-historical-surveying-instruments/></a> Posted
Oct 23 2024<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt">see also:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt">List of 77 blog posts on the history of analog and digital computing, technology, automatons, robots, and scientific instruments (mathematics, astronomy, surveying, time measurement, mechanical looms) published by the Communication
of the ACM, New York, 2017-2024,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt">DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.27909.97760 <<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.27909.97760%3e">http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.27909.97760></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt">Best wishes,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt">Herbert Bruderer<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:36.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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