Mine Surveying Instruments

instruments used in mine surveying during spatial geometric measurements in underground shafts and quarries, as well as on the surface of the earth. They are divided into several groups according to purpose.

Direction-finding instruments include theodolite-tachymeters, mining theodolites and attachments for them (brackets, signals, and plumbs), tachymeters with stereoscopic range finders, and angle gauges. Instruments for measuring elevations and excesses include mining levels with self-adjusting axes, barometers, barographs, and profilographs for rail lines. Instruments for linear measurements include steel and tape reels, tapes (including those up to 1,000 m long to determine the depth of shafts), and filament, coincidence, autoreduction, stereoscopic, wire, and optical range finders. Instruments for determining azimuth and direction include magnetic compasses, orientation compasses, declination compasses, mining compasses, and explosion-proof gyroscopic compasses. Optical projectors and direction indicators include light indicators, conventional indicators, projectors, and plumbs with laser light sources. Special-purpose instruments are used for monitoring and profiling thin veins in mines, automatic clearance gauges, automatic recording columns, sensors for measuring mine pressure and shifting of rock, instruments and attachments to observe and record shifts in the earth’s surface as a result of underground work, and devices for geometric orientation (wires and weights). Photogrammetric instruments include phototheodolites, photogrammeters, and stereo comparators. Instruments for surveying underground cavities are internal tachymeters, the sectograph, ultrasonic instruments such as the Luch station, and sonar. Dipping compasses are used for surveying boreholes. Among the instruments used for office work are planimeters, pantographs, photocopying devices, drawing tools, calculators, and Drobyshev rules. Precision geodetic instruments (universal theodolites, Invar wire, plane tables, levels, and instruments for aerial photographic surveying and processing) are extensively used for geodetic surveying on the surface.