I had a Surveying professor at dear old Moo U. (Mississippi State) that stayed on my butt for falling asleep in his class and it seemed like his significant figures always changed especially when it came to grading the exams. He was an ex military Surveyor, dropped aerial targets in Korea or somewhere. Not a humorous bone in his body and what he said in the State Licensing Board rules and regulations were gospel. You didn't cross him up. I wound up getting a C in his class.
Fast forward 20 years. I'm now a Licensed Land Surveyor and the ole prof he's retired. We both met up in the woods one morning with a crew of about 10 others to pour a concrete monument and place a granite and bronze disk at what the prof and a few others over the course of a decade or more had determined to be THE exact spot of the "Initial Point" of one of the principal meridians in Mississippi, THE initial point where all the Gov't surveys began in the area about 1820 or so.
I walk off about a half chain (33') north to take a leak and while I'm peeing I look over my shoulder and holler "Hey! Have you guys seen this pine knot over here?" Ole prof about fell over. We pour the concrete and place the granite and bronze disk while I'm checking it's position with a plumb bob and the strings from the straddles.
I looked up at my old Prof and say to him "I bet you never thought I'd be a significant figure one day, did you?" He just grinnned.
http://www.pmproject.org/Choctaw.htm
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Another class, an Old fellow prof teaching Highway Engineering. He spent the whole class day lecturing on how to figure out how many dump trucks and how big a loader you needed for a dirt pit X miles away from the job site to keep everything moving smoothly. I was sitting on the front row and just hung my head in my hands. He says "would you like to add anything to the discussion?" I looked up and said sure prof., it's all fine and dandy on paper but when all the dump truck drivers stop at the same cafe for a cup of coffee it all kinda goes out the window! I've been there. I've already done that. I've already SEEN that!