Horizontal Leveling Instrument Guide

For those who have taken a walk into the wild will know that humans are indeed very small. The trees that have lived for thousands of years are so tall that we can barely see the canopy. And for mountains like the Everest mountain, it is so high that many climbers died trying to conquer the peak of the tallest mountain in the world.

Even the majority of animals are bigger and taller than humans. Elephants, giraffes, blue whales are all examples of the inherently biggest animals in the world. But we do not always have to wander into nature to find out how small we are. In the city, thousands of skyscrapers stand high and tall next to one another. The land poles, the ships, the airplanes are all taller than all of us in the city. So how do humans build something that is way bigger and higher than themselves? This brings us to today’s discussion, the horizontal leveling instrument.

The leveling

Before we go dig into what the horizontal leveling instrument is, let’s first understand the process of the leveling. The process of leveling can be viewed as a branch of surveying. The process of leveling is type of measuring technique which is greatly used in cartography to measure the geodetic height, and it is also common to use the process of leveling in construction to measure the height differences of construction artifacts. The leveling technique is sometime also referred as spirit leveling and differential leveling. 

Horizontal leveling instrument

Now that we have learned the technique of leveling, we can start  addressing the horizontal leveling instrument. The horizontal leveling instrument is an optical machine which is often used for the purpose of surveying and building to transfer measure or set horizontal levels. The horizontal leveling instrument is built with several components. Each of them has their unique function to help the process of measuring be successful. 

To begin with, there is a telescope, the main purpose of which is to observe the distant object through line of sight provided by its arrangement. There is also the eyepiece which is essentially a device designed for the observer’s eye to view the distant object. Within the eye piece there is a magnifying glass which has the ability to magnify the observing object and also the cross hairs of diaphragm. And there is the leveling head, which is sometimes referred to as the trivet. The leveling head contains two triangular shaped plates which are set in a parallel way for each other. The tribrach plate is set in the parallel direction to the leveling head. The tribrach is connected to trivet by device such as the leveling screws or foot screws. The leveling screws can help the tribrach adjust the tribrach plate. By adjusting the plate of the tribrach, the horizontal level of the instrument can be achieved. 

Other leveling techniques

Now we’ve understood what horizontal leveling instruments are and how they function. But there are other techniques of leveling to explore. Here are some examples. First, the self-leveling level is to be discussed. It is a type of equipment that is similar to the tilting level. Self-leveling level does not contain a micrometer screw, instead, an internal compensator mechanism complements the equipment. If the internal compensator mechanism is set close to the level, it will take out any existing variation automatically from the level. This ability has in turn reduced the process for people to set the instrument for leveling which is often required in the dumpy and tilting level. 

Self-leveling level’s ability to reduce the set up time and its simple nature has turned them into a highly preferred instrument in surveying. Another type of the leveling equipment I want to talk about is the digital level. A digital electronic level is another type of leveling equipment which is usually set up on a device called tripod. A digital level will read a bar coded staff by the method of the electronic laser. The digital level has the ability to remove the interpolation of graduation by a person. This function has enabled the digital level to remove a source which is deemed as error and increasing the rate of accuracy.

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