BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE ORDNANCE SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND HOW THE TAVISTOCK THEODOLITE HELPED MAP THE WORLD By Paul Blowey

Talk  |  Seated

PAUL BLOWEY: Paul grew up on a farm above Morwellham, educated here in Tavistock before training as a Land Surveyor in the early 1980’s, working all over the UK including 6 months in the Middle East.
Following a second career, teaching mainly in Okehampton, Paul is enjoying retirement and has been an active member of Tavistock Lions, for many years.

TALK: ‘A brief introduction to the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain and how the Tavistock Theodolite helped map the World’
With Englands once World leading reputation as a manufacturer of theodolites under threat with smaller and more accurate versions being imported from other countries. A meeting was held somewhere here in Tavistock in 1926 between the War Office, the Admiralty, the Ordnance Survey and the leading British Theodolite manufacturers. At this meeting they compared the specifications of the current top versions and the firm Cooke, Troughton and Simms came up with their own version, named after this town where the meeting was held- but where?