What are those little silver buttons?

Retsef

Retsef

Retsef

Associate
Joined
3 Jan 2006
Posts
171
Location
Tonbridge, Kent
So I go out for lunch (Pret pastrami sandwich mmmm). Walking down the street in London and I see these little silver buttons, set in to the pavement. They're about the size of a 5p piece and shiny.

I've seen quite a few around, they tend to gather towards the side of the pavements. What are they? Possible reaons I've come up with :

1. indicating pipework underneath
2. indicating boundary between buildings & pavement (i.e. who is responsible for upkeep on either side)

Has anyone else seen these strange little "buttons"?
Do you know what they're for?
Have you seen anything else on the pavements that is strange?

Your views appreciated.
 
Put your tinfoil hat on and do not answer the phone.

I have never seen what you are on about but I have seen random posts with barcodes on them. :)
 
clv101 said:
They're not raised up to indicate crossing points or corners to blind people?
Click to expand...

Nah you are thinking of the 'pinned' pavement where you can feel the pins or bumps or whatever, he is probably talking about small nails that are put in the pavement. I am sure you have seen a guy sitting with a stick on top of which there's a mirror, and another guy across him with a machine on top of a tripod, they use that to measure distance, but where both ends of the machine are placed are specific, so they use these pins.
 
they had these things put in at my old school about 5 years ago now, there were people with orange waist jackets and those tripod measurment things (i think thats what they are) they have a little box on the top of a tripod and somebody has one at the other end lol. measuring where to put them..

then they sprayed a green triangle around them when they finished and gave them a number :confused:
 
Warning blind or visually impaired people that there is a 'bit of a drop' near by
Ive seen pedestrian crossings with raised bumps in the pavement?

Sorry for the sensible answer


EDIT
Ack, beaten - im at work hence why im so slow atm
 
They are, as was said before, for surveying.

When you finish a days surveying you put in markers for reference when you return to continue the survey.

The box on top of a tripod is called a total station and can record hundreds of points, their angles and what the point is (a tree for example) from a reference point. This information can then be transferred into a table and drawn up in CAD.

These drawings can then be used to place proposed structures into the environment they will be in and shown to your client / the council etc! :D
 
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Thanks for your comments guys. I know that land surveyors use theodolites to measure distance. These tripods have a spike coming down the centre, but I've seen them using the equipment without having it placed on a "button" and haven't seen them use it "on the button" (no pun intended). There again, it seems a more likely explanation that I've so far received.
 
Slightly off topic (but not much), I was told that there are little marks set in to the ground around the Tower of London. Apparantly, the archers in the Tower would fire out arrows. The maximum distance the arrows reached was then designated property of the Crown. These marks also indicated the protected area around the Tower. They are maintained by Royal Parks & Palaces.

I work near the Tower, but have not seen these marks. That was actually what I was looking for when I came across the "silver buttons".
 
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