Rankine's method

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Rankine's method or tangential angle method is an angular technique for laying out circular curves by a combination of chaining and angles at circumference, fully exploiting the theodolite and making a substantial improvement in accuracy and productivity over existing methods. This method requires access to only one road/path of communication to lay out a curve. Points on curve are calculated by their angular offset from the path of communication.

Rankine's method is named for its discoverer William John Macquorn Rankine at an early stage of his career. He had been working on railways in Ireland, on the construction of the Dublin and Drogheda line.