Chains and furlongs
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The broken links mentioned in my recent post led me to thinking about chains and furlongs. I knew chains were a form of measuring length, and anyone who has ever watched a horse race or heard a racing commentary will have heard of furlongs. All well and good, but what exactly are chains and furlongs?
In 1620 an English mathematician called Edmund Gunter devised a measuring gadget called a chain, which was used to survey land accurately. It replaced earlier chains and was standardized.
.jpg)
It was 66 feet long and comprised 100 thick wire links with a loop at each end. The loops were joined by a ring, giving the appearance of three rings. At each end of the chain were brass handles.
There are 4 rods in a chain, each rod being 16.5 feet. The rod was also known as a perch or pole and was an old English measure of distance. Before it was standardized to become exactly one quarter of a chain, it could measure anything from 9 to 28 feet. Since 1965 it has no longer been used as a legal unit of measurement.
(NRCS_Photo_Gallery).tif%20(1).png)
Chains are still used in agriculture in the form of measuring wheels.
A furlong was used originally to define the length of a furrow in a ploughed field and was the distance a team of oxen could work without resting. That was standardised to be 40 rods or 10 chains or 660 feet, the equivalent of one-eighth of a mile.
There are 80 chains to the mile. Until the nineteenth century Scottish and Irish miles were longer because their chains differed in length. A Scottish chain was 74 feet and an Irish one was 84 feet. In 1824 they had to conform to English standards when imperial units were adopted.
In 1965, rods and chains were no longer used and faded into oblivion. We assume that nothing changes from one generation to the next, but that is clearly not true.
ReplyDeleteChains are still used as a linear measurement in agriculture.
DeleteI never even stopped to think about it. Amazing how many phrases and terms we use and don't stop to think about their origin.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, when we realise the origins, we stop using some terms;-)
DeleteThat reminds me of the horror of having to learn and recite the old Imperial Tables of mass, length, capacity, etc, as a child.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else remember Friday 'problems' maths lessons at primary school? Thank heavens for the modern decimal system. How anyone could want to go back to imperial is beyond me. I think my brain would explode nowadays. xx
Do you remember when the powers that be considered that children should be taught pounds, shillings and pence? It was in the late 80s I think. Thank goodness someone squashed the idea. x x x
ReplyDeleteI can't quite grasp that it took until 1965 for rods and chains to be abolished as a legal unit of measurements ... xxx
ReplyDeleteYou should look at some of our ancient laws . . . x x x
ReplyDeleteI know ... xxx
Delete