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A quarter chain, or 25 links, measures 16 feet 6 inches (5.03 m) and thus measures a rod (or pole). Ten chains measure a furlong and 80 chains measure a statute mile. [1] Gunter's chain reconciled two seemingly incompatible systems: the traditional English land measurements, based on the number four, and decimals based on the number 10.
A Gunter's chain showing the individual links. The link (usually abbreviated as "l.", "li." or "lnk."), sometimes called a Gunter’s link, is a unit of length formerly used in many English-speaking countries. In US customary units modern definition, the link is exactly 66 ⁄ 100 of a US survey foot, [1] or exactly 7.92 inches or 20.1168 cm.
The only exceptions to this rule are special requirements for measurement in feet in mineral surveys and townsite surveys. [13] Linear Measurement 1 Chain = 100 links or 66 feet 1 Mile = 80 chains or 5,280 feet. Area Measurement 1 Acre = 10 square chains or 43,560 square feet 1 square mile = 640 acres
Distances were always measured in chains and links, based on Edmund Gunter's 66-foot measuring chain. The chain – an actual metal chain – was made up of 100 links, each being 7.92 inches (201 mm) long. Eighty chains constitute one U.S. survey mile (which differs from the international mile by a few millimeters).
A chain 66 feet (20 m) long, with intermediate measurements indicated, was chosen for the purpose, and is called Gunter's chain. The length of the chain chosen, 66 feet (20 m), being called a chain gives a unit easily converted to area. [9] Therefore, a parcel of 10 square chains gives 1 acre.
The rod, perch, or pole (sometimes also lug) is a surveyor's tool [1] and unit of length of various historical definitions. In British imperial and US customary units, it is defined as 16 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet, equal to exactly 1 ⁄ 320 of a mile, or 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 yards (a quarter of a surveyor's chain), and is exactly 5.0292 meters.
To begin surveying a party chief would have to buy approximately $400 worth of instruments. These instruments included an alidade, dumpy level, theodolite, Gunter's chain (which was replaced by a steel tape), and a solar compass or a vernier compass. [2] The Dominion Land Survey system was proposed in 1869 by John Stoughton Dennis.
Eighteenth-century surveyors used Gunter's chains which were 22 yards long (one chain with 100 links of 7.92 inches). Their accuracy was adequate for cadastral surveying but they were deemed insufficiently accurate for the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) , Britain's first high-precision survey.