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Gunter's chain (also known as Gunter's measurement) is a distance-measuring device used for surveying. It was designed and introduced in 1620 by English clergyman and mathematician Edmund Gunter (1581–1626). It enabled plots of land to be accurately surveyed and plotted, for legal and commercial purposes.
Edmund Gunter (1581 – 10 December 1626), was an English clergyman, mathematician, geometer and astronomer [1] of Welsh descent. He is best remembered for his mathematical contributions, which include the invention of the Gunter's chain, the Gunter's quadrant, and the Gunter's scale.
A longer chain of 100 feet (30.5 m), with a hundred 1 foot (305 mm) links, was devised in the UK in the late 18th century by Jesse Ramsden, though it never supplanted Gunter's chain. [7] Surveyors also sometimes used such a device, and called it the engineer's chain.
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).
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.
American surveyors use a decimal-based system of measurement devised by Edmund Gunter in 1620. The base unit is Gunter's chain of 66 feet (20 m) which is subdivided into 4 rods, each of 16.5 ft or 100 links of 0.66 feet. A link is abbreviated "lk", and links "lks", in old deeds and land surveys done for the government.
The term chain in both cases usually refers to the measuring instrument rather than a unit of length, and distances measured are normally given in feet and decimal fractions of a foot (not inches). Despite Ramsden's chain originating in the UK, Gunter's predominated there: "When a chain is spoken of without qualification, Gunter's chain is ...
An area of land one chain (four rods) wide by one furlong in length. As the traditional furlong could vary in length from country to country, so did the acre. In England an acre was 4,840 square yards (4,050 m 2), in Scotland 6,150 square yards (5,140 m 2) and in Ireland 7,840 square yards (6,560 m 2). It is a Saxon unit, meaning "field ...