Methods of Measurement

[awemawson]

On another forum, there has been a discussion on the merits of Metric versus Imperial measures, and just to give them a glimpse into the past,I posted pictures of my original 'Chain Measure'  or Gunter's Chain so I thought I'd post them here as well in case you've not seen one before.

Surprisingly accurate if you are careful to take the twists out as you unfurl it.

[NormanV]

That takes me back, I used to use one when I worked for my local water company. You had to master the technique of throwing them out without tangling them. One survey we did was about 2 miles between 2 bench marks, we were accurate to a quarter of an inch. Happy days!

[chipenter]

We used to survey the park by Croydon teck , and were told not to cut the flowers .

[SwarfnStuff]

Oh back to school daze.
          Rods, Perches, Chains and Links, never used em. All familiar if not remembered in the correct order of size by a 74 yr old who went to a Tech school 60 odd years ago.  Bought up on feet, inches. Pounds, Ounces, Drams but love the simplicity of the Metric system. I did convert early in my working life to the metric system of mass and it was sure easier to calculate percentage additions than the imperial system.
Love retirement.
John B

[bp]

When I was in the DO, I had a bit of an argument with the Sheet Metal Foreman....the argument ended with him saying, shouting really, something like ".....dimension it how you jolly well like old chap, we will be pleased to make it, however you have drawn it", or something like that.  So the next thing I drew, I dimensioned in Cubits, there was even a scale to convert to other obscure systems.
Although I really didn't like the SM Foreman a great deal, to give him his due, he saw the funny side and we had a good laugh as I handed him the up issued drawing with "conventional" (but so boring) dimensions.
cheers
Bill

[hopefuldave]

A bit like the speedometer on one of my motorbikes - I fitted different wheels, different speedo drive, I'm pretty sure it's now calibrated in kiloFurlongs per Fortnight...

Dave H. (the other one)

[Jasonb]

We used to survey the park by Croydon teck , and were told not to cut the flowers .

Did you also have to measure the height of the water tower with the theodolite? Looks like we went to the same college.

J

[chipenter]

Did you also have to measure the height of the water tower with the theodolite? Looks like we went to the same college.

yes I remember the anchent instument took ages to set up and use , I was there fom 1966 to 1970 .

[RussellT]

There's quite an interesting book called The Great Arc (about surveying India) which refers to these chains. 

Apparently they weren't accurate enough for the baseline surveys they wanted to do and they had to resort to other means (rods).

If you read it you'll also discover how to pronounce Everest.

Russell