[Magdalen] For those of us US'ers (& maybe even Canadians)...

[Roger Stokes]

On 30/07/2016 21:33, M J _Mike_ Logsdon wrote:
> I learned a surveyor's measurement term that I still laugh about: 
> chain. A chain is 66 feet. Gotta love that. I can only imagine how it 
> was invented (and no, I haven't looked it up yet, so there could be 
> something truly smart about it, and most likely is). "Hey, Boyd, you 
> got something to measure with?" "Got a length chain here." "How long 
> is it?" "'Bout 66 feet." "That'll do." 

Did you come across furlongs as well?  The name derives from "furrow 
long" and is 10 chains. An acre is the size of a rectangle a furlong by 
a chain. I have seen facsimiles of old maps with distances in miles and 
chains.  There are 100 links in a chain so each link is just under 8 
inches 25 links to the rod, pole or perch (they are interchangeable 
terms). A chain is the distance between the wickets on a cricket pitch.

Roger