Surveyor's Chain
name: label: originator
content: Wing, Vincent
label: owner
content: Heisely, Frederick
notes: label: Description
content: In 1620 an English mathematician named Edmund Gunter described a surveyor's chain with 100 links, measuring 66 feet (22 yards or 4 poles) overall. By this design, one square chain equals 484 square yards, ten square chains equal an acre, and eighty chains equal a mile. Building on this work, an English mathematician named Vincent Wing (1619-1668) introduced a 2 pole chain with 40 links. This example is of that sort. It is, moreover, associated with the vernier compass marked "F. Heiseley Fredk: town" in the Museum collection.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Surveying and Geodesy
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Rittenhouse
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.0793.03
label: accession number
content: 1988.0793
label: catalog number
content: 1988.0793.03
objectType: label: Object Name
content: surveyor's chain
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall length: 33 in; 83.82 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall, bundled: 2 1/2 in x 13 in x 7 in; 6.35 cm x 33.02 cm x 17.78 cm