Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | We needed to measure some tile lines last week so I dug out the old measuring wheel. It was made in Texas and has been around the farm from when Dad bought it. I knew that it didn't measure in feet which was real obvious when I tried it in the dooryard. I thought it measured in "Chains". This prompted some research into the subject.
I used it to measure the length of my machine shed which I knew was 150'. The indicator on the wheel (baler type counter) showed about 227. Doing a little math, I found the conversion factor to be .66 to change the indicator units to feet. Since a chain is equal to 66', this agreed. So when the display showed 227 it really meant 2.27 chains which converts to 150' (2.27 x 66).
In my searches I found that in Medieval times the acre was defined as "the amount of land that a good team of oxen could plough in one day". This obviously had a lot of variables. Later it was defined as a piece of land, 1 Chain wide by 1 Furlong in length. A Furlong equals 10 Chains. So the acre was 1 chain wide x 10 chains long or 10 Square Chains.
To use the above mentioned wheel for area calculation in acres was quite easy for a rectangular field. Measure the length and width with the wheel in chains and then multiply those numbers together. The results would be the number of Square chains within the field so divide by 10 (move the decimal point one place to the left) and the result is in acres. This would have been easier in the days before calculators and Smartphones as most folks would rather multiply rather than having to divide by some nasty number like 43,560.
Then there is the Rod. A Chain is equal to 4 rods. The acre above is then 4 rods wide by 40 rods long which results in 160 square rods which is another way to define the acre. If your field is 160 rods long, each rod in width would be an acre.
Finally, the acre above could be measured in feet. The width would be 66 feet wide (1 chain) and 660 feet long (10 chains) which results in 43,560 square feet.
Edited by tedbear 4/19/2014 14:12
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Chain Research
