Surveyor’s Chain (12 Gunter)
Surveyor’s Chain (1/2 Gunter)
- Description
- In the colonial period and throughout the nineteenth century, most American surveyors measured distances with chains. The favored form was the Gunter, introduced by the English mathematician, Edmund Gunter, in 1620. This has 100 links and measures 66 feet (or 4 poles) overall. Thus 80 chains equal a mile, and 10 square chains equal an acre. The chain shown here is a half-Gunter, with 50 links measuring 33 feet overall. It is one of several instruments that James Griswold used to lay out the New York and Erie Canal.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- chain, surveyor's (Griswold coll)
- associated place
- United States: Connecticut, Ridgefield
- Physical Description
- iron (overall material)
- brass (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 10.06 m; 33 ft
- overall; folded: 2 in x 10 in x 5 3/4 in; 5.08 cm x 25.4 cm x 14.605 cm
- ID Number
- PH.319344
- accession number
- 236805
- catalog number
- 319344
- Credit Line
- Preston R. Bassett
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Measuring & Mapping
- Artifact Walls exhibit
- Natural Resources
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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