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Can anyone identify what kind of chain this is
Posted by Williwaw on January 15, 2021 at 10:01 pmWhen I started here back in 2007, my predecessor had this chain wrapped around the ceiling of the office for display and I’m completing the move to a new office and took it down. Now I’m curious as I know little about it other than my predecessor mentioned that he had removed it from some trash and hung on to it. It does not appear to be a surveyor’s chain, at least any I’m familiar with. Anyone?
charles-l-dowdell replied 3 years, 3 months ago 17 Members · 26 Replies- 26 Replies
Why not a survey chain?
How long, in how many links?
Any names marked on it?
.Looks like a 66 foot surveyors chain to me…
Looks like a 66 foot surveyors chain to me…
That little brass tag is a Tally Mark. That particular one indicates “4” of whatever it is tallying. There should be more, but since they are brass, oft-times they may be broken off. Depending on the chain and handles, the end of the link, at the handle, to the same point on the other end is the length of chain. An engineer chain is 100 feet, a survey chain could be 66′ typically, and in Texas, and possibly other “Spanish origin” states, it could be a Vara Chain. I have only seen 1 vara chain in my 44 years of surveying.
Also, the manufacturer would stamp their name on the end of the brass handle. K& E, Chesterman, Sheffield (European), among many others.@bryan-newsome
Closer inspection one of the tags is stamped with ‘Chesterman “JC” Sheffield -ENG
The ENG part, Engineering or England?
Willy@brad-ott he was posting while I was typing. I estimated the links I couldn’t see from those I could. Not terribly scientific.
@thebionicman I sincerely apologize. Seriously, sometimes I can be a dick. It is one of my many super powers. I hope you will forgive me and maybe even show me the undeserved kindness of forgetting my snotty post. I mean this. I am sorry.
the giveaway that it is an engineer’s chain was the four pointed tally = 66′ which obviously would not be on a surveyors chain
Found this with my googlefu which shed some light on my office decoration. I know a bit more now than when I pulled it down from the ceiling. I think I will put it back up in the new office as a nod to my mentor who left it to me.
http://www.dehilster.info/geodetic_instruments/20th_century_chesterman_imperial_chain.php
Willydisregard above. I just checked two of my chains and both have tallies after 10 links
Eng. I believe would be England, since Sheffield is in England.
A surveyors chain would have 100 0.66′ links, it appears that a 66′ chain was modified to 100′ by adding 100 0.34′ links into the mix. Those smaller links can be seen to be all bundled at one end. Quite interesting as I have never seen one before. Probably way cheaper to add links than actually buy a 100′ steel tape. Most likely it was used for railroad construction.
Paul in PA
PS, Do I get any points for imagination as I posted before seeing the second page post above?
No worries at all. Nice thing about getting old. Already forgotten ????
I remember in college dragging a two chain steel tape through the woods and learning to “throw” it
Sheffield, England is/was a major metal manufacturing city.
down here they are known as a “Gunter’s Chain”
old technology
used before steel bands which was before edm which was before gps
should be 100 links of 0.201188 metres each
Edmund Gunter was an English astronomer. I seem to remember hearing that he invented the chain named for him in 1763, that being the 66-foot one that was used in the PLSS.
66 feet is four rods and an acre is 160 square rods or 10 square chains. Measuring in chains and links made it easy for the PLSS draftsmen to compute areas.
NZ’s survey system went from chains & links to metric.
The 0.201168 conversion factor is engraved deep in every kiwi surveyor’s brain
Ten Rules to Date a Chain
1. Most 33-foot or two pole chains date before about 1810.
2. Most chains with wire handles date before 1800.
3. (Chains made before 1800 most likely have three rings between each link.
4. (Chains made after 1800 will have two rings between each link.
5. Some chains made between 1880 and 1920 have only one ring, and a few, like the Grumman, had no rings between the links.
a. (Chains made before 1800 most likely will have the loops on the end of each link bent in opposite directions.
7. Most chains made before 1850 will not have the links and rings braised or soldered shut, required after about l855 by the GLO( General Land Office).
8. Chains made after 1800 will have cast brass handles.
9. Almost all chains made after 1855 will be four poles or 66′ long.
10). in about 1880 chains were made ,with 100 one-foot links, called an engineers chain (the least valuable of antique chains).
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