How many is "tally"?

I thought chaining pins came in sets of 11: one on the ground and 10 held by the forward chainman to start. An "out" was when there was one in the ground and the rear chainman had ten. I think that would apply with either a full or half chain.

?ÿA tally keeper on the compass would be advanced to count the "out"each time the forward guy was handed the ten pins.

Now I hope the experts will correct me if wrong.

I work in one of the Colonial states where different types of chains were used.?ÿ If I remember, a tally was every ten links and assume that related to a Gunter's Chain.?ÿ It's been years since I had to think about that in prep for the exam I passed in 1993 but converting chains and links to feet, tenths and hundreds is something I used to do often without worrying about tallies.?ÿ?ÿ

@bill93?ÿ That's right.?ÿ I used chaining pins for many dozens of miles while working for the Forest Service & BLM in the seventies.?ÿ The head and rear chainpersons kept track of the tally count in open flat country, in rough country you'd have to break chain or even worse slope chain with an Abney level and the rear chainperson would write down the distances (& slope angle when slope chaining) in his "peg book" to be reduced later by the party chief.?ÿ The transitperson wasn't involved, except to keep the head chainperson on line +- a few tenths.

I've seen chaining pins used incorrectly where the head chainperson would just hold a pin against the 0 mark with thumb & index finger and drop it when he heard "good" from the rear chainperson.?ÿ Bad practice,?ÿ use a plumb bob to dab a mark in the soil, then insert a chaining pin at a 45?ø angle exactly where the bob mark is.?ÿ It's where the pin enters the ground, not its top that matters.?ÿ?ÿ

Serious chaining of a metal standard length still beats all EDM techniques over shorter distances (10's of kilometers); witness the ice bar:

John Penry Article

@bill93

You are correct. The counter on the compass is termed the "out-keeper".