There was a surveyor in our area, Bob Gould, who must have left an entire Detroit Michigan’s worth of Ford axles in the ground between 1910 and 1940. Subdivisions, County Road surveys, ODOT surveys, sectional breakdowns. His plats and field notes have “Set Ford Axle” scattered all over the place.
I always wondered why Ford axles were used. There were other cars around, Hupmobiles, Oldsmobiles, Chevys. Then I saw a show about Yvon Chouinard, pioneer rock climber and founder of the Patagonia outdoor clothing company, and he got his start in the 1950s making pitons (spikes hammered into rock to help rock climbers.afix ropes to cliffs) 
Pitons were pretty cheesy and unreliable until Chouinard taught himself blacksmithing and began to forge his own. His inspiration was a Swiss climber who was making pitons out of Ford Axles. Hard steel pitons changed the face of big wall climbing. So maybe it wasn’t just the profusion of Fords, but the quality of the steel that made them popular with surveyors.
Ford Axle set by Gould in 1926 as a P.I. on Cloverdale Road. Found 8" below asphalt
I always thought a good cartoon would be a late night scene downtown, circa 1930s, with a smattering of loggers staggering out of bars to find a street with all their cars on blocks… wheels lying on the ground. Caption – “Looks like Gould has a couple sections to survey tomorrow”.
1915 Buick C series pickup truck.
A little more research...
bahahahaha... sad but funny.
A little more research...
Nope...not buying it. You're still of only RTK quality. You need to count all the teeth with your best estimation, and do it at least 10 times. It would be better to do it on different days, and in opposite directions (cw/ccw).
How can you possibly know that you are within even 3 teeth with an 95% certainty?
😀
(Okay I won't beat that joke any more. the one simple line by Bill was good enough)
A little more research...
> How can you possibly know that you are within even 3 teeth with an 95% certainty?
Well, the count of 19 teeth on the semi-diameter was +/-1 tooth, so if there are an even number of teeth on the gear, that would be an estimate of 38 teeth +/-2 teeth. If there are an odd number of teeth on the gear, the estimate would be 37 or 39 teeth +/-2 teeth.
So the possibilities are:
[pre]
Count Actual number
37 35 36 37 38 39
38 36 37 38 39 40
39 37 38 39 40 41
[/pre]
That's 38 +/-3 teeth.
A little more research...
> +/-3 teeth.
Good enough for the girls I go with.
Yes!
:excruciating: