A friend sent me pics of a device his BIL recently obtained with a Montgomery Ward builder's level.?ÿ He says the points are fixed at 80 inches apart.?ÿ The handle at the top turns on its axis.
If the points were 79.2 inches apart that would be ten links or one tenth of a chain, which would have been useful for measuring acreage.?ÿ
Three turns at 80 inches would be 20 feet, maybe that was the purpose.?ÿ Row crops such as corn and sorghum used to be planted in 40-inch rows, so perhaps that was the reason for 80 inches?
Three sources in the Lincoln, Nebraska area all call this a "Walking A" which makes perfect sense except I can find nothing on line on such a device.
One source said his dad had one with points half a rod apart and that they were available with a variety of spans.?ÿ He also said that Sears Roebuck sold them.?ÿ I looked at 1922 and 1940 catalogs online and did not find anything.
Another source said such devices were used by employees of a USDA agency for measuring planted crop acres back during the middle of the previous century.
Any info would be appreciated, especially something that provides links that lead to somewhere!
GB
I've seen a device like that used with a plumb-bob to maintain slope constructing water races and irrigation ditches.
There would be a mark on the crossbar - get the string on the mark - and you have the correct slope over the distance between the two ends
@jimcox That was my first thought as well, as the device is in an arid area where crop raising does not happen without irrigation.
But if that was the purpose, why would it be familiar to those in the Lincoln, Nebraska area where historically there was little irrigation.?ÿ Irrigation did take off in a big way during the 1950s a county or two to the west however.
Also, if the device was intended for grading ditches it seems that it would have pads instead of points at its ends.?ÿ (Think of the "topo shoes" used on prism poles and rover rods.)
GB
My dad grew up on a farm and he said his dad would measure fields with an "A frame" that you would apparently walk down the edge of a parcel.?ÿ I hadn't heard of such a gadget before but maybe this thing in the picture is what he was talking about.
When I was a young fellow working on farms in South Ga., some of the farmers would measure their field and crops with a home made device that looks like the tool in the photograph. They called it a "step jack". I have used one my self when working on a tobacco farm as a child.
