Chain
Chain (Gunter’s) = 66 feet.
Comprised of 100 links (7.92 inches each).
“An English mathematician named Edmund Gunter (1581-1626 contributed to the science of surveying…his practical measuring device called, in honor of him, the Gunter’s chain” (Brown, 1981, p.151).
The Gunter’s chain is 4 rods long and allowed for easy measuring without the need for fractions. The chain is often annotated as “110.82” chains or “110 chains 82 links.” This was much better than 443 1/4 rods. It is not uncommon to see rods and feet mixed, “4 rods and 2 feet,” in a single call.
Although created in c. 1200, the Gunter’s chain was still in use in east Tennessee as late as the 1960’s and into the 1970’s. It still remains a legal measurement for land transfer.
