As we were driving across the country, my father was telling us about using "rods" as a measure of land when he was farming. We wondered where this term came from. In looking it up in dictionary.com, I actually found 2 terms of measures for it:

1. a unit of linear measure, 5 1/2 yards or 16 1/2 feet (5.029 m); linear perch or pole.

2. a unit of square measure, 30 1/4 square yards (25.29 sq. m); square perch or pole.

My dad was talking about the latter, I think. Does anyone here know more about this measurement term?

Old Imperial measures, still occasionally used. One rod (also called a pole or perch) is 5.5 yards. 4 rods equal 1 chain (the length of a cricket pitch I recall). 80 chains equal one mile. The railways of Britain were all laid out using Imperial measures and the radius of curves and distances are shown in chains. When travelling into London by rail, it's possible to see the chain distances marked beside the track as you get to Clapham Junction.

When I started in travel, all rail fares were calculated by distance and you added up the mileage and chainage between different points (remembering to carry one when you got to 80) and then looked up the fare in a conversion table.

All gone now - all fares are set according to marketing principles and the distance travelled is scarcely relevant (to the frequent bafflement of travellers).

A rod was a unit of measurement used in early surveying.

"Metes and bounds" is a land survey system used in England from about 1425 (the OED's first citation) and in the original 13 colonies. In this system the land is described using measurements between physical features. An example from Wikipedia:

quote:

A typical description for a small parcel of land would be: "beginning with a corner at the intersection of two stone walls near an apple tree on the north side of Muddy Creek road one mile above the junction of Muddy and Indian Creeks, north for 150 rods to the end of the stone wall bordering the road, then northwest along a line to a large standing rock on the corner of John Smith's place, thence west 150 rods to the corner of a barn near a large oak tree, thence south to Muddy Creek road, thence down the side of the creek road to the starting point."

Shortly after the Revolutionary War (1785) the Land Ordinance of 1785 was passed by the Continental Congress and the Public Lands Survey System (PLSS), a rectangular coordinate system, was established to survey the rest of the land. Land is divided into 6-mile square townships (36 square miles), which are further divided into 1-mile square sections (1 sq. mi. or 640 acres). Measurement were made with a 66-foot-long "chain." A rod is 1/4 of a chain. Each side of the section was 1 mile, or 80 chains, and 36 sections made up the township. Measurements started at the intersection an east-west base line and a north-south principal meridian (called the initial point).

Sections were numbered starting at the initial point, proceeding either east or west of the principal meridian to a range line. Sections 7 was began immediately north or south of section 6 and proceeded back to the p.m. (principal meridian). It proceeded back and forth like this until 36 sections were surveyed. This constituted a township.

Here's a legal description for some land sold in Jefferson County, Illinois in 1862:

quote:

Northwest Quarter of the Northeast Quarter of Section 8 in Township 1 South, Range 1 East of the Third Principal Meridian [Jefferson County]

The land sold for $11. It's recorded as 80 acres, but the legal description is for 40 acres (1/4 1/4 section).


References:
An Introduction To American Forestry, 3rd ed., by Allen and Sharpe, p. 216-220, 1960

A treatise on the law of surveying and boundaries, by Frank Emerson Clark, 1922

Rectangular Survey System

Finding Public Land Sales in Illinois

Land Ordinance of 1785

Metes and bounds

General Land Office

United States Rectangular System of Surveying

The Public Land Survey System (PLSS)

Darke County Genealogical Researchers > Land Records

Conversions and Formulas

Thanks so much, Tinman.

I'm sure I have seen chains and perches mentioned at least in old deeds, and now will have to dig out the deed to our house at some point to see if there are any rods or metes in it. Are any of these terms still used in surveying? It seems to me they might be.

Wordmatic

quote:

Are any of these terms still used in surveying? It seems to me they might be.

Yes. When we had our land surveyed we were told they would mete us at Rod's house.

I think they are; my cousin is a surveyor, and he says he still uses "rods." We just had wondered how that term came into use with other words such as "acres" and "miles" and "meters" and all.

quote:

We just had wondered how that term came into use with other words such as "acres" and "miles" and "meters" and all.

I have never heard of a "mete" and in the UK a meter is a thing that measures the amount of gas, water and electricity you use. A metre is the basis for the metric system of measurement, not the Imperial.

There are several other Imperial units of special application: one hand = 4 inches; 1 mil = 0.001 of an inch; 1 line = 0.08333 of an inch; 1 link = 7.92 inches.

It is fair to say that most of the above units are now rarely used, apart from the hand.

This thread brings back memories! When I was at school our exercise books carried on the back cover tables of these weird and wonderful imperial measures, such as the rod, pole or perch. They might have been useful to schoolkids in the 1900s, but in the 1950s they weren't helpful to us. They are almost certainly even less used by kids nowadays, if they still appear, of course, which I doubt.

I remember those books!
I hadn't thought about them in years until your post. For me this was in the 1960s and 70s and it's doubtful if those measures had been used for half a century but they were still printed on the back of the books.

The mil is commonly used by engineers but they don't call it that. Universally in my experience it's called "a thou" - an abbreviation for a thousandth of an inch. The other unit, known by all British engineers, but never to be found in sets of tables, is "a gnat's".

If you're an engineer you'll know it; if you're not then don't worry

Edit. Contrary to what I just wrote, here is a listing of the units in this system - http://www.scale-models.co.uk/...tem-measurement.html -

Seek and ye shall find.

rod

The rod and other anthropic units (link) are discussed in the Wikipedia entry. I ran across these quaint measures when in middle school I started to research the history of the rnach I grew up on and the surrounding area. Deeds used the terminology. Our ranch was a little over 720 acres. An acre is a rectangle 1 chain (i.e., 4 rods) by 1 furlong (i.e., 660 yards). Another strange, but large, unit of measurement used mainly by surveyors, is the township which is 36 square miles, each section being 1 square mile, or 640 acres. A quarter section (i.e., 160 acres) was a common size of farms in the older parts of the USA.

quote:

Seek and ye shall find.

Right. So a mete is not a unit of measurement; it is another term for a bound (or boundary). I'd not heard of it previously.

The thickness of recording tape is typically specified in mils in the U.S.

I'd have guessed it would be about ten thou.

quote:

The thickness of recording tape is typically specified in mils in the U.S

Plastic garbage bags, too.

When surveyors check lots on a street,
"Metes and bounds" is a phrase they repeat.
A bound you will find
Where a river might wind
But who knows what the hell is a "mete"?

who knows what the hell is a "mete"?

"One man's mead is another one's boisson."

quote:

I'd have guessed it would be about ten thou.

You're off by a factor of 10. Consumer reel-to-reel recording tape was typically 1 mil for 1800 feet on a 7 inch reel; longer tape was 0.5 mil. I would guess, from the feel, that cassette tape is 0.5 mils thick.

Only a thou? No wonder it sometimes breaks - surprising it doesn't break more often - it must be strong stuff.

Talking about old measurements, isn't the barleycorn still the basis for both British and US shoe sizes?

quote:

Only a thou? No wonder it sometimes breaks - surprising it doesn't break more often - it must be strong stuff.

Mylar.