Page 1 of 1
Miles and chains???
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2003 1:55 pm
by Neptune50006
Railway distances are often shown in miles and chains. But what exactly is a chain in this respect? It's one of those things that I've often come across but never known what it means.
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2003 2:11 pm
by alanhowat
http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/units/length.htm
If you use the above link you will go where all is explained.
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2003 2:11 pm
by snowcrashandy
A chain's 22 yards, 80 chains to the mile, strange system of measurement, not sure why it was chosen though.
Andy
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2003 2:40 pm
by PaulH2
I seem to remember from some history lesson in my dim and distant past (or it may have been a field trip to the Black Country Museam) that a chain (22 yards as mentioned) was the average length of chain made by one man in a single day when the chain links were made manually.
Don't ask me to justify that, its just a vague memory (but seems reasonable).
Why it was chosen as a unit of measure for railways I don't know, but I would assume just because it is a larger unit than yards (and they didn't need that level of precision).
Paul
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2003 3:05 pm
by bjdick
It was chosen as a chain,because it was comprised of 100 "links",each of which is 7.92 inches.These units can be further subdivided into Barleycorns,for really precise measurement.
See
http://users.chariot.net.au/~youngs/linear.htm
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2003 3:31 pm
by tinsley
Now you understand why the rest of the world..well, most of it , is using the metric sytem!!!!
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2003 4:14 pm
by saddletank
The canals in Britain are 'correctly' measured in miles and furlongs Strange but true.
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2003 10:35 pm
by mikesimpson
And for those of you in England who still remember the game of Cricket, the chain is the length of the cricket pitch.
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2003 10:44 pm
by BobLatimer
Low blow Mike!!
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2003 12:17 am
by southcoasttrains
mikesimpson wrote:And for those of you in England who still remember the game of Cricket, the chain is the length of the cricket pitch.
Don't you mean the bit where the batsmen run between each wicket, Cricket pitches are likely to change in size.
As in football pitches, Arsenal is smaller than any other Premiership club.
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2003 3:08 am
by BobLatimer
I always thought the bit the batsmen run on was called the wicket - not to be confused with the set of three lengths of dowelling stuck in the ground with a couple of short pieces ballanced on top - also called the wicket - not to be confused with having one's wicket "taken" even if the ball didn't actually hit the wicket.
Just goes to show how complicated the English language is - not to mention the different variations on the original as spoken in different parts of the world.
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2003 9:22 am
by Neptune50006
Wow, thanks for that. It's almost like something out of a comedy sketch. It's amazing that anything ever got built properly years ago.
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2003 10:41 am
by isambardkingdombrunel
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2003 1:28 pm
by Fodda
Errr... IKB... Aren't the Welsh cricketing sides subsumed by the ECCB? Doesn't that mean that Welsh players actually play for England?
And Wales can be very proud of itself in the rugby this year (for a change
) after keeping the mighty Ireland to a near defeat. Well done that lot.