| The distance between the stumps on a cricket pitch is 22 yards (66 feet) which is 1/10th of a furlong (literally a furrow's length) and 8 furlongs is a mile. 22 yards is also a chain, after Gunter's Chain which was divided into 100 links. 10 square chains make an acre. A chain is divided into 4 poles (which are also known as perches or rods). 240 chains is a league and half a league is famous in a poem: | |
Half a league half a league | |
| And the reason I mentioned the chain? Well I'm listening to the cricket and while on holiday last week we visited the "Weald and Downland Open Air Museum " and beside one of the houses they have a chain on display, it runs the length of a fence. The truly lovely part is that the chain is divided into 4 poles and each is identified by a different shaped tag as shown in this image. So there ya go! Anyone know where the title of this post comes from? |  |
Thursday, 25 August 2005
You freed my body.........
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15 careful considerations:
I've been to the nearby Amberley museum. They have a working "village" telephone exchange. It really shook me when I had to teach the kiddies how to use a dial phone. They'd never used one before! I remember my Nan (RIP) teaching me how to use the telephone.
As for the post title..... from a Psalm?
We looked at going to Amberley but it was that bit further and the weather was so good it seemed a shame spending so long in the car (and away from the beach!)
I think that line appears in a hymn or two but not related to the rest of the posting (I do try and relate them ya know! :-))
A quick google search and moments later........ it's in the lyrics of a track by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band!
Isn't the internet amazing! You can find anything! Except:
Why fast food never looks as good as the picture on the menu.
and
[fill in the blank]
Doesn't explain my strange, eclectic taste in music either :-)
I saw SAHB in Manchester when the were supporting Ted Nugent ("The Motor City Madman") - his party trick was cranking the amps up to 15 and then hitting feedback but not in a good way - it really was one of those "bleeding from the ears" nights.
Are you purpose trying to be confusing this early in the morning?? None of those numbers are even coming into focus yet! LOL
So...... an acre is a square furlong!
It starts to make sense now!
And a square mile contains 64 acres (except in London where it contains 640,000 wancres).
Those ancient-types were all ready for binary and computers then?
You are more than welcome Squidward old chap!
GW - I fear you're estimate for the number of wancres/mile^2 in London may be low but otherwise it's all much more sensible than doing something daft like counting in powers of 2 innit? :-)
Dude, I like you and all but I have no effin idea what you are talking about...
Wendy ... I blamed it on being so early in the morning. :)
And comments about not understanding archaic units of measurement from a country that still serves beer in quarts and petrol in gallons!
Oh Wendy - I'd love you to carry my babies (but even the youngest is getting a bit too big to carry!). The number of wancres per square mile in London will always be disputed by those of us from the north of England but that's the way it works.
I wouldn't know bout the beer in quarts thing, seeing how I drink martinis (peach please!), but there is an issue with gas in gallons?? What other unit would one sell gas in??
We purchase petrol and diesel in litres and pay about 90p/litre which comes in at about GBP4/gallon - a price that would probably cause a revolution in the US!
What I find really annoying is that I like to work out my fuel consumption in miles per gallon, but my mental arithmetic is just that - mental.
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