Field Measurment with an Arch.

I was trying to describe to a friend of mine how we used to measure acreage by swinging a wooden arch. Before measuring wheels with counters became popular, a folding wood triangle with two steel points and a rotating handle was used.

The two steel points were 6.6 feet apart. 1 square arch was 43.56 square feet, 1000 square arches equaled 1 acre. I would like to know if anyone here has used one, or maybe a picture of one you may have?

I searched over an hour and it seems like there are no references anywhere about it online.

Thanks' for your help!
Beagle
 
Yes I have used one years ago. My Grandpa made one and we used it for measuring fields. Im not sure what happened to it but it was built as you described. An inverted V with a handle on top to rotate. We counted rotations to measure the fields.
 
my dad made one out of 1x2 wood to measure out 8 acres of one of the fields for me to grow potatoes on for my FFA summer project back about 1960. a lot more work planting, hoeing, digging than I anticipated. Made good money tho, paid for my first car. 1948 chevy fleetline.
 
Google tools for land measurement, The tool your talking about is the first one up in google images. The 6.6 ft X 10 equals 66 ft or 1 chain 10 chains equal 660ft X 660ft is one tenth of an acre Back in 1962 when I worked for the USDA ASC office, I used to drag around a 66 ft steel tape. with a steel pin attached to it. Stick the pin in the ground and hope it stayed there while I walked 26 paces then hope you felt the gentle tug. Then stick another pin in the ground put the tape through the loop on the pin and walk another 26 paces and stick in another pin. Lots of exercise. The 66ft tape was marked out with 100 spaces called links. Measure a field then mark it out on an aerial photograph and the girls back at the office would measure it with a planimeter to figure the acreage and some farmer got paid for not planting corn.
 
660X66feet is one acre. An acre sized square is 208.7 feet on each side. Not a flame, I just knew it was too big for the stated size. Jim
 
Your comment brought back memories of me doing just that. One day my boss asked did you walk all the way around this field to check if the crop was to the boundaries as shown on this map? Yessir. Then didn't you a little wet on the back corner where the farmer put a pond last year? Oopsie. TDF
 
My dad also measured land with the ASCS office in the 60s in south Georgia. I walked ahead of him pulling a chain that was 66 feet long and marked in tenths placing wire stakes when the chain was tight. We would measure peanuts, cotton, tobacco and corn fields. In many of the fields you could not see the bare ground and south Georgia grows some monster rattlesnakes. I learned if you didn't look for them you would not see nearly as many. I never was bitten but I didn't waste a lot of time in those areas either. Sid
 

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