Settling the Imperial/Metric Debate...

[tarheelz]

Gang,

Our friends at futilitycloset.com have pointed out some fractional measurements you may overlooked in your woodworking:

Cutting It Fine​

1/3rd of an inch is a BARLEYCORN.
1/12th of an inch is a LINE.
1/72nd of an inch is a POINT.
1/100th of an inch is a GRY.
1/144th of an inch is a SECOND.
1/1000th of an inch is a THOU.
1/1440th of an inch is a TWIP.
Via Haggard Hawks. Pleasingly, you can interconvert most of these here.

Cutting It Fine - Futility Closet

1/3rd of an inch is a BARLEYCORN. 1/12th of an inch is a LINE. 1/72nd of an inch is a POINT. 1/100th of an inch is a GRY. 1/144th of an inch is a SECOND. 1/1000th of an inch is a THOU. 1/1440th of an inch is a TWIP. Via Haggard Hawks. Pleasingly, you can interconvert most of these here.

www.futilitycloset.com

 

[Mike Davis]

Doesn’t settle anything, just a list of measurements. You should look into the history and meaning of those terms. Some of the multiple inch terms are interesting as well like nail 3 digits or 2 1/4 inches, hand 4 inches, shaftment 6 1/2 inches, link 7.92 inches, span 9 inches, ell from fingertip of outstretched arm to opposite shoulder = 20 nails = 45 inches, fathom fingertip to opposite outstretched fingertip = 6 feet,

And they left out poppyseed 1/4 of a barley corn, digit 3/4 inch, finger 7/8 inch.

 

[tvrgeek]

I know several other very well defined small measurements, but alas, not for a family forum.

Imperial/Metric. Well my Stanly #82 scraper has Whitworth threads.

 

[Pop Golden]

I'm quite familiar with the old Link. It's still very much in use today. It's part of land measurement. 25 links = rod, 100 links = a chain, 4 rods = chain, 10 square chains = 1 acre. I did tax mapping for a good many years. You run into this measurement when plotting property.

Just for laughs & giggles there are some real wild ones. Out in the west were land was cheap one form of measurement was in cigarettes. You get on your pony roll one up and when you finish you're there. For a little longer line you may have to smoke 2 or 3 or 4 or whatever. The best one of the bunch was all the land you can see standing on a given hill. This was for the King ranch, and the King ranch was the bases for the ranch in Bonanza.

These made mapping tons of fun

Pop

 

[tvrgeek]

The King ranch was a totally different scale. It at one time was almost 1/3 of Texas. It was basically the entire San Gurritis (sp?) grant. They maintained their own army and trespassing was not a good idea.
Of course, Richard King ( a name given him by a steamboat captain because as a child/stowaway he seemed so arrogant) actually made his money as a war profiteer with his Mexican partner as their shallow draft steamboats were the only way to get cotton out of the south during the civil war.

Of course, if you read history from the Texas standpoint, or the Tom Lee history, he was a wonderful guy and a hero. Not sure that is true for everyone else's standpoint. Another Hollywood myth was the cattle drives across the prairie. Actually, most were right up the railroad right-of way. King refused to pay for rail transportation so just ran them up the tracks. His "army" made sure the railroads could not stop it. Last I heard, his wife's family still owns what is left of it.

 

[Gotcha6]

I believe I read a piece last week that said that was in the top 10 (9th) group of private landowners in the US behind Ted Turner (2) and John Malone (1)

 

[Pop Golden]

Thanks Scott. I didn't know much about the guy who owned the land. We mappers have a love for odd survey details. There are many. The best local tail I have is about Bessemer City, NC. Students at UNCC were at a lecture about city planning. One of his top examples was Bessemer City. He went on and on about this being an ideal planned city. After the lecture a few of the students approached the guy and asked if he had ever been to Bessemer City. He replied no. The kids said they would love to drive him over to see. They knew that the design was done up north and the designers had never seen the city. They also knew that most of the design ignored the fact Whitstone Mt. was in the middle of their plan. This rendered the plan garbage. The lecturer couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what was really there. I learned this tail when I was Gaston County chief tax mapper. I would get property descriptions all the time were a lazy lawyer would give me a block & parcel number for that so called map. Most times it would be a farmer giving his son a parcel off the farm. Nowhere close to any thing on that cursed map.

Pop

 

[tvrgeek]

Even now, surveys can be in dispute. There s one point on my back line marked "in dispute" a foot or so difference between surveys, and then the adjoining lot was just done, and they put in a stake a good 10 feet away. ( and not in line, so I suspect totally wrong)

Of course our dogs have a totally different measurement system. If they can see it, it is theirs and must be defended by barking. They don't care much for rods, meters, or feet and polar coordinates are beyond even a Jack Russel.

There seems to be a totally different measurement system for plywood. 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch seem to be arbitrary, even sheet to sheet and each mill seems to cheat differently.

Anyone who as dealt with old British cars knows about British Instrument threads. The ones you swear are a 6 x 32 but are not. (Window winders) or the nuts on the back of Smiths gauges. My TVR had Imperial, metric, Witworth and British Instrument. Fun.

"What's a cubit?" ( B. Cosby from Noah's Arc)

 

[Gotcha6]

Thanks Scott. I didn't know much about the guy who owned the land. We mappers have a love for odd survey details. There are many. The best local tail I have is about Bessemer City, NC. Students at UNCC were at a lecture about city planning. One of his top examples was Bessemer City. He went on and on about this being an ideal planned city. After the lecture a few of the students approached the guy and asked if he had ever been to Bessemer City. He replied no. The kids said they would love to drive him over to see. They knew that the design was done up north and the designers had never seen the city. They also knew that most of the design ignored the fact Whitstone Mt. was in the middle of their plan. This rendered the plan garbage. The lecturer couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what was really there. I learned this tail when I was Gaston County chief tax mapper. I would get property descriptions all the time were a lazy lawyer would give me a block & parcel number for that so called map. Most times it would be a farmer giving his son a parcel off the farm. Nowhere close to any thing on that cursed map.

Pop

I know we're going off the OP here, but I can't resist telling one more:
If you look at a map of South Carolina, you'll see the Town of Kershaw in Lancaster County, not the County of Kershaw. Now, the story goes that when the surveyors were sent out to survey the county boundary, they stumbled upon a moonshine still, and the rest it history..........

 

[Tom from Clayton]

My dad used the term frog fuzz as in take just a frog fuzz off that board.