Wanted-Old Measurement Tables

[Goldseeker]

OK you gals and boys, how many of you still have your old exercise books from school that has the measurement tables on the back cover.

If you have such a beast, is there any chance of taking a decent scan of them and send it to me please.

Please PM me if you can assist.

[JeffH]

Not real high resolution but Google found it in less than a minute.
I have a similar book but a little water stained. I will scan it later for you Bruce.
Jeff

[JeffH]

Here is my exercise book. Quite marked; it belonged to my late mother, who was born in 1928. From the contents I think she would have been mid to late teens when she had this.
This is a much reduced size copy so I can post here. I have the original scan if you want me to email it to you. But it is a rather large file, about 20MB.

[autocoupler]

Love that 144 things equals 1 gross. Never knew that, must have wagged it that day.

First thing I looked for on the first scale was chains. Not there, so that publication wasn't big on cricket.

[JeffH]

Here is a genuine (surveyor's) chain, for those who may not have seen one before. 66 feet long with 100 links. The site I pinched the picture from says "The links of the chain are each 7.92 inches long. That might seem like an odd choice, but 25 of them added up to one rod — 16.5 feet, so it made sense." Really!
I have actually used a chain like that when working with a surveyor; but that was over 50 years ago -they are out of fashion now with high tech advances like global positioning and laser tools.

[Triggersmob]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Jeff.
I used one of those in my first year of uni, when I studied Surveying.
I didn't complete that course.

[Goldseeker]

I saw that chain being used by the early surveyors that were trying to measure the boarders between Vic, SA and NSW many years ago.

That chain is the exact length of a cricket pitch, something like 22.?? something yeards.
.

[JeffH]

"The chain is a unit of length equal to 66 feet (22 yards). It is subdivided into 100 links or 4 rods. There are 10 chains in a furlong, and 80 chains in one statute mile." Wikipedia.

So simple really, unlike the metric system where you have to keep shuffling the decimal point!

[redlock]

"The chain is a unit of length equal to 66 feet (22 yards). It is subdivided into 100 links or 4 rods. There are 10 chains in a furlong, and 80 chains in one statute mile." Wikipedia.

So simple really, unlike the metric system where you have to keep shuffling the decimal point!

I have to disagree.
The metric system is much, much easier than the imperial one.

[gweidion]

I think Jeff was joking.

I learned both at school so it doesn't really bother me either way. I still prefer feet and inches over metres and centimetres but like kilograms over stone, pounds and ounces.
Bizarre.

[JeffH]

Yes. a touch of sarcasm from me.

Way back when I studied electrical engineering at university and most of our text books were American. Interestingly they all used metric units, the universal language of science and engineering.
A friend, ex-pat American, was in the marines before migrating to Australia. He told me that the US forces use metric units and the same time/date conventions as NATO forces to avoid possibility of confusion on joint exercises. So imperial system is not above all there. Even then their gallon is not the same size as the British, imperial gallon -a standard bottle of whisky is a "fifth" (of a US gallon) and there are six bottles in a British gallon. 3.785 liters vs. 4.546 litres.