100 
C. PRACTICAL SCIENCE. 
C. PRACTICAL SCIENCE. 
1. On the Link of Gunter’s Chain as the Unit of a Deci¬ 
mal System of Weights and Measures. By B. S. Ly¬ 
man, of Philadelphia, Penn. 
The object of this paper is to call attention to the fact of our having 
already in use a decimal system of measures, and to the feasibility of 
its general extension. 
In replacing our ordinary measures and weights by new decimal 
ones, it is less important to have the same unit with other countries 
than to have easy means of converting the old measures into the new ; 
for conversion from one decimal system to another is comparatively 
easy, and it is chiefly importers and travellers and readers of foreign 
books alone who need to compare foreign measures with ours. Of all 
measures land measures will need for the longest time to be frequently 
converted from the old standard to the new, on account of the great 
length of time that a land deed remains in use; and they also require 
most time for us to learn to conceive of them accurately. 
If the link of Gunter’s Chain, a measure widely used by land sur¬ 
veyors, and familiar, also, to most land owners, were taken for the 
standard unit of a decimal system, the important denominations of link, 
chain, furlong, and acre would remain absolutely unchanged. The 
link is .7.92 inches, and is within a twentieth of an inch of one-fifth of 
the French metre. Ten links are six feet and 7.2 inches, and might 
be called a fathom, since there are so many fathoms in use as to make 
it hitherto a rather indefinite length ; and this fathom would be almost 
exactly equal to two metres, or to the Saxon Lachter. The mile 
might be lengthened so as to be ten furlongs (nearer than our present 
mile to the geographical mile), and then a square mile would contain 
1000 acres. Since the link is about eight inches, or two hands, one 
tenth of it might be called a finger, and it would be almost exactly the 
length of the (theoretical) diameter of the new five cent. coin. One 
hundredth of a link is or of the present line, and might be 
called a line. 
A cubic link contains 497 cubic inches, between two wine gallons 
