Historical information

This is a surveyor's chain or Gunter's chain, an instrument used for measuring length. It comprises 100 pieces of straight metal wire, looped together end to end, and fitted with swivel handles. Its overall length is one chain (22 yards or 66 feet).

The Gunter's chain was named after its inventor, Edmund Gunter (1581-1626), an English clergyman, mathematician, and astronomer.