Technology in Surveys and Milestones

Over the years, many accounts of the “Benjamin Franklin Milestones” suggest that Franklin used a measuring device (perhaps his own invention!) attached to his carriage’s wheel as the method for accurately placing the milestones. (see resource list  below). My own measurements (with my car’s odometer) affirmed that praise of colonial precision. All found milestones (with the exception of IX) were each one mile apart.

However, I have not seen any evidence that Franklin himself did the measuring, marking, chiseling, or laying of the milestones. Given his responsibility for the entire colonial and early federal postal system, it would seem to be beyond the abilities of even a great man such as Franklin to personally conduct the installation of milestones along the post roads; the route from Woodbury to the county courthouse in Litchfield was not among the official post roads of early America, so Franklin’s participation in milestoning these roads is even more remote.

An appropriate vehicle to haul the milestones, stonecutting and stone-setting tools, and the worker(s) to lay the stones likely was more a working wagon than a gentleman’s carriage, perhaps akin to this 1906 photo of a U.S. Geological Survey horse-drawn wagon:

Horse-drawn wagon northwest of Sacramento, California, ca. 1906. Note the U.S.G.S. initials on the seat.

This reality check shouldn’t take away from our admiration and fascination with the technology used in surveying and laying out roads and boundaries  more than 200 years before GPS, GoogleEarth, and laser distance measurements. You’ve probably seen sports officials measuring distances using a wheel rolled along a path; Roman legions allegedly used a similar method to size up their conquered lands. (Gillingham; Wright and Insley). When artisans perfected the gearing mechanisms used in clocks and worked in brass, these tools, known as odometers, became quite precise. Incorporated in a wheelbarrow or single-handled tool, this was known as a “waywiser” (or in German, “wegweiser”) (OED Online). Below are traditional measuring units for land surveys which can be seen in the unit counters of some waywisers:  

• 1 Pole (a/k/a Rod) = 25 links = 16.5 ft.
• 1 Chain = 100 links = 4 Poles = 66 ft
• 1 Furlong = 40 Rods = 10 Chains = 1/8 of a mile = 660 ft.
• 1 Mile = 8 Furlongs = 320 Rods = 80 chains

 

 At the map point linked to this post, you can view images of several early American waywisers in the collection of the Smithsonian National American History Museum. The accompanying curator’s text is online at http://amhistory.si.edu/surveying/type.cfm?typeid=22

Waywiser (ca. 1880), Smithsonian NMAH Cat. No. PH*319204

Curiously, one of the waywisers (identified as an odometer) at the is marked "S. BEERS' PATENT. Naugutuc, Ct" [sic.] and is patented by Smith Beers, who is listed in the patent as “of Waterbury, CT”. Another in the collection was made by James Morris Beers of New Haven, thought to be related to Smith Beers. The name Beers is also associated with comprehensive maps of the towns of Connecticut and many other states published in the 1800’s, raising the question of the relationship between the waywiser manufacturers and the mapmakers.

Woodbury Milestones

                                                     Sources and Further Research                                                          

Colonial Surveying and Transportation Technology

Bedini, Sylvio A. With Compass and Chain: Early American Surveyors and Their Instruments. Frederick, MD: Professional Surveyors Pub. Co., 2001.

Beers, Smith. Odometer or Machine for Recording the Distance Traveled by Wheel-Carriages. US Patent 1325, issued September 14, 1839. https://www.google.com/patents/US1325?dq=patent:1325&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fDGnUqiDEILTrQGDx4Ag&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAA

“From Indian Trail to Toll Gate Road: Lewis Stanton Tells of Connecticut Highways.” The Hartford Courant, October 8, 1913, p. 7.

Gillingham, Harrold E. “A Surveyor's Measuring Wheel or Way-wiser: An Instrument for Measuring Short Distances on the Road or Other Land Surfaces; The Ancestor of the Cyclometer and Taximeter.” Journal of the Franklin Institute 211, no. 5 (May 1931): 671-673.

Grant, Will. “All the Jittery Horses: Racing the Mongol Derby.” Taft Bulletin 84, no. 1 (Fall 2013): 16-21. Accessed 27 November 2013. http://www.taftschool.org/alumni/bulletin/fall13/TaftFall13.pdf

McNeil, Ian. Encyclopedia of the History of Technology. London: Routledge, 1990 (p. 461).

National Musem of American History, Smithsonian Institute. “Waywiser, Physical Sciences Collection – Surveying and Geodesy,” accessed 27 November 2013, last modified 27 November 2013. http://amhistory.si.edu/surveying/type.cfm?typeid=22.

OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. s.v. “way-wiser”. http://0-www.oed.com.enterprise.sacredheart.edu/view/Entry/226530?redirectedFrom=way-wiser  (accessed November 27, 2013).

Trinder, Barrie. “William Reynolds: Polymath – A Biographical Strand Through the Industrial Revolution.” Industrial Archeology Review, 30, no.1 (2008): 17-32.

U.S. Geological Survey. Horse-drawn wagon northwest of Sacramento, California. ca. 1906. Historical Mapping Photographs Collection. Accessed 27 Nov. 2013. http://online.wr.usgs.gov/outreach/historicPhotos/enlarged/wagon.html

Wright, Norman E., and Jane Insley. “Odometer.” In Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Bud, and Deborah Jean Warner, 423-424. New York: Science Museum, London, and National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, in association with Garland, 1998.