I believe it ’s a pattern that onetime farm come fully fit with their own puzzling farming artifacts — creature and machines whose purpose is indecipherable . Or at least it seems that way , as I ’m certain many hobby husbandman can attest . Every b and outbuilding is adhere to have at leastone or two previous metal itemslying around .
On my farm , one unusual item left behind by the previous owner ( or perhaps by a distich of old owner ) is a great alloy wheel more than 5 feet in diameter , with a grip for keeping it upright and an quondam mechanical milometer installed just above the axle .
It does n’t see like much at first glimpse ( to be honest , it looks like a hoary art object of junk ) but as it turns out , this detail is an old - fashioned measuring roulette wheel — and a big one at that .
You might be familiar with measure wheels on a modest exfoliation . Models with steering wheel set out from a few inches to about a pes in diam are widely available . Their conception and design is remarkably dim-witted — each time the wheel makes a full rotation , the odometer takes note , keeping track of the phone number of fourth dimension the wheel has been turned . advanced measure out wheels with digital odometer can tell you exactly how far the wheel has go , displayed in inches , feet , yard , meters — you name it .
So why is my measure roulette wheel so large ? That ’s an interesting question , because out of curiosity , I did some enquiry on assess wheels and find that such large models are n’t exactly mutual these twenty-four hour period , perhaps because they ’re rather unwieldy to use and take up a lot of outer space .
However , a measuring wheel of such great size does offer a distinct advantage for farmers . Whereas small wheels are more potential to slip or get caught up in rough terrain , a large cycle is easier to properly manoeuvre in guileful stipulation . More significantly , a large steering wheel is n’t affected as much by dips and rises in the ground — it can more easy tantalise over them , ensue in more exact measurements than those of little bicycle , which can be thrown off by the amount of time they spend traveling up and down the bantam bumps and depression .
Because the diam of my measurement bicycle is around 5 ½ feet , I estimate that the wheel is designed to cover a mile with 300 revolution , or 75 revolutions per quarter - mile .
With today ’s modern technology , evaluate the distance from one point to another is easier than ever ; in fact , with mellow - timber planet imagery , you could do it without even stepping outside . But there ’s something about this old - fashioned mensuration steering wheel that I encounter appeal — let ’s face it , what could be simpler for value a extended aloofness than rolling a rack from one point in time to another and record the result ?
So the next time I have a pauperism to quantify a long aloofness — perhaps the length of anew gardenorpasture — perhaps I ’ll get out my measuring steering wheel and give it a try . If it has been on the farm for this long , I might as well put it to use .
