Did You Know…

In 1797, Joseph Ellicott was hired by the Holland Land Company to complete the Great Survey of Western New York.

The Great Survey was a tremendous achievement and was the largest surveying job ever completed up to that time. Ellicott knew the importance of accuracy, and at that time, there was no national standard for the measurement of one foot.

So, Ellicott took a bunch of one-foot rulers, found the average and used that as the one-foot ruler.

He then attached a brass twelve inch ruler to the cover of every field book

This twelve inch ruler became the ruler that we use today.

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