chainman

• “I had worked at various odd jobs in between— saw-mill hand, chainman on a surveying crow, and draftsman, for instance— and had travelled in North America, Europe and Asia.”

  Antiquarian Weird Tales: L Sprague de Camp (1950)

• “The summer that I worked as a surveyor's chainman for my old high school math teacher, I discovered my disinterest in that sort of precision, and I rejoiced when the long, hot and sultry summer ended, allowing me to return to my college studies and more literary pursuits.”

  Spiders and Wasps

• “As if provided specially to meet the situation along had come Rutland's urgent wire to headquarters for a new chainman, one of his men having taken sick suddenly.”

  Every Man for Himself

• “It was too dark to see the birches clearly, but the ex-chainman for the Rutland survey party knew they were there and how they looked; he had seen hundreds of such growths.”

  Every Man for Himself

• “Buck was readily located in the country north of Arcata, and one of the operatives actually procured a job as chainman with his surveying gang, while the other kept Ogilvy and his secretary under surveillance.”

  The Valley of the Giants

• “Great Scott! what is that?" cried a surveyor's chainman, shading his eyes and gazing at the fading line of agriculturist which bisected his visible horizon.”

  INTERNET WIRETAP: The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce (1993 Edition)

• “He raised his compass and followed the chainman to the Doyles 'door.”

  The Man in Gray

• “Glover chose for his companions two men: Dancing -- far and away the best climber in the telegraph corps, and Smith Young, roadmaster, a chainman of Glover's when he ran the Pilot line.”

  The Daughter of a Magnate

• “Young Spencer began his surveying work by carrying a flag, and soon he was advanced to "chainman.”

  Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8

• “The other chainman gave Carleton the leading end, intending that the”

  Charles Carleton Coffin War Correspondent, Traveller, Author, and Statesman

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