Borden Base Line
Encyclopedia
Hatfield, Massachusetts
Hatfield is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,249 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area....
and South Deerfield, Massachusetts
South Deerfield, Massachusetts
South Deerfield is a census-designated place in Deerfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. It is home to the well-known Yankee Candle Company.South Deerfield is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area....
. It was completed in 1831, and is now on the List of historic civil engineering landmarks.
The base line measurement was the first project of its kind undertaken in America, and essential for Massachusetts' pioneering Trigonometrical Survey, performed under chief engineer Robert Treat Paine
Robert Treat Paine
Robert Treat Paine was a signer of the Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts.-Early life and ancestors:...
. Its careful measurement was critical, since the accuracy of the whole triangulation network depended on it.
The base line was measured with greater accuracy than previously possible by using a new measuring device invented by Simeon Borden
Simeon Borden
Simeon Borden was an American inventor, engineer, and noted surveyor.Borden was born in Freetown, now Fall River, Massachusetts, to Simeon and Amey Briggs Borden; his younger brother Nathaniel Briggs Borden later became a United States Representative...
, which employed a bi-metallic measuring instrument to provide constant readings despite temperature variations. His apparatus was 50 feet (15.2 m) long, enclosed in a tube, and employed with four compound microscopes.
Borden was a highly competent engineer whose ability was widely recognized. Indeed, the entire project became generally known as the Borden Survey. He measured the base line with a nominal accuracy of better than one part in 5 million. As Professor A. D. Butterfield has written, "The work performed and results obtained far surpassed in magnitude and attainment of any previous work of this kind in America."
It appears that the north end of the baseline lies just south of the intersection of today's Route 116 and Route 5 in South Deerfield, Massachusetts
South Deerfield, Massachusetts
South Deerfield is a census-designated place in Deerfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. It is home to the well-known Yankee Candle Company.South Deerfield is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area....
. According to the Valley Historians, the south end is still marked by a copper plug set into a boulder, located in the back yard of the house at 30 Bridge Street, Hatfield, Massachusetts
Hatfield, Massachusetts
Hatfield is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,249 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area....
.