Furlong in most applications. Five furlongs are about 1.0 kilometre ( is the exact value, according to the international conversion). The name "furlong" derives from the Old English words ' (furrow) and ' (long). Dating back at least to early Anglo-Saxon times, it originally referred to the length of the furrow in one acre of a ploughed open field (a medieval communal field which was divided into strips). The furlong (meaning furrow length) was the distance a team of oxen could plough without resting. This was standardised to be exactly 40 rods or 10 chains. The system of long furrows arose
Philip Joseph Furlong Furlong became the first principal of Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx until 1945 and served as secretary of education for the New York archdiocese. In 1950, he was named pastor of St. Thomas More in Manhattan, a post he held until retiring in 1969. Furlong was active in many educational and historical societies. Catholic elementary school students across the United States learned American history from his eight-volume textbook series, "The Furlong History Series," written in the 1920s through 1940s. He was a national chaplain for the Girl Scouts from 1946 to 1955. Furlong was national Catholic chaplain of