Furlong the fundamental unit of land measurement. A furlong was forty rods, an acre four by 40 rods, or four rods by one furlong, and thus 160 square rods. At the time, the Saxons used the North German foot, which was 10 percent longer than the foot of today. When England changed to the shorter foot in the late 13th century, rods and furlongs remained unchanged, since property boundaries were already defined in rods and furlongs. The only thing that changed was the number of feet and yards in a rod or a furlong, and the number of square feet and
William R. Furlong William R. Furlong William Rea Furlong (May 26, 1881 – June 2, 1976) was United States Navy Rear admiral during World War II, who served as the Chief of Naval Ordnance from 1937 to 1941. After Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, Furlong was tasked with the salvaging and repairing of the sunken U.S. ships. William Rea Furlong was born on May 26, 1881 in the town of Allenport, Pennsylvania as a son of William Allen Furlong and Ethel Grant Furlong. Furlong attended the Normal School in California, Pennsylvania, where he earned his teaching degree. He subsequently worked as a teacher