England badge English weights and measures Last edit: 01/Dec/2014
Volumes & Capacities: Gallons, Firkin, Pecks & Bushels.

Unless otherwise stated, everything on this page relates to 'Imperial' measure, i.e. post 1824. Also note that liquid measures are (of course) to the brim of the measure, but dry measures (eg wheat) are/were sometimes measured level (or 'striked'), and sometimes 'heaped'. Heaped measures were outlawed by the weights and measures acts of 1834 & 1835.

Volumes
60 minims = 1 fluid drachm
8 fluid drachms = 1 fluid ounce
20 fluid ounces = 1 pint
4 gills = 1 pint
2 pints = 1 quart
4 quarts = 1 gallon
2 gallons = 1 peck
4 pecks = 1 bushel
8 bushels = 1 quarter
36 bushels = 1 chaldron


The Imperial gallon is defined as the volume of 10lb of water at 62°F, which works out at 277.4194 cubic inches.

Ale measures
9 gallons = 1 firkin
4 firkins = 1 barrel


Wine measures
52 ½ gallons = 1 hogshead
26 and 2 thirds fl. oz. = 1 bottle


NB: Before 1824, a hogshead was 63 wine gallons (you must understand that the physical size of a hogshead didn't change, just the way that it was measured). The wine gallon is the Queen Anne (1707) gallon, as used ever since in the US of A (the colonies declared independance in 1776). Note in passing that the US bushel is for dry measure only, and based on the William III gallon (1696), and so the two are incompatible with each other.

Copyright © 1997-2014   All rights reserved