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Beer (and ale), wine and corn measures
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
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| 8 fluid drachms
| = 1 fluid ounce
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| 20 fluid ounces
| = 1 pint
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| 4 gills
| = 1 pint
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| 2 pints
| = 1 quart
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| 4 quarts
| = 1 gallon
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| 2 gallons
| = 1 peck
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| 4 pecks
| = 1 bushel
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| 8 bushels
| = 1 quarter
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| 36 bushels
| = 1 chaldron
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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
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| 4 firkins
| = 1 barrel
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Wine measures
| 52 ½ gallons
| = 1 hogshead
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| 26 and 2 thirds fl. oz.
| = 1 bottle
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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.
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