Bushel

Last updated

Bushel
Queensland Government Imperial Bushel AD1875.jpg
Queensland Government Standard Imperial Bushel. Queensland Museum
General information
Unit system imperial and US customary
Unit ofvolume
Symbolbsh,bu
Conversions (imperial)
1 imp bsh in ...... is equal to ...
   imperial units   8 imperial gallons
    metric units    36.36872  L
   US dry units   8.2565 US dry gallons
   US liquid units   9.6076 US liquid gallons
   imperial/US units   2219.36  cu in
Conversions (US)
1 US bsh in ...... is equal to ...
   US dry units   8 US dry gallons
   metric units   35.2391 L
   US liquid units   9.3092 US liquid gallons
   imperial units   7.7515 imperial gallons
   imperial/US units   2150.42 cu in
A full bushel is represented by a basket in the lower right. LA2-NSRW-5-0199.svg
A full bushel is represented by a basket in the lower right.

A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons, and was used mostly for agricultural products, such as wheat. In modern usage, the volume is nominal, with bushels denoting a mass defined differently for each commodity.

Contents

The name "bushel" is also used to translate similar units in other measurement systems.

Name

The word "bushel" as originally used for a container itself, and later a unit of measurement. The name comes from the Old French boissiel and buissiel, meaning "little box". [1] It may further derive from Old French boise, thus meaning "little butt". [1]

History

The bushel is an intermediate value between the pound and ton or tun that was introduced to England following the Norman Conquest. Norman statutes made the London bushel part of the legal measure of English wine, ale, and grains. The Assize of Bread and Ale credited to Henry III, c.1266, defined this bushel in terms of the wine gallon, [2] while the c.1300 Assize of Weights and Measures usually credited to Edward I or II defined the London bushel in terms of the larger corn gallon. [3] In either case, a London bushel was reckoned to contain 64 pounds, 12  ounces, 20  pennyweight, and 32  grains.

These measures were based on the relatively light tower pound and were rarely used in Scotland, Ireland, or Wales during the Middle Ages. When the Tower system was abolished in the 16th century, the bushel was redefined as 56  avoirdupois pounds.

The imperial  bushel established by the Weights and Measures Act of 1824 described the bushel as the volume of 80  avoirdupois pounds of distilled water in air at 62 °F (17 °C)[ citation needed ] or 8 imperial gallons. [1] This is the bushel in some use in the United Kingdom. Thus, there is no distinction between liquid and dry measure in the imperial system.[ according to whom? ]

The Winchester bushel is the volume of a cylinder 18.5 in (470 mm) in diameter and 8 in (200 mm) high, which gives an irrational number of approximately 2150.4202 cubic inches. [4] The modern American or US bushel is a variant of this, rounded to exactly 2150.42 cubic inches, less than one part per ten million less. [5] It is also somewhat in use in Canada.[ citation needed ]

In English use, a Bushel was a willow basket with fixed dimensions. The basket was round. Its inside measurements were: Base diameter 12 inches, top diameter 18 inches, height 12 inches. A basket filled level to the top was a bushel. A basket filled to the top but overfilled to a height where it overflowed was considered to be a bushel and a peck, a generous measure (a similar concept to a baker's dozen). Hence, the old song " I love you, a bushel and a peck...." meant "I am overflowing with love for you". Sometimes the basket was made 13 inches high, but with a ring of "waling" (a special willow weaving technique) to mark the 12 inches height.

Volume

1 imperial bushel= 8 imperial gallons
= 4 imperial pecks
= 36.36872 litres
≈ 8.25645 US dry gallons
≈ 9.60760 US fluid gallons
2219.36 cubic inches
1.28435 cubic feet
 
1 US bushel  [6] = 8 US dry gallons
= 4 US pecks
= 2150.42 cubic inches
= 1.24446 cubic feet
= 35.23907016688 litres
≈ 9.3092 US fluid gallons
≈ 7.7515 imperial gallons

Weight

A table of weights from the secretaries of the different states, showing the number of pounds which their laws recognize as a bushel of different articles, c. 1854. Bushel Table of States.jpg
A table of weights from the secretaries of the different states, showing the number of pounds which their laws recognize as a bushel of different articles, c.1854.

Bushels are now most often used as units of mass or weight rather than of volume. The bushels in which grains are bought and sold on commodity markets or at local grain elevators, and for reports of grain production, are all units of weight. [7] This is done by assigning a standard weight to each commodity that is to be measured in bushels. These bushels depend on the commodities being measured, and on the moisture content of the commodity. Some of the more common ones are:

Other specific values are defined (and those definitions may vary within different jurisdictions, including from state to state in the United States) for other grains, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, coal, hair and many other commodities.

Government policy in the United States is to phase out units such as the bushel and replace them with metric mass equivalents. [10]

Other units

The German bushel is the Scheffel. A Prussian scheffel was equal to 54.96 litres. [11]

The Polish bushel (korzec) was used as measure of dry capacity. It is divided into 4 quarters (ćwierć) and in the early 19th century had a value of 128 litres in Warsaw [12] and 501.116 litres in Kraków. [13]

The Spanish bushel ( fanega ) was used as a measure of dry capacity. It is roughly equal to 55.5 litres in Castille.

The Welsh hobbit was equivalent to two-and-a-half bushels when used for volume; when used for measuring weight the hobbit was dependant on the grain being weighed.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gallon</span> Units of volume

The gallon is a unit of volume in British imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial units</span> System of measurements

The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed through a series of Weights and Measures Acts and amendments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pound (mass)</span> Unit of mass

The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in both the British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. Various definitions have been used; the most common today is the international avoirdupois pound, which is legally defined as exactly 0.45359237 kilograms, and which is divided into 16 avoirdupois ounces. The international standard symbol for the avoirdupois pound is lb; an alternative symbol is lbm, #, and or ″̶.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States customary units</span> System of units of measurement commonly used in the United States

United States customary units form a system of measurement units commonly used in the United States and most U.S. territories, since being standardized and adopted in 1832. The United States customary system developed from English units that were in use in the British Empire before the U.S. became an independent country. The United Kingdom's system of measures was overhauled in 1824 to create the imperial system, which was officially adopted in 1826, changing the definitions of some of its units. Consequently, while many U.S. units are essentially similar to their imperial counterparts, there are significant differences between the systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avoirdupois</span> System of weights based on a pound of 16 ounces

Avoirdupois is a measurement system of weights that uses pounds and ounces as units. It was first commonly used in the 13th century AD and was updated in 1959.

English units were the units of measurement used in England up to 1826, which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units. Various standards have applied to English units at different times, in different places, and for different applications.

The traditional Polish units of measurement included two uniform yet distinct systems of weights and measures, as well as a number of related systems borrowed from neighbouring states. The first attempt at standardisation came with the introduction of the Old Polish measurement [system], also dubbed the Warsaw system, introduced by a royal decree of December 6, 1764. The system was later replaced by the New Polish measurement [system] introduced on January 1, 1819.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparison of the imperial and US customary measurement systems</span>

Both the British imperial measurement system and United States customary systems of measurement derive from earlier English unit systems used prior to 1824 that were the result of a combination of the local Anglo-Saxon units inherited from Germanic tribes and Roman units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weights and Measures Acts (UK)</span> Laws of the British Parliament determining the regulation of weights and measures

Weights and measures acts are acts of the British Parliament determining the regulation of weights and measures. It also refers to similar royal and parliamentary acts of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and the medieval Welsh states. The earliest of these were originally untitled but were given descriptive glosses or titles based upon the monarch under whose reign they were promulgated. Several omnibus modern acts are entitled the Weights and Measures Act and are distinguished by the year of their enactment.

The wey or weight was an English unit of weight and dry volume by at least 900 AD, when it began to be mentioned in surviving legal codes.

Winchester measure is a set of legal standards of volume instituted in the late 15th century (1495) by King Henry VII of England and in use, with some modifications, until the present day. It consists of the Winchester bushel and its dependent quantities, the peck, (dry) gallon and (dry) quart. They would later become known as the Winchester Standards, named because the examples were kept in the city of Winchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candy (unit)</span>

The candy or candee, also known as the maunee, was a traditional South Asian unit of mass, equal to 20 maunds and roughly equivalent to 500 pounds avoirdupois (227 kilograms). It was most used in southern India, to the south of Akbar's empire, but has been recorded elsewhere in South Asia. In Marathi, the same word was also used for a unit of area of 120 bighas, and it is also recorded as a unit of dry volume.

The last was a Dutch unit of mass, volume, and number, and a large English unit of weight, mass, volume, and number. It referred to standardized amounts of ships' lading and varied by commodity and over time.

The dry gallon, also known as the corn gallon or grain gallon, is a historic British dry measure of volume that was used to measure grain and other dry commodities and whose earliest recorded official definition, in 1303, was the volume of 8 pounds (3.6 kg) of wheat. It is not used in the US customary system – though it implicitly exists since the US dry measures of bushel, peck, quart, and pint are still used – and is not included in the National Institute of Standards and Technology handbook that many US states recognize as the authority on measurement law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial and US customary measurement systems</span> English (pre 1824), Imperial (post 1824) and US Customary (post 1776) units of measure

The imperial and US customary measurement systems are both derived from an earlier English system of measurement which in turn can be traced back to Ancient Roman units of measurement, and Carolingian and Saxon units of measure.

The quarter was used as the name of several distinct English units based on ¼ sizes of some base unit.

The sack was an English unit of weight or mass used for coal and wool. It has also been used for other commodities by weight, commodities by volume, and for both weight and volume in the United States.

A number of different units of measurement were historically used in Cyprus to measure quantities like length, mass, area and capacity. Before the Metric system, the Imperial system was used. In between 1986-1988, metric system was adopted in Cyprus.

A number of units of measurement were used in South Africa to measure quantities like length, mass, capacity, etc. The Imperial system of measurements was made standard in 1922 and the metric system was adopted in 1961.

The Exchequer Standards may refer to the set of official English standards for weights and measures created by Queen Elizabeth I, and in effect from 1588 to 1825, when the Imperial units system took effect, or to the whole range of English unit standards maintained by the Court of the Exchequer from the 1200s, or to the physical reference standards physically kept at the Exchequer and used as the legal reference until the such responsibility was transferred in the 1860s, after the Imperial system had been established.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "bushel, n.1", Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1888.
  2. Ruffhead, Owen, ed. (1763), The Statutes at Large, vol.  I: From Magna Charta to the End of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth. To which is prefixed, A Table of the Titles of all the Publick and Private Statutes during that Time, London: Mark Basket for the Crown, pp.  22 . (in English) & (in Latin)
  3. Ruffhead, Owen, ed. (1763a), The Statutes at Large, vol.  I: From Magna Charta to the End of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth. To which is prefixed, A Table of the Titles of all the Publick and Private Statutes during that Time, London: Mark Basket for the Crown, pp.  148–149 . (in English) & (in Latin) & (in Norman)
  4. The volume of a cylinder is V = (π · r2 · h) with r = ½ · 18.5 inches, h = 8 inches.
  5. The relative difference is 1 − 2150.42 / V = 0.797×10−7.
  6. Judson, Lewis (1963). Weights and Measures Standards of the United States (PDF). Department of Commerce: NBS Special Publication. p. 35.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 William J. Murphy. "Tables for Weights and Measurement: Crops". University of Missouri Extension. Archived from the original on May 25, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2008.
  8. Marketing Oats in Canada http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/sis10952
  9. "Calculating Harvest Yields". Purdue University. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  10. "48 CFR § 611.002-70 - Metric system implementation: US 1988 law on metrification". Cornell Law School. Ithaca, New York. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  11. Lowis D'Aguilar Jackson (1882). Modern Metrology. p. 179.
  12. Alexander, John Henry (1850), "Weight and Measure Systems: Warsaw", Universal Dictionary of Weights and Measures, Ancient and Modern; Reduced to the Standards of the United States of America, Baltimore: John D. Tot for Wm. Minifie & Co., pp. 151–152.
  13. Rykaczewski, Erazm (1851), "Korzec", Dokładny Słownik Polsko-Anglielski i Anglielsko-Polski, Czerpany z Najlepszych Źrodeł Krajowych i Obcych, Berlin: W. Księgarni b. Behra, p. 98. (in Polish) & (in English)