English wine cask units

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Capacities of wine casks were formerly measured and standardised according to a specific system of English units.

Contents

The various units were historically defined in terms of the wine gallon so varied according to the definition of the gallon until the adoption of the Queen Anne wine gallon in 1706. In the United Kingdom and its colonies, the units were redefined with the introduction of the imperial system in 1826, whilst the Queen Anne wine gallon was adopted as the standard US gallon in 1836.

The major wine producing countries use barrels extensively and have developed standards at variance with the traditional English volumes: examples include a hogshead of 300 L (66 imp gal; 79 US gal), a barrique of 220 L (48 imp gal; 58 US gal) (Bordeaux), a barrel of 225 L (49 imp gal; 59 US gal) (Australia), a barrel of 230 L (51 imp gal; 61 US gal) (Burgundy) and a puncheon of 465 L (102 imp gal; 123 US gal).

Casks

English wine cask units.jpg

Tun

The tun (Old English : tunne, Latin : tunellus, Middle Latin: tunna) is an English unit of liquid volume (not weight), used for measuring wine, oil or honey. It is typically a large vat or vessel, most often holding 252 wine gallons, but occasionally other sizes (e.g. 256, 240 and 208 gallons) were also used. [1]

Pipe or butt

The butt (from the medieval French and Italian botte) or pipe is half a tun, or exactly 105 imperial gallons (477.33945 L).

Tradition has it that George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of Edward IV of England, was drowned in a butt of malmsey on 18 February 1478. [2] [3] When James VI and I sailed to Norway in October 1589, his provisions included a pipe of sack. [4] In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado", the narrator claims he has received "a pipe of what passes for Amontillado". [5]

Puncheon or tertian

The puncheon is a third of a tun. The term puncheon, shortened to pon in the United States. The unit was also known as a tertian (from the Latin word for "third"). [1]

Hogshead

Of comparable size to the beer hogshead, the wine hogshead is equal to half a butt or a quarter of a tun.

Tierce

Closely related to the modern oil barrel, the tierce is half a puncheon, a third of a butt, or a sixth of a tun.

Barrel

The wine barrel is half a wine hogshead or an eighth of a tun.

Rundlet

The rundlet is a seventh of a butt or a fourteenth of a tun.

History

Originally, the tun was defined as 256 wine gallons. [nb 1] (This was the basis for calling 64 gallons a quarter.) At some time before the 15th century, it was reduced to 252 gallons, so as to be evenly divisible by other small integers, including seven. [nb 2] Note that a 252-gallon tun of wine has a mass of approximately 2,060 lb (930 kg), [6] between a short ton (2,000 lb (910 kg)) and a long ton (2,240 lb (1,020 kg)).

The tun is the approximate volume of a cylinder with both diameter and height of 42 in (110 cm), as the US gallon was originally a cylinder 7 by 6 in (180 by 150 mm) (diameter × height). [nb 3] The Queen Anne wine gallon of 231 cubic inches was adopted in 1707, and still serves as the definition of the US gallon. A US tun is thus the volume of a rectangular cuboid with dimensions 36 by 38.5 by 42 in (91 by 98 by 107 cm).

When the imperial system was introduced, the tun was redefined in the UK and its colonies as 210 imperial gallons, meaning the imperial tun remained evenly divisible by small integers, [nb 4] and there was also little change in the actual value of the tun. [nb 5]

comparisonshistoricallyimperial definitionsUS definitions
measuretunsbuttspuncheonshogsheadstiercesbarrelsrundletslitres [nb 6] gallonslitres [nb 7] gallonslitres [nb 8]
tun1⁠1/2⁠⁠1/3⁠⁠1/4⁠⁠1/6⁠⁠1/8⁠⁠1/14⁠950–960210954.6789252953.923769568
butt21⁠2/3⁠⁠1/2⁠⁠1/3⁠⁠1/4⁠⁠1/7⁠475–480105477.33945126476.961884784
puncheon3⁠1+1/2⁠1⁠3/4⁠⁠1/2⁠⁠3/8⁠⁠3/14⁠316–32070318.226384317.974589856
hogshead42⁠1+1/3⁠1⁠2/3⁠⁠1/2⁠⁠2/7⁠237–240⁠52+1/2⁠238.66972563238.480942392
tierce632⁠1+1/2⁠1⁠3/4⁠⁠3/7⁠158–16035159.1131542158.987294928
barrel84⁠2+2/3⁠2⁠1+1/3⁠1⁠4/7⁠118–120⁠26+1/4⁠119.3348625⁠31+1/2⁠119.240471196
rundlet147⁠4+2/3⁠⁠3+1/2⁠⁠2+1/3⁠⁠1+3/4⁠168–691568.191351868.137412112

See also

Economic

Liquors

Wine

Notes

  1. ↑ 256=28
  2. ↑ 252 = 22×32×7
  3. ↑ The volume, V, of this cylinder may be approximated from the height, h, and the radius, r, as follows.
    V= πr2h
    ≈ 22⁄7×(21 in)2×42 insince π ≈ 22⁄7
    = (22×32×7)×(3×7×11) cu in
    = 252×231 cu in
  4. ↑ 210 = 2×3×5×7
  5. ↑ The imperial tun is only about 0.08% larger than the US tun assuming current definitions, since 5 imp gal ≈ 6 US gal.
  6. ↑ The conversion to litres is approximate, and is given as a range to reflect the varying definitions of the gallon and the tun in terms of the gallon.
  7. ↑ The conversion to litres shown in tooltips is exact assuming the current 4.54609-litre definition of the imperial gallon.
  8. ↑ The conversion to litres shown in tooltips is exact assuming the current 25.4-millimetre definition of the international inch.

References

  1. 1 2 Zupko, Ronald E. (1985). "A Dictionary of Weights and Measures for the British Isles: The Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century, Volume 168". Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society. 168. American Philosophical Society. ISBN   9780871691682. Quoting Gras (1918), p. 706
  2. ↑ "Dukes of Great Britain". Archived from the original on 2013-02-18. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
  3. ↑ Biography Channel Duke of Clarence
  4. ↑ Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, "James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts", Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), p. 33.
  5. ↑ Sarah J. Hale & Louis Godey, Godey's Lady's Book, vol. 33 (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 216.
  6. ↑ See Ethanol (data page)#Properties of aqueous ethanol solutions.
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