A wine gallon is a unit of capacity that was used routinely in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
as far back as the 14th century, and by statute under
Queen Anne since 1707. Britain abandoned the wine gallon in 1826 when it adopted
imperial units
The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units (also known as British Imperial or Exchequer Standards of 1826) is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed thro ...
for measurement. The 1707 wine gallon is the basis of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
'
gallon
The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use:
*the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Austral ...
, as well as other measures.
The Imperial gallon was defined with yet another set of temperature and pressure values ( and )
To convert a wine gallon to an Imperial gallon, multiply by 0.833111. To convert an Imperial gallon to a wine gallon, multiply by 1.200320.
Some research concludes that the wine gallon was originally meant to hold 8
troy pound
Troy weight is a system of units of mass that originated in 15th-century England, and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the grain, the pennyweight (24 grains), the troy ounce (20 pennyweights), and th ...
s of wine.
The 1707 British statute defines the wine gallon as – e.g. a
cylinder
A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base.
A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...
in
diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid for ...
and high,
[π was often approximated at the time.] c. 3.785 litre – and was used to measure the volume of wine and other commercial liquids such as cooking oils and honey.
A 14th-century barrel of wine contained , which equals one-eighth of the
tun
TUN or tun may refer to:
Biology
* Tun shells, large sea snails of the family ''Tonnidae''
* Tun, a tardigrade in its cryptobiotic state
* Tun or Toon, common name for trees of the genus '' Toona''
Places
* Tun, Sweden, a locality in Västra G ...
of 252 gallons.
See also
*
Gallon
The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use:
*the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Austral ...
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wine Gallon
Units of volume