The quarter ( "one-fourth") was used as the name of several distinct

English units English units are the units of measurement used in England up to 1826 (when they were replaced by Imperial units), which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units. Various standards have applied to English units at ...

based on ¼ sizes of some base unit. The "quarter of London" mentioned by '' Magna Carta'' as the national standard measure for

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

, ale, and grain was ¼

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

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 ...

. It continued to be used, e.g. to regulate the prices of bread. This quarter was a unit of 8

bushel 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 agric ...

s of 8

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, Austr ...

s each, understood at the time as a measure of both weight and volume: the grain gallon or half-

peck A peck is an imperial and United States customary unit of dry volume, equivalent to 2 dry gallons or 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints. An imperial peck is equivalent to 9.09 liters and a US customary peck is equivalent to 8.81 liters. Two pecks ma ...

was composed of 76,800 (

Tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

) grains weight; the ale gallon was composed of the ale filling an equivalent container; and the wine gallon was composed of the wine weighing an equivalent amount to a full gallon of grain.

Length

In measures of length, the quarter (qr.) was ¼ of a

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

, formerly an important measure in the

cloth Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

trade. 3 qr. was a Flemish ell, 4 quarters were a

, 5 qr. was an (English) ell, and 6 qr. was an

aune An ell (from Proto-Germanic *''alinō'', cognate with Latin ''ulna'') is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", and ...

or French ell. Each quarter was made up of 4

nail Nail or Nails may refer to: In biology * Nail (anatomy), toughened protective protein-keratin (known as alpha-keratin, also found in hair) at the end of an animal digit, such as fingernail * Nail (beak), a plate of hard horny tissue at the tip ...

s. Its metric equivalent was formerly reckoned as about 0.228596 m, but the International Yard and Pound Agreement set it as 0.2286 exactly in 1959.

Weight

The modern statutory definition of

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 th ...

, the

Weights and Measures Act 1985 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. T ...

as amended by The Units of Measurement Regulations 1994, defines the quarter as a unit of mass equal to 28 pounds. In measures of

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar qua ...

and

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

at the time of '' Magna Carta'', the quarter was

or (originally 500 pounds). By the time of the Norman French copies of the

Assize 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. T ...

, the quarter had changed to 512 lbs. These copies describe the "London quarter" as notionally derived from eight " London bushels" of eight

wine gallon A wine gallon is a unit of capacity that was used routinely in England 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 for measurement. The 1707 w ...

s of eight pounds of 15

ounce The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, weight or volume and is derived almost unchanged from the , an Ancient Roman unit of measurement. The avoirdupois ounce (exactly ) is avoirdupois pound; this is the United States customa ...

s of 20

pennyweight A pennyweight (dwt) is a unit of mass equal to 24 grains, of a troy ounce, of a troy pound, approximately 0.054857 avoirdupois ounce and exactly 1.55517384 grams. It is abbreviated dwt, ''d'' standing for ''denarius'' (an ancien ...

s of 32 grains of wheat, taken whole from the middle of an

ear An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...

;.. the published

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

edition omits the quarter and describes corn gallons instead.. & & The quarter (qr. av. or quartier) came to mean ¼ of a

hundredweight The hundredweight (abbreviation: cwt), formerly also known as the centum weight or quintal, is a British imperial and US customary unit of weight or mass. Its value differs between the US and British imperial systems. The two values are distingu ...

: 2

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

or 28 avoirdupois pounds (about 12.7 kg): this is its (only) statutory definition since 1993.

Volume

The

Weights and Measures Act 1824 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. ...

declared that, for measures of liquids and unheaped

dry volume Dry measures are units of volume to measure bulk commodities that are not fluids and that were typically shipped and sold in standardized containers such as barrels. They have largely been replaced by the units used for measuring volumes in the met ...

, a 'quarter' equals eight

s (64 gallons, where a gallon is defined as a volume of water weight ten troy pounds).. (The date of coming into effect was 1 May 1825). The 1824 Act delegitimised all previous definitions. (The

(as amended) no longer shows the quarter as a unit of volume: an 1825 quarter of wheat would weigh about 494 lb, substantially more than the 1985 definition.) In measures of liquid

volume Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). Th ...

at the time of '' Magna Carta'', the quarter of wine was (originally) ¼

: 8 London

s or 64

s. The tun was subsequently defined down 4 gallons to 252 and the quarter was effectively ¼

pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circular ...

or butt. The quarter of wine was a gallon larger than a hogshead. As 231 cubic inches were considered to make up a

, the measure was about 242¼ L. The ale gallon was 282 cubic inches, meaning the quarter of ale was about 295.75 L. Cardarelli also says it can vary from 17 to 30 imperial

s for liquor.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * . * . * . & * . * {{Citation , last=Wormell , first=Richard , title=Murby's Graduated Arithmetic, Specially Adapted to the Requirements of the Revised Code , contribution=87. Cloth Measure , contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dQJbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA68 , page=68 , publisher=Thomas Murby , location=London , date=1868 . Units of volume Customary units of measurement