[PW] ? Size of a pork-barrel

[Mervyn Cripps]

Now THAT is interesting and sent me to the 10-volume Century
Dictionary, An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, prepared
under the superintendence of William Dwight Whitney, professor of
comparative philology and Sanskrit in Yale University. 1895 edition.

Synopsis:

In English metrology, there were four principal kinds of barrels; the
wine-barrel, at 31½ wine gallons was legalized under the reign of
Richard III. Oil, spirits, wine and pork were measured by the wine-
barrel. 

In the United States, the barrel in liquid measure is 31½ gallons but
for solid substances, weight is used. A barrel of beef or pork is 200
pounds.

Cheers

Merv 



> -----Original Message-----
> From: project-wombat-open-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
> [mailto:project-wombat-open-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On
Behalf Of
> Cramer, Jeff
> Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 1:18 PM
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: [PW] ? Size of a pork-barrel
> 
> Would anyone happen to know if a nineteenth century pork barrel was
of a
> standard size and, if so, what it was.
> 
> 
> 
> Jeffrey S. Cramer, Curator of Collections
> The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods
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