472 



PARLIAMENTARY PUBLICATIONS. 



[March 1896. 



Among the information contained in this publication, which 

 is mostly of a technical character, it is stated that the decision 

 of the Standards Department has been asked by two official 

 authorities on the question as to what was the true capacity of 

 a tun of water on the 3rd June 1824. A local authority agreed 

 for a consideration to supply certain ships with 400 tuns of 

 water each day, and as on 8rd June 1824 there were in use 

 three difterent gallon measures on which the tun might be based 

 it became doubtful as to how many imperial gallons of the 

 present day the local authoiity were bound to deliver. 



The three different gallon measures in use were : — 



Three such separate gallon measures had been in use from 

 ancient times (two of them probably from 1225) until 1824, 

 when by the passing of the Weights and Measures Act, 5 Geo. 4. 

 c. 74 (l7th June 1824), the present imperial gallon containing 

 277*274 cubic inches was introduced, and the use of the three 

 ancient gallon measures was made illegal. The new imperial 

 gallon did not, however, come into legal use until 1st May 1852, 

 and, therefore, no contracts by it could have been compulsory in 

 June 1824. 



The gallon measure referred to in the expression " tun " 

 appears to have been the wine gallon, as the tun since 1423 (Act 

 2 Hen. 6) had been declared to contain 252 wine gallons, and 

 the use of such " tun " became general for shipping and customs 

 purposes. The expression tun appears to have been derived 

 from the old French shipping term tonne, and was often found 

 to be used in place of the ton or weight of 2,240 pounds. Thus 

 a tun of timber was a measure of 40 solid feet cut to the square 

 (Act 12 Charles 2. c. 14) ; a tun of coals was 20 cwt. (Act 9 & 10 

 Will. 3. c. 13) ; a tun of oil (Trinity House measurement) was 

 252 gallons. The tun of ale contained 216 gallons, and it appears 

 to have been a customary measure confined to the measurement 

 of ale and beer, and not to have been legalised in the same 

 manner as the wine gallon, or to have been used for shipping or 

 navigation purposes. 



No reference appears to be made in any statutes or official 

 reports as to the capacity or weight of a tun of water, and it 

 can only be assumed that the tun of water referred to was the tun 

 generally used for shipping, customs, and navigation purposes. 



The contract on 3rd June 1824 would, therefore, have been by 

 the tun of 252 wine gallons. As each wine gallon contained 

 8*33 avoirdupois pounds, as compared with 10 pounds contained 

 in the present imperial gallon, it would appear to follow that 

 the contract to deliver daily 400 tuns of water would be ful- 

 filled by the delivery of 210 imperial gallons to the tun, or 

 209*916 gallons, equivalent to 252 of the old wine gallons in use 



Cubic inches. 



A Winchester corn gallon 

 A. wine gallon 

 An ale gallon 



= 2721 

 = 231 

 = 282 



