Tun_(unit)

Tun (unit)

Tun (unit)

English unit of liquid volume


The tun (Old English: tunne, Latin: tunellus, Medieval Latin: tunna) is an English unit of liquid volume (not weight), used for measuring wine,[1] oil or honey. 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.[2] The modern tun is about 954 litres.

The word tun is etymologically related to the word ton for the unit of mass, the mass of a tun of wine being approximately one long ton, which is 2240 pounds (1016 kg).

History

Originally, the tun was defined as 256 wine gallons;[nb 1] this is the basis for the name of the quarter of 64 corn gallons. At some time before the 15th century, it was reduced to 252 wine gallons, so as to be evenly divisible by other small integers, including seven.[nb 2]

In one Early Modern English example from 1507, a tun is defined as 240 gallons.

With the adoption of the Queen Anne wine gallon of 231 cubic inches in 1706 the tun approximated the volume of a cylinder with both diameter and height of 42 inches.[nb 3] These were adopted as the standard US liquid gallon and tun.

When the imperial system was introduced in 1824 the tun was redefined in the UK and colonies as 210 imperial gallons. The imperial tun remained evenly divisible by small integers.[nb 4] There was also little change in the actual value of the tun.[nb 5]

Standard tuns of wine came to serve as a measure of a ship's capacity.[5]

More information measure, comparisons ...

Definitions

In the US customary system, the tun (symbol: US tu[6]) is defined as 252 US fluid gallons (about 954 litres).[6]

In the imperial system, the tun is defined as 210 imperial gallons (about 955 litres).

Conversions

Both the imperial and US tuns were subdivided into smaller units as follows.

1 tun  2butts or pipes
3puncheons or tertians
4wine hogsheads[6]
6tierces
8wine barrels
14rundlets
 
Conversions of the imperial tun are as follows.
1 imperial tun  210imperial gallons
1680imperial pints
954.6789litres[nb 7]
0.9546789cubic metres[nb 7]
58258cubic inches
33.7142cubic feet
252.199484US fluid gallons
2017.595875US fluid pints
 
Conversions of the US tun are as follows.
1 US tun  252US fluid gallons[6]
2016US fluid pints[6]
953.9237769568litres[nb 8]
0.953923769568cubic metres[nb 8]
58212cubic inches
33.6875cubic feet
209.833895imperial gallons
1678.671156imperial pints
More information gallon, rundlet ...

Explanatory 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
    227×(21 in)2×42 in   since π  227
    = (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 0.0792% larger than the US tun assuming current definitions. Note that 5 imp gal ≈ 6 US gal.
  6. The conversion to litres is approximate and 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 is exact assuming the current 4.54609-litre definition of the imperial gallon.
  8. The conversion to litres is exact assuming the current 25.4-millimetre definition of the international inch.

See also


References

  1. Cardarelli, F. (2003). Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights and Measures. Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London: Springer. pp. 49. ISBN 978-1-4471-1122-1.
  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
  3. Gras, Norman S.B. (1918). Early English Customs Systems. Cambridge. p. 706. Quoting Forgon (1507){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. Forgon, T. (15 July 1507). Untitled manuscript, consisting of a list of various customs duties. Reproduced at sizes.com.
  5. "Naval Architecture for All". United States Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Retrieved October 13, 2008.. "Historically, a very important and standard cargo for European sailing vessels was wine, stored and shipped in casks called tuns. These tuns of wine, because of their uniform size and their universal demand, became a standard by which a ship's capacity could be measured. A tun of wine weighed approximately 2,240 pounds, and occupied nearly 60 cubic feet." (Gillmer, Thomas (1975). Modern Ship Design. United States Naval Institute.) "Today the ship designers standard of weight is the long ton which is equal to 2,240 pounds."
  6. "wine barrel". Sizes. 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2018-03-27.

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