cental

In English-speaking countries, a unit of mass = 100 pounds avoirdupois, about 45.359237 kilograms. Symbol, ctl. In Britain (where a hundredweight = 112 pounds), the term was first suggested in the Report of 1841 by the commission studying how to proceed after the fire that destroyed the United Kingdom’s prototypes. By 1859 the cental was in use for grain. An Order in Council in 1879 legalized it.

With many other units, it had to be abandoned when the United Kingdom became part of the European Economic Community (Statutory Instrument No. 484, 1978).

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