English wine gallon

For uses of this gallon in countries other than England since 1826, see wine gallon, U.S. gallon

A unit of capacity in England, customarily from the ^th century and by law since 1707, = 231 cubic inches, about 3.7854 liters. It differs from the corn or dry gallon and the ale gallon.

Britain abandoned the wine gallon in 1826 when it adopted imperial measure, but the wine gallon is the basis of the U.S. gallon, as well as many other measures.

The wine gallon is sometimes said to have originated in the reign of Queen Anne, in 1706, and is sometimes called the wine gallon of Queen Anne. It is, however, centuries older. See The Carysfort Committee and the Wine Gallon, 1758, excerpts from the report of an extensive government investigation of its origin.

The earliest evidence for the size of the wine gallon is documentary; the earliest surviving wine gallon standards date from the late 15th century.

English units of liquid capacity were usually defined as the volume occupied by a specified weight of water. The Tractatus (probably middle of the 13th century) says: “Twelve Ounces make a Pound and Eight Pounds make a Gallon of Wine; and Eight Gallons of Wine make a Bushel of London; which is the Eighth Part of a Quarter.”

Though avoirdupois is included for the sake of comparison, it was not in use in the thirteenth century.

Pound	Ounces in a pound	Substance	Volume (cubic inches)
Troy	12	water
	12	wheat
	12	wine	183.8
Tower	12
Tower	12
Av	16	wine	223.4
		wheat

Taking the density of wheat at grams per liter,

cubic inches. The wine gallon apparently originated (by the 14th century?) as a unit used by wine merchants. R. D. Connor suggests that it was probably the volume occupied by eight librae mercatoria of wine.

The 224-cubic-inch wine gallon

In 1645 and 1647 John Wybard measured the capacity of the wine gallon standard at the Guildhall in London, and found it to be 224 cubic inches. A century of subsequent evaluations by other competent persons confirmed this value within a few tenths of a cubic inch. exporters of wine. French and later Flemish.

The 233-cubic-inch wine gallon

John Reynolds, a collegue of Wybard's, focused on standards in the Tower of London rather than the Guildhall. He was a assayer of the Goldsmihss'. In 1641 Reynolds created an elegant standard half gallon (a pottle), now in the keeping of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. It is stamped "A wine pottle tryed by John Reynolds at the Tower. 1641", so presumably it was based on standards then in the Tower that have not survived. According to a measurement made in 1994, double this pottle's capacity would make a wine gallon of 233.06 cubic inches.

The 231-cubic inch wine gallon

It is probable that the 231-cubic inch capacity arose as the result of choosing whole numbers of inches to simplify constructing measures. Taking pi as 22/7, a cylinder 6 inches high and 7 inches in diameter has a volume of 231 cubic inches (6×22/7×7/2×7/2), not significantly different from 233. These dimensions were codified in the law of 1707, but the 231 had been the accepted value for at least the previous century.

For several hundred years the Excise collected duty on wine imports by the 231-cubic-inch gallon. Then in 1688 someone told the Commissioners of the Excise that a 224-cubic-inch gallon was the “true wine gallon.” The origins of the unit had been forgotten, but on looking into the matter, the Excise found that the custodian of all legal standards, the Exchequer, had a standard for a 272-cubic-inch gallon but none for one of 231 cubic inches.

Changing to a larger gallon would have caused a large drop in the King's revenues (since the tax was on the gallon), so the Commissioners carefully refrained from revising the standard. But the idea was out. In 1700, a canny wine importer who was sued by the government for underpayment of import duty argued in his defense that there was no legal definition for the gallon the customs agents were using. The Crown had to forfeit the case. In 1706 the government remedied the matter by legalizing the 231-cubic-inch wine gallon.¹

1. 5 Anne c 27, § 17, 1706, which took effect March 1, 1707. Statutes at Large, Vol IV, pages 244-5.

sources

Wybard's chapter (1650) on the standard gallons kept in the Guildhall begins: “It is generally holden by Artists about the City of London, that a Wine-Gallon containeth in its concave Capacity, 231 cubicall or solid inches, or is insensibly different therefrom.”

For the second thing, the content of our English Gallon, which is the measure of all these vessels. This is most commonly received, that a Wine-gallon conteins 231 cubick inches : yet Mr. Wybard pleads very strongly, that it is somewhat lesse, making the Wine-gallon to be 225 inches. But the difference being so small, the errour will not be much; and therefore, till the exact truth be more certainly known, I shall, with the most, follow the first; counting it better to allow rather a little over-measure, than any thing under.

Henry Phillippes.
The Purchasers Pattern. 2nd ed., corrected and enlarged.
London: Printed for R. & W. Leybourn, for T. Pierrepont..., 1654.
Page 218.

But Doctor Wybard in his Tectometry, Page 289, doth suppose the Wine Gallon to contain but 224, or 225 Cubick Inches at the most, and pursuant to this account an Experiment was made by Mr. Richard Walker and Mr. Philip Shales, two General Officers in the Excise. They caused a Vessel to be very exactly made of Brass, in form of a Parallelopipedon, each side of its base was 4 Inches, and its depth 14 Inches; so that its just content was 224 Cubick Inches. This Vessel was produced at Guild-Hall in London (May 25th, 1688) before the Lord-Mayor, the Commissioners of Excise the Reverend Mr. Flamstead Astr. Reg. Mr. Halley, and several other Ingenious Gentlemen, in whose presence Mr. Shales did exactly fill the foresaid Brazen Vessel with clear Water, and very carefully emptied it into the old Standard Wine Gallon kept in Guild-Hall, which did so exactly fill it, that all then present were fully satisfied the Wine Gallon doth contain but 224 Cubick Inches. (This notable Experiment I saw tried.) However, for several Reasons, it was at that time thought convenient to continue the former supposed content of 231 Cubick Inches to be the Wine Gallon and that all computations in Gauging should be made from thence, as above.

John Ward.
The Young Mathematician's Guide. Fourth Edition.
London: Printed for A. Batterworth and F. Fayrham, 1724.
Pages 34-35.

The Exchequer Standard Wine Gallon is dated 1707, and was found to contain 133.4 ounces [of Thames water], answering to 230.9 cubic inches. An experiment of Dr. Wollaston and Mr. Carr, in 1814, gave 230.8, the mean being 230.85; while the measurement of 1758 made it 231.2. A duplicate of this measure, and of the same date, is kept at Guildhall.

Dr. Wollaston and Mr. Carr examined also the three other Wine gallons at Guildhall. The oldest of these seems to be the same that was was measured by Halley and Flamsteed in 1688, and was said to contain 224 cubic inches; its actual capacity is 224.4. The Wine Gallon of 1773, which is in daily use for adjusting other measures, was probably in the first instance a correct copy of the Exchequer Gallon, but has been reduced by a bruise, and by the wear of the brim, to 230.0 cubic inches, having lost 4-5ths of a cubic inch, or one three-hundredth of its whole capacity. The wine gallon of 1798 contains 230.9 cubic inches.

The Excise Wine gallon was found, by a similar experiment, to contain 230.1 cubic inches, having partaken of the progressive deficiency of the Guildhall gallon, from which it was derived.

First Report of Commissioners appointed to consider the Subject of Weights and Measures 7 July 1819.
Parliamentary Papers (HC 565).
Appendix A, page 7.