☙

voie

photo of a charette

In France, a unit of capacity; the amount that could be delivered in one trip by the type of horse-drawn cart called a charette. Used for coal, firewood, plaster, etc. The exception was the voie of charcoal; that was the amount a man could carry on his back.

Commodity	Equivalent	Magnitude
coal		1170.7 liters +
firewood	4 by 4 by 3½ old pied	1.9195 cubic meters¹
charcoal	= 1 mine = 2 minots = 16 boisseaux. Also called a charge or sac	208.13 liters
plaster	= 12 sacs = 24 stricken boisseaux	312.2 liters
ashlar or rubble		0.5563 cubic meters
dressed stone		0.51416 cubic meters

Compare other French units for fuel wood: the corde des eaux et forêts, the corde de grand bois, and the corde de port. To appreciate the to-us-exaggerated concern with fuelwood units, recall that before 1850 fuelwood was the main traded energy source, and is still very significant in some parts of the planet.

1. The Annuaire-almanach du commerce, de l'industrie, de la magistrature et de l'administration, etc., of 1887 (Paris: Firmin-Didot frères), says that the voie of Paris = ½ corde = 1.919526 cubic meters (page 2708).

La voie de bois de Paris est de 4 pieds de haut, 4 de large, et 3 pieds 6 pouce de long pour longueur des bûches, ee qui donne 56 pieds cubes. … La voie de bois de Paris (de 56 pieds cubes) vaut 1 stère ,919524 millionièmes. [that is, 1.919524 cubic meters]

J. F. G. Palaiseau.
Métrologie Universelle, Ancienne et Moderne, ou Rapport des Poids at Mesures des Empires, Royaumes, Duchés et Principautés des Quatre Parties du Monde... Bordeaux: chez Lavigne Jeune, imprimeur du Roi, de S. A. R. Monseigneur Le Duc D'Angouleme, etc., 1816.
Page 6.