Dear Rob and All, Many years ago, I heard of a 13th Century English unit called a tun. This was a volume unit that I understood was used to measure stored grain. I include an item about the tun in the History item in the latest 'Metrication matters' newsletter, see http://www.metricationmatters.com/mm-newsletter-2005-01.html
Wikipedia also has the following two paragraphs that I have quoted in reverse order see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton : The first paragraph suggests that originally the tunne or tonne was a measure of volume. This fits with my story of a tun as a volume measure for grain. 'The word ton or tonne is derived from the Old English tunne, and ultimately from the Old French tonne, and referred originally to a large cask with a capacity of 252 wine gallons (volume of about 950�litres), which holds approximately 2100 pounds of water (a mass of 950�kilograms). Such a barrel is still called a tun in British English, but this usage is dying out'. This second quote suggests that gradually the volume measure tunne was gradually replaced by a mass measure based on how much water a tunne could hold. "Both the short ton and the long ton are composed of twenty hundredweights, each having different values for the hundredweight (100 (45�kg) and 112 pounds (51�kg) respectively). Prior to the 15th century in England, the ton was still composed of twenty hundredweights, but each was 108 lb (49�kg), giving a ton of 2160 pounds (980�kg)'. Cheers, Pat Naughtin ASM (NSAA), LCAMS (USMA)* PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia Phone 61 3 5241 2008 Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'. You can subscribe by going to http://www.metricationmatters.com and clicking on 'Newsletter'. * Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual � for writers, editors and printers', he is an Accredited Speaking Member (ASM) with the National Speakers Association of Australia, and a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. on 2005-01-13 20.42, ewc at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hi Bill & all > > you write > > <<You are correct in saying that you don't have specific knowledge of the > Conf�rence G�n�rale. The people who attend the CGPM are not French academics, > but are representatives of their respective countries. I don't believe France > has any greater representation than any other country>> > > In my reasonably long experience of attending meetings I've come to the > conclusion that who attends is pretty much irrelevant - its he who writes the > minutes that counts. But anyhow - that issue is no going to be advanced by us > exchanging simplistic one-liners. > > How about answering my earlier question - where did the US customary ton come > from? Any 'FFU' users care to answer? > > rob > > (Robert Tye, York, UK) >> >
