[Sca-cooks] Giant butt

[John Kemker]

I wonder if this was the Muse that inspired Joe Walsh when he wrote his 
famous song, "I Like Big Butts?"

--Cian

Decker, Terry D. wrote:

>No wonder his calculations are off, he's making an assumption about
>hogsheads and converting between dry measures (pints, pecks and bushels) and
>wet measures (pints, gallons and hogsheads).  The four gallon difference can
>be attributed to the volume differences between wet and dry pints in the
>traditional measures.  (As I understand it, in the Imperial system the
>volume of the pints are the same)
>
>The pre-Imperial standards set the hogshead at 48 gallons for ale, 50
>gallons for beer, 60 gallons for cider, 63 gallons for wine, honey or oil
>and 100 gallons for molasses.  The U.S. currently fixes the hogshead at 63
>gallons.  The butt and the tun are not generally used, but they are
>understood to be 126 U.S. gallons and 252 U.S. gallons respectively.  Of
>course the U.S. still uses the Elizabethean wine gallon.
>
>Traditionally, a butt (476.91 liters) is half a tun (953.82 liters).  The
>500 liter butt is modernly used in metric system countries.  And the
>Imperial butt is 108 Imp. gallons or about 490.98 liters.  By any measure,
>it is Homeric consumption.
>
>Bear
>
>  
>
>>I have to forward this in its' entirity- it is intereting, 
>>and the subject
>>line was hysterical!
>>
>>'Lainie
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Sender: Chaucer Discussion Group <CHAUCER at LISTSERV.UIC.EDU>
>>>From: "Brian S. Lee" <brianlee at XSINET.CO.ZA>
>>>Subject: Giant butt
>>>To: CHAUCER at LISTSERV.UIC.EDU
>>>
>>>This is the somewhat ambiguous heading to an article I saw 
>>>      
>>>
>>quoted from the
>>    
>>
>>>London 'Daily Telegraph' -- in full the heading is "Giant 
>>>      
>>>
>>butt to spark
>>    
>>
>>>poetry in Motion".  It begins:
>>>
>>>"In accordance with a 300-year-old tradition, Britain's Poet 
>>>      
>>>
>>Laureate,
>>    
>>
>>>Andrew Motion, has been presented with a giant butt -- 500 
>>>      
>>>
>>litres --of
>>    
>>
>>>Spanish sherry each year to help summon the muse."
>>>
>>>This reminded me of Chaucer's annual tun of wine, and made 
>>>      
>>>
>>me wonder just
>>    
>>
>>>how much it contained.  The OED obliges with the information 
>>>      
>>>
>>that a "tun"
>>    
>>
>>>(sv., 2.) was "a cask of definite capacity ... usually 
>>>      
>>>
>>equivalent to two
>>    
>>
>>>pipes or four hogsheads, containing 252 old wine-gallons."  
>>>      
>>>
>>Early on in my
>>    
>>
>>>schooldays, getting on for a long time ago, weights and measures were
>>>printed on the back of exercise books, from which I remember 
>>>      
>>>
>>learning that
>>    
>>
>>>there were 8 pints to a gallon, eight gallons to a bushel, 
>>>      
>>>
>>and 8 bushels to
>>    
>>
>>>a hogshead.  This at long last useful instruction works out 
>>>      
>>>
>>to just four
>>    
>>
>>>gallons more than what the OED suggests.  
>>>      
>>>
><clipped>
>  
>
>>>Brian
>>>
>>>      
>>>
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