There seems to be no information extant about the second of these
measures; it was presumably the same as the corn-gallon. A statute of
Henry VIII ordered the barrel of beer to be 36 gallons and that of ale
32 gallons, whence it may be presumed that the former were wine-gallons
and the latter corn-gallons, 32 and 36 being taken as the whole numbers
nearly proportionate to wine and corn measure, and admitting of the
quarter-barrel being 8 gallons of ale and 9 of beer.[26]
Footnote 26:
For a long time the difference between ale and beer was that beer was
hopped.
In 1496 (temp. Henry VII) a new corn-bushel was made = 2240 c.i., its
gallon being 280 c.i. While it is possible that this increase was due to
inaccurate casting, yet it might be that the new corn-gallon was
intended to be on a water-wheat ratio with the wine-gallon, then = 224
c.i. (224 × 1-1/4 = 280), in the same way that the usual corn-gallon of
270 c.i. was in that ratio to the original 1/8 cubic foot gallon of 216
c.i. (216 × 1-1/4 = 270).[27]
Footnote 27:
It has been suggested that the 280 c.i. corn-gallon was constructed so
as to have Averdepois-Troy ratio to the 231 c.i. wine-gallon
(1·215 : 1). But the latter had not at the time risen to 231 c.i., and
it is more probable that the ratio was that of water to wheat, the
pound-pint ratio.
In 1531 the corn-gallon was increased to 282 c.i. But under Elizabeth
the corn-gallon was restored to its old standard of 1/8 bushel =
2150·4/8 c.i. = 268·8 c.i. and the wine-gallon fixed at 231 c.i. At
these standards both gallons stood until their unification in 1824.
Confirmed by Queen Anne, they are known by her name.
But the corn-gallon of Henry VIII, = 282 c.i., remained as the
Ale-gallon, probably because it had become the standard measure for
malt.
_The Quart and Pint_
While the wine-pint was an eighth of a wine-gallon the common pint of
England was the Ale-pint, an eighth of the Tudor Ale-gallon, which was
280 or 282 cubic inches and differed little from the Imperial gallon =
277·27 cubic inches. So the pint of ale in Tudor times differed little
from an Imperial pint.
The Quart and Pint of Elizabeth preserved at the Standards Office are
larger than Imperial measure, the Quart holding 40·53 ounces as compared
with the 40 ounces of the Imperial quart; it is one-fourth of a gallon
of 280 cubic inches, the Tudor ale-gallon.
3. CORN MEASURE
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