gallon (gal on)

[ It has been ascertained to contain 277.274 cubic inches. A statute of 1266 declares that "8 pounds do make a gallon of wine, and 8 gallons of wine do make a bushel." There was thus but one legal gallon. The pound referred to in the statute was somewhat lighter than the troy pound, but it would seem that in course of time the avoirdupois pound was substituted in practice, for the wine-gallon universally used in the latter part of the seventeenth century contained 224.4 cubic inches, while 8 avoirdupois pounds of British wine (of gooseberry or elderberry) measure about 226 inches. This wine-gallon was generally supposed, and in 1689 was legally declared, to contain 231 cubic inches, so that it was found convenient in 1707 to legalize a standard that was more accurately of this capacity. This law remains in force in the United States, though that standard has long been disused. A statute of 1452 defined the gallon as 8 troy pounds of wheat (still recognizing but one gallon), but the standard exchequer gallon constructed under Henry VII., and supposed to represent the gallon then used, contains 2741 cubic inches. It was generally thought to contain 2724 inches, and the statute of 1697, defining dry measures, was intended to conform to this, although it actually makes the corn-gallon 268.6 cubic inches. Elizabeth constructed a standard gallon of 282 cubic inches (or nearly 8 pounds avoirdupois of wheat), which became the old ale-gallon. The Irish gallon, which from 1450 to 1695 had contained 8 pounds troy of wine, was at the latter date carried to 2721 cubic inches; but in 1735 it was again changed to 217.1 cubic inches for all The United States gallon is equivalent to 3.7853 IMG:content-2045.jpg:[graphic]