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A ‘Butt’ Was A Medieval Unit Of Measure For Wine. Technically, A Buttload Of Wine Is About 126 Gallons.

Updated March 10, 2024

When you start thinking about how to weigh something, how do you know how to measure it?  Do you use the same measurement to measure water? What if you’re measuring flour? Does a pound weigh the same in Germany as it does in Austria?

If you’ve ever wondered about things like this and how it all came to be, you’ll be interested to know about Weights and Measures Day. This holiday celebrates the day that the world agreed on the use of weights and measures using an International Treaty.

  • 240 BC – Eratosthenes used “bematists” to calculate the circumference of the Earth within 15% in 240 BC.
  • 1588 – Queen Elizabeth proclaims 14 units in total, including the gallon, bushel, ton, and ounce.
  • 1799 – On December 10, 1799 France became the first country to adopt the metric system as its system for weights and measures.
  • 1824 – A platinum bar is cut into equal parts and becomes the international standard for the length of measurement.
  • 1875 – 20th May 1875 was one of the most important days in history as relates to international trade and the exchanging of ideas across the globe. the world came together and signed an International treaty that agreed to use a standard system of weights and measures.
  • 1958 – The unit of measurement “smoot” is named after an MIT prank on Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity pledge, Oliver Smoot, whose body was used to measure the Harvard Bridge in 1958. One smoot is 5 foot 7 inches and the length of the Harvard Bridge is 364.4 smoots.
  • 1960 – The 11th General Conference of Weights and Measures establish a modern metric system of measurement.
  • On this day the world came together and signed an International Treaty that meant that all agreed to use a standard system of weights and measures.
  • Some examples of old measurements involved the original foot, which was said to equal the length of a King’s foot.  There were also acres, which was the amount of land a peasant could plow in a day.
  • Chains were used to measure distance as well; with a chain being both an actual chain, and a length of measure.
  • One method of calculation in Biblical times was the area which a yoke of oxen could plow in a day
  • In ancient Rome land distances were measured in paces, one pace being defined as two steps, or approximately 5 feet
  • Ancients hired “bematists” to measure the long distances, They were trained to count steps while walking between locations and could measure hundreds of miles with 95% plus accuracy.
  • The word mile comes from the largest unit of land measure used by the Romans, the “milia passuum” meaning 1,000 paces. The Roman army, marching through uncharted territory, used to place a stick in the ground every 1,000 paces (where each pace was two steps).
  • A ‘butt’ was a medieval unit of measure for wine. Technically, a buttload of wine is about 475 liters, or 126 gallons.
  • James Watt needed to convince sceptics to ditch their draft horses and buy his steam engine. To prove its superiority, he measured a horse walking in ­circles to turn a grindstone in a mill. He multiplied the distance it walked by its 180 pounds of pulling force and came up with a new measure: horsepower.
  • In Tibet distances used to be measured by the number of cups of tea that would need to be drunk to get there.
  • The Sami people of northern Finland use a measure called Poronkusema: the distance a reindeer can walk before needing to urinate.

 

Sources: 

Days of the Year

Encyclopedia of Trivia

National Today