BWMA,

Can you tell me whether fluid measure & dry measure is in widespread use in the United Kingdom.

I was told years ago, that fluid measure & dry measure was abolished by UK politicians in 1826, and replaced by the 1826 improved/imperial measure.

However, on Saturday I came into possession of a 1 fluid pint container that is in widespread use in the UK.

The story is that my niece, Charlene, has just completed a year's tour in Central Europe, trying to stop Mohammedan Europists, Papist Europists, and Serb Orthodox Europists, from murdering each other. After she left Europe, she spent a few days in the UK with a friend, and then came home on Saturday, safe and well.

She unpacked and threw out two empty plastic beverage containers: the first one I found interesting, and the second one I found suprising.

The first beverage container is of no interest to you, althought I have never seen one before. It was a 1 improved/imperial pint milk container, in widespread use throughout Europe and the Britanic Islands.

The second beverage container is the reason I am contacting you know, as I found it so suprising. Let me give the details now:

Cwella
Burst your thirst
strawberry & kiwi
Still Juice Drinks in Rip it or Sip it Bottles
B.B.E. NOV 04
strawberry & kiwi
flavour still juice drink
1 fluid pint (473 m/l)
Frujet Beverages Ltd.
London E5 9LE

The above address is in the United Kingdom.

Can the BWMA answer the following two questions.

1. Have UK companies just ignored UK politicians for the past 178 years, and continued to use fluid measure & dry measure.

2. If dry measure has continued to be used by UK companies since 1826, is there any confusion in the UK between dry measure and improved/imperial measure, as the improved/imperial pint is almost a straight duplicate of the dry pint.

Thanks

http://www.weights-and-measures.com

Common Fluid Measure & Common Dry Measure
Britains Explicit Measure & Britains Improved Measure

xcole, nobody in Britain uses dry and wet pints (33.60cuin & 28.875cuin respectivly). The only pint we use is the Imperial pint of 20oz water (34.68cuin).

If you found a container measuring one pint, then it may have been either:

1. Simply a container of 16floz
2. A metric container of some quantity.


We do not use US wet and dry pints in the UK any more. Have not done so for a VERY long time.

To elaborate, I have seen US fluidounces sued i nthe UK for such diverse products as nail varnish, olives and shower gel. I have however never seen a US wet pint.

I have a question for Americans, though: don't you ever get confused between dry and wet measures? How common are dry measures?

Dry measures are not common for consumers to see. (With the exception of the bushel.) I once saw some type of seed or something labeled as one dry pint a number of years ago.

Is the wet bushel ever used? Also, thanks for the info. Here is another question: do most Americans even know of/ know what the dry system is?

No, I have never seen the wet bushel used. I think most Americans know that there are certain units of volume that are used for liquid and others for solids, but don't consciously divide them into two systems.
Some companies that label ice cream by the quart write "one quart liquid" in order to clarify, because I guess you could see ice cream as a solid.

Sometimes you will see things like strawberries sold in 1 quart containers, those being dry quarts. At an orchard, peaches and apples and such are sold by the half peck, and peck. Wheat in the US is quoted by the bushel, but there's not much else common quoted in dry measure.

Most Americans never come into contact with dry pints, or quarts in any meaningful manner. We do have a vague idea about bushel and peck however.

I see. Fair enough. but would it not be a bad idea to convert to a system whereby 8 (wine) gallons = 1 bushel???

I can see that you are trying to simplify the measure. There is size reduction problems though. The "Winchester" bushel is 2150.42 cubic inches. The "wine" gallon is 231 cubic inches. To make a "new bushel" of 8 gallons would make 1848 cubic inches in volume. This is a 16% reduction in size. In my opinion this is too large.

I think the dry measure system is ok as it stands since it has such limited uses.

FYI:

2 dry cups = 1 dry pint
2 dry pints = 1 dry quart
8 dry quarts = 1 peck
4 pecks = 1 bushel (2150.42 cu. in.)

The above being said, in the US the bushel is now more modernly a unit of weight depending on the commodity. Each commodity has a defined weight per bushel, so no matter what the volume, the weight governs. Thus for wheat, there are 60lbs. per bushel Check out http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/bushels.html

I have seen that before. But thank you very much for the link in any ase :)

In pubs in Britain, we have several pub only sort of measures eg. the firkin of 9 gallons. Do you have anything like this in america? It is interesting to see that 9 US gallons actually equals 2079cuin (a three percent shrinkage). Regardless, I take your point & agree :)

The only measures that I can think of are the following:

We have a beer barrel of 31 gallons and then a beer keg of 15.5 gallons

Then in mixing drinks there are a few wierd ones:

1 (bar) Teaspoon = 1/8 fluid ounce or 1/12 jigger
1 (bar) Tablespoon = 3/8 fluid ounce or 1/4 jigger
1 jigger = 1.5 fluid ounces or 3 Std. US Tablespoons
1 shot/pony = 1 fluid ounce or 2 Std. US Tablespoons
1 nip/miniature = 2 fluid ounces or 4 Std. US Tablespoons
1 wine glass = 4 fluid ounces or 1/2 cup
1 split = 6 fluid ounces or 3/4 cup
1 fifth = 25.6 fluid ounces or 1/5 gallon

Note 1 Std. US Tablespoon = 1/2 fluid ounce

One should note however, that in the US now all liquor and wine is sold in metric only sizes. Beer is still sold in customary sizes.

"I'd bet anyone 100 € that the label has either 473 mL or 473 ml, but not 473 m/l as written above"

You wish!

P.S. Never saw you as a drug dealer, mate - now I realise where your depression comes from - those pills are known to cause depression you know....