Scotch liquid measure is founded on the pint. The Scotch pint was formerly regulated by a standard jug of east metal, the custody of which was committed to the borough of Stir ling. This jug was supposed to contain 105 cubic inches; and though, after several careful trials, it has to contain only about 10:11 inches, yet in compliance with estab lished custom, Ibunded on that opinion, the pint stoups are still regulated to contain 105 inches, and the customary ale measures are about above that standard. It was enacted ny James I. of Scotland, that the pint should contain 41 ounces trone weight of the clear water of Tay, and by James VI. that it should contain 55 Scots troy ounces of the clear water of Leith. This atl'ords another method of regu lating the pint, and also ascertaining the ancient standard of the trone weight. As the water of Tay and Leith is alike, the trone weight must have been to the Scots troy weight. as 55 to 41, and therefore the pound trone must have contained about 21 ounces Scots, troy.
The Scotch quart contains 210 inches, and is therefore about less than the English wine gallon, and about 4 less than the ale gallon.
As to the liquid measures of foreign nations, it is to be observed, that their several vessels for wine, vinegar, &c. have also various denominations, according to their different sizes and the places wherein they are used. The woeders of Germans', for holding Rhenish and Moselle wines, are diffTent in their guages; some containing 14 mimes of Amsterdam measure, and others more or less. The acme is reckoned at Amsterdam for 8 steckans, or 20 verges, or for of a tun of 2 pipes, or 4 barrels of French or Bordeaux, which at this latter place is called tierfon, because three of them make a pipe, or two barrels, and six the said tun. The steckan is 10 mingles, or 32 pints; and the verge is, in respect of the said Rhenish and Moselle, and some other sorts of wine, 0 mingles, but in measuring brandy it consists of 01- mingles. The aumc is divided into 4 :metiers, and the ancker into 2 steckans, or 32 mingles. The :tucker is taken sometimes fiar. of a ton, or 4 barrels; on which footing the Bordeaux barrel ought to contain at Amsterdam (when the cask is made according to the just guage,) 121 steckans, or 200 mingles, wine and lees ; or 12 steckans, or 192 mingles, racked wine ; so that the Bordeaux tun of wine contains 50 steckans, or 800 mingles, wine and lees ; and 48 steckans, or itiS mingles, of pure wine. The barrels, or poitT ms, of Nantes, and other places on the river Loire, contain only 12 steckans, Amsterdam measure. The wine tun of Rochelle, Cegniac, Charente, and the Isle of Rh6, differs very little from the ton of Bordeaux, and consequently from the barrels and pipes. A tun of wine of Chalosse, Bayonne, and the neighbouring. places, is reckoned GO steckans, and the barrel 15, Amsterdam measure.
The old maid of Paris contains 150 quarts or 300 pints, wine and lees ; or 280 pints clear wine ; of ss hick muids three make a tun.
The butts, or pipes, from Cadiz, Malaga, Alicant, Bene carlo, Saloe, and Alata•o, and from the Canaries, Lisbon, Oporto, and Fayal, are very different in their guages, though in affieightments they are all reckoned two to the tun.
Vinegar is measured in the same manner as wine, but the measures for brandies are ditl'erent, these spirits, from France, Spain. Portugal, &c., are generally shipped in large casks, called pipes, butts, and pieces, according to the places from whence they are imported, &c. In France, brandy is shipped in casks called pieces at Bordeaux, and pipes at Rochelle, Cogniae, the Isle of 1:116. and other neighbouring places, which more and some less, even from ato 90 Amster dam verges or veertels, according to the capacity of the vessel, and the places they come from.
83 Measure of Capacity for things Dry, was the Winchester gallon heretoliire ; as for corn, salt, coal, and other dry goods, in England. The gallon contains 272-1 cubic inches. The bushel 8 gallons, or 2178 inches. A cylindrical vessel, 181 inches diameter, and S inches deep, is appointed to be used asa bushel in levying the malt tax. A vessel of these dimensions is rather less than the Winchester bushel of 8 gallons, for it contains only 2150 inches, though probably there was no difference intended. The denominations of dry measure commonly used. are given in the first of the subjoined tables. Four quarters of' corn make a chaldron, five quarters make a wey or load, and ten quarters make a tun. In measuring seacoal, five pecks make a bushel, nine bushels make a quarter or vatt, four quarters make a chaldron, and twenty-one chal drons make a score.
40 feet hewn timber make a load.
50 feet unhewn timber make a load.
32 gallons make a herring barrel.
42 gallons make a salmon barrel.
1 cwt. gunpowder makes a barrel.
250 lbs. soap make a barrel.
10 doz. candles make a barrel.
12 barrels make a last.
Scotch dry measure. There was formerly only one measure of capacity in Scotland ; and some commodities were heaped, others straiked, or measured exactly to the capacity of the standard. The method of heaping was afterwards forbidden as unequal, and a larger measure appointed for such com modities as that custom had been extended to. The wheat firlot, used also for rye, pease, beans, salt, and grass seeds, contains 21 pints 1 mutchkin, measured by the Stirling jug. The barley firlot, used also for oats, fruit, and potatoes, con tains 31 pints. A different method of regulating the firlot was appointed from a cylindrical vessel. The diameter for both measures was fixed at 191 inches, the depth 71 inches for the wheat lirlot, and 131 for the barley fulot. A standard constructed by these measures is rather less than when regu lated by the pint ; and as it is difficult to make vessels exactly cylindrical the regulation by the pint has prevailed, and the other method gone into disuse.