The
tun is an old
English unitEnglish units refers to the historical units of measurement in medieval England, which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units. They were redefined in England in 1824 by a Weights and Measures Act, which retained many but not all of the unit names with slightly...
of
wineWine is an alcoholic beverage typically made of fermented grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes...
cask volume, holding about
954 litresTo help compare different orders of magnitudes this page lists volumes from at 10-1 m³ to 1 m³. See also volumes or capacities of other orders of magnitude.*Volumes smaller than 100 litres*0.1 m³ is equal to:...
, almost a
cubic metreThe cubic metre is the SI derived unit of volume. It is the volume of a cube with edges one metre in length. An alternative name, which allowed a different usage with metric prefixes, was the stère...
. Etymologically it is identical to the
tonThe term ton or tonne generally refers to a unit of mass. However, there exists more than one measure of mass that are named "ton", so one has to be specific when using the term. While they do vary considerably, a ton is generally one of the heaviest units of mass referred to in colloquial speech...
, a unit of mass or weight. Originally, it was a genuine unit of volume and measured 256
gallonA gallon is a measure of volume of approximately four litres. Historically it has had many different definitions, but there are three definitions in current use. These are the U.S. liquid gallon and the lesser used U.S...
s (2
8), which is the base for the name of the
quarterQuarter is one fourth, ¼, or 25%.Quarter may also refer to:*Quarter , a division of an academic year lasting from 8 to 12 weeks*Quarter , valued at one-fourth of a U.S. dollar...
of 64 corn gallons. Its later division into 210 imperial or 252 wine gallons was chosen to be evenly divisible by small integers, including seven:
210 := 2 · 3 · 5 · 7
252 := 2² · 3² · 7
Queen Anne’sAnne became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702, succeeding her brother-in-law, William III of England and II of Scotland...
wine gallon is 231
cubic inchA cubic inch is a non-SI unit of volume, equal to the volume of a cube with sides of one inch.Cubic inches are still sometimes used as a unit of measurement in the United States and Canada, although SI is continuing to gradually displace non-SI usage.-Notation conventions:The following symbols...
es (3 × 7 × 11 in³), which makes the tun based on it exactly 2² · 3³ · 7² · 11 = 58,212 in³, which is a cylinder with diameter and height of 42 in both.
It is assumed that the tun once also was the base for English brewery casks, whose now largest measure, the
hogsheadA hogshead is a large cask of liquid . More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in either Imperial units or U.S. customary units, primarily applied to alcoholic beverages such as wine, ale, or cider....
, is of a similar magnitude as its wine equivalent (between 220 and 250 litres).
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The
tun is an old
English unitEnglish units refers to the historical units of measurement in medieval England, which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units. They were redefined in England in 1824 by a Weights and Measures Act, which retained many but not all of the unit names with slightly...
of
wineWine is an alcoholic beverage typically made of fermented grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes...
cask volume, holding about
954 litresTo help compare different orders of magnitudes this page lists volumes from at 10-1 m³ to 1 m³. See also volumes or capacities of other orders of magnitude.*Volumes smaller than 100 litres*0.1 m³ is equal to:...
, almost a
cubic metreThe cubic metre is the SI derived unit of volume. It is the volume of a cube with edges one metre in length. An alternative name, which allowed a different usage with metric prefixes, was the stère...
. Etymologically it is identical to the
tonThe term ton or tonne generally refers to a unit of mass. However, there exists more than one measure of mass that are named "ton", so one has to be specific when using the term. While they do vary considerably, a ton is generally one of the heaviest units of mass referred to in colloquial speech...
, a unit of mass or weight. Originally, it was a genuine unit of volume and measured 256
gallonA gallon is a measure of volume of approximately four litres. Historically it has had many different definitions, but there are three definitions in current use. These are the U.S. liquid gallon and the lesser used U.S...
s (2
8), which is the base for the name of the
quarterQuarter is one fourth, ¼, or 25%.Quarter may also refer to:*Quarter , a division of an academic year lasting from 8 to 12 weeks*Quarter , valued at one-fourth of a U.S. dollar...
of 64 corn gallons. Its later division into 210 imperial or 252 wine gallons was chosen to be evenly divisible by small integers, including seven:
210 := 2 · 3 · 5 · 7
252 := 2² · 3² · 7
Queen Anne’sAnne became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702, succeeding her brother-in-law, William III of England and II of Scotland...
wine gallon is 231
cubic inchA cubic inch is a non-SI unit of volume, equal to the volume of a cube with sides of one inch.Cubic inches are still sometimes used as a unit of measurement in the United States and Canada, although SI is continuing to gradually displace non-SI usage.-Notation conventions:The following symbols...
es (3 × 7 × 11 in³), which makes the tun based on it exactly 2² · 3³ · 7² · 11 = 58,212 in³, which is a cylinder with diameter and height of 42 in both.
Beer
It is assumed that the tun once also was the base for English brewery casks, whose now largest measure, the
hogsheadA hogshead is a large cask of liquid . More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in either Imperial units or U.S. customary units, primarily applied to alcoholic beverages such as wine, ale, or cider....
, is of a similar magnitude as its wine equivalent (between 220 and 250 litres). A different gallon was used for ale and beer, the ale gallon, which in modern times was 282 cubic inches (2 · 3 · 47 in³), which does not divide the 58,212 in³ nicely.
There also were other, sometimes foreign tuns/tons, for example at least until the 16th century one of 240 gallons, grouped in sixty sesters of four gallons each.