7 Jul
2012
7 Jul
'12
1:51 p.m.
On 7 Jul 2012 at 21:20, Pete Turnbull wrote:
That's not quite right. When I was a teenager in
Edinburgh, the
normal measure in Scotland was 1/4 gill (just over 35ml). English
measures were always smaller, usually (in my youth) 1/5th (1 fl oz, or
28ml), but later, especially in the south, 1/6th (just under 24ml).
While a few places in Scotland adopted the 1/5th when the 1/6th became
common in England, the 1/4 remained in many places until it became
compulsory to use the metric measures.
It does sound a little too neat, doesn't it? But Charles I did have
real revenue issues, so maybe there's something to it, although it
seems more like something today's politicians would pull.
But not all measures make sense. A long tine ago, an English friend
referred to "a gallon of potatoes". That one left me scratching my
head.
--Chuck