A useful work on weights and measures is:
F. G. Skinner, Weights and Measures: their ancient origins and and their
development in Great Britain up to AD 1855, HMSO (for the Science
Museum), 1967. For all I know there may be a later edition. (I am sure
there are other books on the subject).
The references to bushels in the book are:
p.92: The Assise of Bread and Ale, 51 Hen3 c1: "and 8 pounds make the
gallon of wine and 8 gallons of wine make the London bushel and 8
bushels make the London quarter and 12 1/2 pounds make the London
stone".
pp.99-100 refer to the weights and measures statute of Henry VII, 1496,
which tried to establish the Winchester Standard for wheat wine and ale,
including the requirement that the bushell should contain 800 troy
ounces of wheat.
p.105: there is a table of the capacities of the bushel standards which
still survive. The Henry VII bushell contained 2144.80 cubic inches;
and the Elizabeth 1 bushel contained 2148.28 cubic inches. The William
III bushel contained 2150.42 cubicinches.
p.107: Skinner announces that the Winchester measure was taken to the
US and adopted there in 1836 (whilst the British adopted the Imperial
measure in 1824). "For dry measure the USA bushel = 2150.42 cu in, i.e.
the 'Winchester Bushel' of William III, 1702".
I would guess that, whatever the central government was trying to
prescribe by statute, weights and measures would vary locally (not least
because of the inaccuracies likely to occur in local copies of
standards); that there would be many local weights and measures going
under local names or being different weights and measures under a common
name; and that there would also be systems of weights and measures
specific to different trades.
This information is given without liability (especially for boring
people).
--
Frank Sharman
Wolverhampton, UK
Look! No quotes, no graphics!
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