The quarter ( "one-fourth") was used as the name of several distinct

English units English units are the units of measurement used in England up to 1826 (when they were replaced by Imperial units), which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units. Various standards have applied to English units at ...

based on ¼ sizes of some base unit. The "quarter of London" mentioned by ''

Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor, on 15 June 1215. ...

'' as the national standard measure for

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are ...

ale Ale is a type of beer brewed using a warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to bal ...

, and

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legu ...

was ¼ ton or tun. It continued to be used, e.g. to regulate the prices of bread. This quarter was a unit of 8

bushel A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons, and was used mostly for agri ...

s of 8

gallon The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use: *the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Aus ...

s each, understood at the time as a measure of both weight and volume: the grain gallon or half-

peck A peck is an imperial and United States customary unit of dry volume, equivalent to 2 dry gallons or 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints. An imperial peck is equivalent to 9.09 liters and a US customary peck is equivalent to 8.81 liters. Two pecks m ...

was composed of 76,800 (

Tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

)

s weight; the ale gallon was composed of the ale filling an equivalent container; and the wine gallon was composed of the wine weighing an equivalent amount to a full gallon of grain.

Length

In measures of

length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Inte ...

, the quarter (qr.) was ¼ of a

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0 ...

, formerly an important measure in the

cloth Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

trade. 3 qr. was a

Flemish ell An ell (from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic *''alinō'', cognate with Latin ''ulna'') is a northwestern European Units of measurement, unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and exte ...

, 4 quarters were a

, 5 qr. was an (English) ell, and 6 qr. was an aune or French ell. Each quarter was made up of 4 nails. Its metric equivalent was formerly reckoned as about 0.228596 m, but the

International Yard and Pound Agreement The international yard and pound are two units of measurement that were the subject of an agreement among representatives of six nations signed on 1 July 1959: the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. ...

set it as 0.2286 exactly in 1959.

Weight

The modern statutory definition of

Imperial units The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units (also known as British Imperial or Exchequer Standards of 1826) is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed th ...

, the Weights and Measures Act 1985 as amended by The Units of Measurement Regulations 1994, defines the quarter as a unit of mass equal to 28 pounds. In measures of

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar q ...

and

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

at the time of ''

'', the quarter was ton or (originally 500

pound Pound or Pounds may refer to: Units * Pound (currency), a unit of currency * Pound sterling, the official currency of the United Kingdom * Pound (mass), a unit of mass * Pound (force), a unit of force * Rail pound, in rail profile Symbols * Po ...

s). By the time of the

Norman French Norman or Norman French (, french: Normand, Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon. The name "Norman French" is sometimes used to describe ...

copies of the

Assize of Weights and Measures Weights and measures acts are acts of the British Parliament determining the regulation of weights and measures. It also refers to similar royal and parliamentary acts of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and the medieval Welsh states. T ...

, the quarter had changed to 512 lbs. These copies describe the "London quarter" as notionally derived from eight "

London bushel A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons, and was used mostly for agric ...

s" of eight

wine gallon A wine gallon is a unit of capacity that was used routinely in England as far back as the 14th century, and by statute under Queen Anne since 1707. Britain abandoned the wine gallon in 1826 when it adopted imperial units for measurement. The 1707 w ...

s of eight

s of 15

ounce The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, weight or volume and is derived almost unchanged from the , an Ancient Roman unit of measurement. The avoirdupois ounce (exactly ) is avoirdupois pound; this is the United States customa ...

s of 20 pennyweights of 32 grains of wheat, taken whole from the middle of an ear;.. the published

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

edition omits the quarter and describes

corn gallon The dry gallon, also known as the corn gallon or grain gallon, is a historic British dry measure of volume that was used to measure grain and other dry commodities and whose earliest recorded official definition, in 1303, was the volume of of wheat ...

s instead.. & & The quarter (qr. av. or quartier) came to mean ¼ of a

hundredweight The hundredweight (abbreviation: cwt), formerly also known as the centum weight or quintal, is a British imperial and US customary unit of weight or mass. Its value differs between the US and British imperial systems. The two values are distin ...

: 2

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

or 28

avoirdupois The avoirdupois system (; abbreviated avdp.) is a measurement system of Units of measurement, weights that uses pound (mass), pounds and ounces as units. It was first commonly used in the 13th century AD and was updated in 1959. In 1959, by int ...

s (about 12.7 kg): this is its (only) statutory definition since 1993.

Volume

The

Weights and Measures Act 1824 Weights and measures acts are acts of the British Parliament determining the regulation of weights and measures. It also refers to similar royal and parliamentary acts of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and the medieval Welsh states. T ...

declared that, for measures of liquids and unheaped

dry volume Dry measures are units of volume to measure bulk commodities that are not fluids and that were typically shipped and sold in standardized containers such as barrels. They have largely been replaced by the units used for measuring volumes in the me ...

, a 'quarter' equals eight

s (64 gallons, where a gallon is defined as a volume of water weight ten troy pounds).. (The date of coming into effect was 1 May 1825). The 1824 Act delegitimised all previous definitions. (The Weights and Measures Act 1985 (as amended) no longer shows the quarter as a unit of volume: an 1825 quarter of wheat would weigh about 494 lb, substantially more than the 1985 definition.) In measures of liquid

volume Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). Th ...

at the time of ''

'', the quarter of wine was (originally) ¼ tun: 8 London

s or 64

s. The tun was subsequently defined down 4 gallons to 252 and the quarter was effectively ¼

pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circul ...

butt Butt may refer to: * Figurative or literal ''blunt ends'': ** Butt joint, a woodworking joinery technique ** Butt splice connector, a type of Crimp connection#Simple crimp connectors, crimp electrical connector ** Buttstock or butt, the back par ...

. The quarter of wine was a gallon larger than a

hogshead A hogshead (abbreviated "hhd", plural "hhds") is a large cask of liquid (or, less often, of a food commodity). More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in either imperial or US customary measures, primarily applied to alcoh ...

. As 231 cubic

inch Measuring tape with inches The inch (symbol: in or ″) is a unit of length in the British imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement. It is equal to yard or of a foot. Derived from the Roman uncia ("twelft ...

es were considered to make up a

, the measure was about 242¼ L. The ale gallon was 282 cubic inches, meaning the quarter of ale was about 295.75 L. Cardarelli also says it can vary from 17 to 30

imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas ...

s for

liquor Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or ha ...

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * . * . * . & * . * {{Citation , last=Wormell , first=Richard , title=Murby's Graduated Arithmetic, Specially Adapted to the Requirements of the Revised Code , contribution=87. Cloth Measure , contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dQJbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA68 , page=68 , publisher=Thomas Murby , location=London , date=1868 . Units of volume Customary units of measurement