Tun (unit)
The tun (Template:Langx, Template:Langx, Template:Langx) is an English unit of liquid volume (not weight), used for measuring wine,<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> oil or honey. Typically a large vat or vessel, most often holding 252 wine gallons, but occasionally other sizes (e.g. 256, 240 and 208 gallons) were also used.<ref name=memoirs/> The modern tun is about 954 litres.
The word tun is etymologically related to the word ton for the unit of mass, the mass of a tun of wine being approximately one long ton, which is Template:Convert. The spellings "tun" and "ton" were sometimes used interchangeably.<ref>For an example of "tun" meaning the avoirdupois ton of mass: Template:Cite book</ref>
HistoryEdit
Originally, the tun was defined as 256 wine gallons;<ref group=nb>Template:Gaps</ref> this is the basis for the name of the quarter of 64 corn gallons. At some time before the 15th century, it was reduced to 252 wine gallons, so as to be evenly divisible by other small integers, including seven.<ref group=nb>252 = Template:Gaps</ref>
In one Early Modern English example from 1507, a tun is defined as 240 gallons. Template:Verse translation
With the adoption of the Queen Anne wine gallon of 231 cubic inches in 1706, the tun approximated the volume of a cylinder with both diameter and height of 42 inches.<ref group=nb>The volume, V, of this cylinder may be approximated from the height, h, and the radius, r, as follows.
</ref> These were adopted as the standard U.S. liquid gallon and tun.V = Template:Pir2h ≈ Template:Gaps since Template:Pi ≈ Template:Frac = Template:Gaps cu in = Template:Gaps cu in
When the imperial system was introduced in 1824, the tun was redefined in the UK and its colonies as 210 imperial gallons. The imperial tun remained evenly divisible by small integers.<ref group=nb>210 = Template:Gaps</ref> There was also little change in the actual value of the tun.<ref group=nb>The imperial tun is only about {{#expr:954.6789/9.53923769568-100round2}}% larger than the US tun under current definitions, as Template:Nowrap.</ref>
Standard tuns of wine came to serve as a measure of a ship's capacity.<ref name=BTS.GOV>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}. "Historically, a very important and standard cargo for European sailing vessels was wine, stored and shipped in casks called tuns. These tuns of wine, because of their uniform size and their universal demand, became a standard by which a ship's capacity could be measured. A tun of wine weighed approximately 2,240 pounds, and occupied nearly 60 cubic feet." (Gillmer, Thomas (1975). Modern Ship Design. United States Naval Institute.) "Today the ship designers standard of weight is the long ton which is equal to 2,240 pounds."</ref>
| comparisons | historically | imperial definitions | US definitions | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| measure | tuns | butts | puncheons | hogsheads | tierces | barrels | rundlets | litres<ref group=nb>The conversion to litres is approximate, and is given as a range to reflect the varying definitions of the gallon and the tun in terms of the gallon.</ref> | gallons | litres<ref group=nb>The conversion to litres shown in tooltips is exact assuming the current 4.54609-litre definition of the imperial gallon.</ref> | gallons | litres<ref group=nb>The conversion to litres shown in tooltips is exact assuming the current 25.4-millimetre definition of the international inch.</ref> | ||||
| tun | 1 | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | 950–960 | 210 | 954.6789 | 252 | 953.923769568 | ||||
| butt | 2 | 1 | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | 475–480 | 105 | 477.33945 | 126 | 476.961884784 | ||||
| puncheon | 3 | Template:Sfrac | 1 | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | 316–320 | 70 | 318.2263 | 84 | 317.974589856 | ||||
| hogshead | 4 | 2 | Template:Sfrac | 1 | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | 237–240 | Template:Sfrac | 238.669725 | 63 | 238.480942392 | ||||
| tierce | 6 | 3 | 2 | Template:Sfrac | 1 | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | 158–160 | 35 | 159.11315 | 42 | 158.987294928 | ||||
| barrel | 8 | 4 | Template:Sfrac | 2 | Template:Sfrac | 1 | Template:Sfrac | 118–120 | Template:Sfrac | 119.3348625 | Template:Sfrac | 119.240471196 | ||||
| rundlet | 14 | 7 | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | Template:Sfrac | 1 | 68–69 | 15 | 68.19135 | 18 | 68.137412112 | ||||
DefinitionsEdit
In the US customary system, the tun (symbol: US tu<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>) is defined as 252 US fluid gallons, or exactly Template:Convert.<ref name=":0"/>
In the imperial system, the tun is defined as 210 imperial gallons, or exactly Template:Convert.
ConversionsEdit
Both the imperial and US tuns are subdivided into smaller units as follows.
| 1 tun | ≡ | 2 | butts or pipes |
| ≡ | 3 | puncheons or tertians | |
| ≡ | 4 | wine hogsheads<ref name=":0"/> | |
| ≡ | 6 | tierces | |
| ≡ | 8 | wine barrels | |
| ≡ | 14 | rundlets | |
| Conversions of the imperial tun are as follows. | |||
| 1 imperial tun | ≡ | 210 | imperial gallons |
| ≡ | 840 | imperial quarts | |
| ≡ | Template:Gaps | imperial pints | |
| ≡ | 954.6789 | litres<ref group=nb name=impgal>The conversion to litres is exact assuming the current 4.54609-litre definition of the imperial gallon.</ref> | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | cubic inches | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | cubic feet | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | cubic yards | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | US gallons | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | US liquid quarts | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | US liquid pints | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | US dry quarts | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | US dry pints | |
| Conversions of the US tun are as follows. | |||
| 1 US tun | ≡ | 252 | US gallons<ref name=":0"/> |
| ≡ | Template:Gaps | US liquid quarts<ref name=":0"/> | |
| ≡ | Template:Gaps | US liquid pints<ref name=":0"/> | |
| ≡ | Template:Val | litres<ref group=nb name=USgal>The conversion to litres is exact assuming the current 25.4-millimetre definition of the international inch.</ref> | |
| ≡ | Template:Gaps | cubic inches | |
| ≡ | Template:Val | cubic feet | |
| ≡ | Template:Sfrac | cubic yards | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | imperial gallons | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | imperial quarts | |
| ≈ | Template:Convert | imperial pints | |
| ≡ | Template:Sfrac | US dry quarts | |
| ≡ | Template:Sfrac | US dry pints | |
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