doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com W. J. Jeffery 3 inch Info (Pics)

Lagopus:

Guineas, it was that for which I was grasping. I'd say units of distance of my forte with a rod, pole & perch being the same thing. But if you want to get CONfused, try to convert the Vara without knowing the units of the original intent. Interesting how folks, farmers for the most part, were able to covert from a perimeter or 2 sides of a tract to acres. It is possible that the conversion was based on the fact that 2 furlongs by 2 perches was 1 acre. Thanks for the info.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

ellenbr, glad I hit the right note with guineas. They are seldom used in prices these days but were commonly encountered pre decimal. Farmers seem to have an entirely different system altogether as with scores for pigs. Sheeep counting has its own unique system too. Lagopus.....

Also there was the Hundredweight. This rolled over to the US in some instances, wrought iron Blacksmith's anvils being one which comes to mind. These were normally stamped on their sides with 3 sets of numbers, 1st hundredwt's (112lbs), next ¼ hundredwt's (28lbs) & lastly any remaining lbs. Thus an anvil stamped 1 2 3 Would weigh 112 + 56 + 3 = 171 lbs total.

Never thought of that; the fact you don't use hundredweights and stones. We weigh human bodies in stones (14 pound to the stone) and pounds not just pounds as you do. Since we went into the European Union though they want everything to go metric. The latest is that they want us to buy eggs by weight (grams) not by the dozen or half dozen. Maps are the oddest as heights are in metres and depths in the sea are still given in feet.

Getting off topic. Sorry! Lagopus.....

Lagopus, you have only scratched the surface of Old English premetric measurements used in the seed trade.
I have before me a lovely copper-bound wooden measure used by seed merchants for selling seed by volume.
It is stamped VR so it's Victorian, inspector's stamp, when filled with seed peas, for example, after filling the measure would be "struck" that is, using a wood "striker" 1" in diameter, the striker passed over the edge of the measure and levelling the seed in the measure.
Now for the confusing part, the wood is branded:

1/8 bushel, 1/2 peck. (So a peck is a 1/4 bushel).

I have a collection of these wooden measures, starting at 1/2 pint all the way up to a nice 1912 half bushel. I never did find a bushel (English, not US) before I emigrated to Canada.
And the hundredweight of my youth weighed 108 pounds (lbs)
I have my grandfather's farm records from the 1920s, makes interesting reading, if not confusing.
I plan on donating all this stuff to the local Faculty of Agriculture as my kids are not a bit interested, and if I die before doing that it will all go to the dump, probably
Mike

Mike, In my youth we farmed acres of potatoes,these spuds were packed in 100wt =112 lbs;sacks.There were 20 of these in the english ton which =2240lbs. The ton U.S.A. = 2000 lbs;this difference in the designation of the ton has lead to some under estimating the the rating of English proof pressure marks. For example a British proof test marked 3 tons per square inch = 6720 pounds per square inch and not 6000pounds per square inch!

The Peck measurment perked my ears up. As a boy in North Carolina, we had numerous Peck buckets around the farm and,if I remember right, some 2 peck baskcts.

Luckily my request for Jeffery records was replied and yesterday I received in my mail a letter by the owner of records in USA with a copy of original ledger page. The ledger entry says that date of manufacture was 5 April 1928. Here is scan of that page,

Magnified scan of entry


Please comment on "made by", strange order of dates and the difference of handwriting with other entries.

I don't know the dates are odd as the entry is day/month/year(not month/day/year) and the next column is price. Maybe the original ledger entry person/transcriber took the week off and his/her replacement had a small deviation from the common one??

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

In most of the world the proper order is Day/Month/Year the USofA makes a bit confusing when doing business out side of the states by using Month/Day/Year.
Cheers,
Laurie