Tierce (unit)
The tierce (also terse) is both an archaic volume unit of measure of goods and the name of the
Use
The casks were roughly 20.5 inches across and were built to hold either liquids (wet cooperage) or dry goods (dry cooperage).[2] Contents ranged from sugar to rum to salted beef and fish.
History
The
Obsolescence
By 1899, proponents of the metric system could say that the tierce was one of many "marked curiosities and barbarisms" in America,[6] and by 1917 even opponents of the metric system were calling this and similar measures obsolete: "Nobody hears nowadays of the coomb, the pottle, the chaldron, the palm or the barleycorn. The perch, the puncheon, the span, the tierce and the toise are all but forgotten. Even the furlong, the gill and the rod are disappearing."[7]
Recent Research
Robert E. Hardwicke asked the question in his The Oilman's Barrel:[8] why is oil measured in 42-gallon barrels? One hypothesis was that early oil drilling in Pennsylvania used tierce whiskey barrels for storage, and the standard developed from there. Ultimately, he was unable to find adequate support for the hypothesis.[9]
Museum curator Mark Staniforth participated in the salvage operation of the 250-ton brig William Salthouse that was wrecked in 1841 near Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia. He made a detailed study of the recovered casks, noting that many of them did not meet legal standards for quality. His work provided empirical evidence of how tierce casks were actually constructed.[2]
See also
References
- ^ Murray, James A. H. Murray; Bradley, Henry; Craigie, W. A.; et al., eds. (1991). The Compact Oxford English Dictionary (Second ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 2061.
- ^ JSTOR 29543180.
- ISBN 9780827431805.
- JSTOR 3508753.
- JSTOR 40579943.
- ^ "A New System of Weights and Measures". Biloxi Daily Herald. May 6, 1899. p. 6.
- JSTOR 41347389.
- ISBN 978-0806143842.
- JSTOR 40256164.