non-tartan kilts on the field.

[Jock Scot]

Alan.

Just so you know we used hundredweights, half hundredweights, etc, etc, in the UK until we went metric in, I think, the 1970's. Many of my age still use those measures.

[RogerWS76]

Now there is a question I have always wondered about. Do you know how did a hundred weight came to equal 112 lbs.?

[Jock Scot]

Now there is a question I have always wondered about. Do you know how did a hundred weight came to equal 112 lbs.?

I cannot remember how it all came about! But the "Imperial" system is still much missed by many of my generation, but equally the younger generation have no idea what we are talking about and before long "metric" will rule completely.

[Detroitpete]

Tartan kilt. And that's all I have to say about that (Forrest Gump voice)

[RogerWS76]

Did some quick research on the hundred weight idea and as suspected it had to do with the 14 lb. "Stone"

The hundredweight is descended from the French avoirdupois weight system, which became established in England in Late Medieval times. British custom came widely to use the "stone" weight, which is 14 pounds, and wished for the hundredweight to be a whole number of stones (and 100 is not a multiple of 14). The stone was not one of the avoirdupois units in Medieval France, and never became customary in the British American colonies or the USA.

In 1824 in the UK, new weights and measures legislation made it illegal for merchants to use the word hundredweight in the sense of a hundred pounds. A merchant could be sued for fraud for doing so.

In 1879, the hundred pound weight was re-legalized for trade in the UK under the name "cental", in response to legislative pressure from UK merchants who were importing wheat and tobacco from the USA.


Source: Men and measures: a history of weights and measures, ancient and modern, by Edward Nicholson 1912

[Jock Scot]

Roger.

I can relate exactly to Stones! If someone says they weigh 15 stone(not stones when used thus) I know exactly what they mean. When you chaps say so and so weighs 200 pounds I have no idea in my mind how big that person might be. Now where is my calculator? Right okay, 200 divided by 14 right ok ---- just over 14 stone!

[RogerWS76]

In that case Jock, right now I am hovering at just above 19 stone!

[Alan H]

Spot on, Roger!

Perhaps Jock Scot will recall seeing a few of these around...



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredweight

Now, Roger and I look at that weight, with it's nifty handle and think.. "I wonder how far I could throw that". Jock, being a more sensible lad, thinks that we are completly mental for even considering it!

[Jock Scot]

Spot on, Roger!

Perhaps Jock Scot will recall seeing a few of these around...

Oh yes! And often doing the same job in adding extra weight to a set of disc harrows, as in the picture!

[Alan H]

Jock probably didn't see too many of these brass ones, but iron ones.....very possibly, eh?