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 agricultural products, such as wheat. In modern usage, the volume is nominal, with bushels denoting a mass defined differently for each commodity. The name "bushel" is also used to translate similar units in other measurement systems. The word "bushel" as originally used for a container itself, and later a unit of measurement. The name comes from the Old French boissiel and buissiel, meaning "little box". It may further derive from Old French boise, thus meaning "little butt". The bushel is an intermediate value between the pound and ton or tun that was introduced to England following the Norman Conquest. Norman statutes made the London bushel part of the legal measure of English wine, ale, and grains. The Assize of Bread and Ale credited to Henry III, 1266, defined this bushel in terms of the wine gallon, while the 1300 Assize of Weights and Measures usually credited to Edward I or II defined the London bushel in terms of the larger corn gallon. In either case, the bushel was reckoned to contain 64 pounds of 12 ounces of 20 pennyweight of 32 grains. These measures were based on the relatively light tower pound and were rarely used in Scotland, Ireland, or Wales during the Middle Ages. When the Tower system was abolished in the 16th century, the bushel was redefined as 56 avoirdupois pounds. The imperial bushel established by the Weights and Measures Act of 1824 described the bushel as the volume of 80 avoirdupois pounds of distilled water in air at or 8 imperial gallons. This is the bushel in some use in the United Kingdom. Thus, there is no distinction between liquid and dry measure in the imperial system. The Winchester bushel is the volume of a cylinder in diameter and high, which gives an irrational number of approximately 2150.4202 cubic inches.