Hogshead
A hogshead (abbreviated "hhd", plural "hhds") is a large cask of liquid (or, less often, of a food commodity). More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in either imperial or US customary measures, primarily applied to alcoholic beverages, such as wine, ale, or cider.
Varieties and standardisation
A tobacco hogshead was used in British and American colonial times to transport and store tobacco. It was a very large wooden barrel. A standardized hogshead measured Template:Convert long and Template:Convert in diameter at the head (at least Template:Convert, depending on the width in the middle). Fully packed with tobacco, it weighed about Template:Convert.
A hogshead contains about Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that the hogshead was first standardized by an act of Parliament in 1423Template:Which, though the standards continued to vary by locality and content. For example, the OED cites an 1897 edition of Whitaker's Almanack, which specified the number of gallons of wine in a hogshead varying by type of wine: claret (presumably) Template:Convert, port Template:Convert, sherry Template:Convert; and Madeira Template:Convert. The American Heritage Dictionary claims that a hogshead can consist of anything from (presumably) Template:Convert.
Eventually, a hogshead of wine came to be Template:Convert, while a hogshead of beer or ale is 54 gallons (250 L if old beer/ale gallons, 245 L if imperial).
A hogshead was also used as unit of measurement for sugar in Louisiana for most of the 19th century. Plantations were listed in sugar schedules as having produced x number of hogsheads of sugar or molasses. A hogshead was also used for the measurement of herring fished for sardines in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick.
Etymology
The etymology of hogshead is uncertain. According to English philologist Walter William Skeat (1835–1912), the origin is to be found in the name for a cask or liquid measure appearing in various forms in several Germanic languages, in Dutch oxhooft (modern okshoofd), Danish oxehoved, Old Swedish oxhuvud, etc. The word should therefore be "oxhead", "hogshead" being a mere corruption. It has been suggested that the name arose from the branding of such a measure with the head of an ox.<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref>
A hogshead of Madeira wine was approximately equal to 45–48 gallons (0.205–0.218 m3). A hogshead of brandy was approximately equal to 56–61 gallons (0.255–0.277) m3.
Charts
Template:English wine casks Template:English brewery casks
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