sack (unit)#Conversion

The wool sack or woolsack ({{langx|la|saccus lanae}} or {{lang|la|lane}}) was standardized as 2 wey of 14 stone each, with each stone {{frac|12|1|2}} merchants' pounds each (i.e. 350 merchants' pounds or about 153 kilograms), by the time of the Assize of Weights and Measures {{circa|lk=no|1300}}. 12 such sacks formed the wool last.{{Citation |editor-last=Ruffhead |editor-first=Owen |editor-link=Owen Ruffhead |title=The Statutes at Large |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tKZFAAAAcAAJ |volume= I: From Magna Charta to the End of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth. To which is prefixed, A Table of the Titles of all the Publick and Private Statutes during that Time |location=London |publisher=Mark Basket for the Crown |date=1763a |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tKZFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA148 148–149] }}. {{in lang|en}} & {{in lang|la}} & {{in lang|nrf}}

The coal sack was standardized as an imperial hundredweight of 112 avoirdupois pounds, approximately 51 kilograms.

File:Large sacks used for coaling.png in the Royal Navy]]

The large sack was a UK unit of weight for coal. It was introduced by the London, Westminster and Home Counties Coal Trade Act 1831 (1 & 2 Will. 4. c. lxxvi), which required coal to be sold by weight rather than volume.{{citation |work=The History and Description of Fossil Fuel, the Collieries, and Coal Trade of Great Britain |author=John Holland |publisher=Whittaker |location=London |year=1835 |title=The London Coal Trade |pages=374–386}}

The Royal Navy used large sacks holding two hundredweight for coaling its ships. These sacks were made of jute bound with Manila rope. They were filled in the hold of a collier using a scoop and then a wire cable was run through two iron rings at the mouth of the sack to close and hoist it over to the warship, twelve sacks at a time. A sack truck would then be used to take each sack to the chute of the warship's coal bunker where they would be emptied. These sacks were large and heavy, weighing at least sixteen pounds when empty, and costing 11 shillings and sixpence before the First World War.{{citation |work=Stories of the Ships |author= Lt. Lewis Freeman |publisher=John Murray |location=London |year=1919 |title=Coaling the Grand Fleet |pages=216–231}}

The large sack was defined as 224 pounds.Holland. The History and Description of Fossil Fuel, the Collieries, and Coal Trade of Great Britain. Second Edition. Whittaker. 1841. [https://books.google.com/books?id=58g1DedwV2cC&pg=PA386 Page 386].

1 large sack ≡ 2 sacks, equivalent to 2 cwt, 224 lb, or about 102 kgGilbert Jenkins. "Coal Weights, UK". Oil Economists' Handbook. Elsevier Applied Science Publishers. 1986. Page 325. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1J5XAAAAMAAJ Google Books].

The sack has also been used as a unit of volume. In the American oil industry, a sack represents the amount of portland cement that occupies {{convert|1.15|cuft|USgal L}}, and in most cases weighs {{convert|94|lb|kg}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Terms/s/sack.aspx |title=Oilfield Glossary - Sack |publisher=Schlumberger |access-date=9 June 2018}} Other uses in the US include the measurement by volume of salt, where one sack is {{convert|215|lb|kg}}, cotton where one sack is {{convert|140|lb|kg|sigfig=3}} and flour, where one sack is just {{convert|100|lb|kg|sigfig=3}}.{{cite web |url=https://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictS.html |title=A Dictionary of Units of Measurement |publisher=University of North Carolina |access-date=9 June 2018}} It has also been used as a measure of volume for dry goods in Britain, with one sack being equivalent to {{convert|15|impgal|L}}.{{cite web |url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/researchguidance/weightsandmeasures/glossary.aspx |title=Manuscripts and Special Collections - Glossary |publisher=University of Nottingham |access-date=9 June 2018}}

In British usage, a sack of flour was equivalent to 20 stone, {{convert|280|lb|kg|sigfig=3}} or one-eighth of a long ton. A sack of coal was 16 stone, or {{convert|224|lb|kg}}, while the weight of a sack of wool depended on who was selling it. A sack of grower's wool was {{frac|3|1|4}} hundredweight or {{convert|364|lb|kg}}, whereas a sack of dealer's wool was considerably lighter, at {{convert|240|lb|kg|sigfig=3}}.{{cite web |url=http://metricviews.org.uk/2013/06/forgotten-british-and-irish-units/ |title=Forgotten British and Irish units |date=14 June 2013 |publisher=Metric Views |access-date=9 June 2018}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Wiktionary|sackful}}

• [https://visitbritainnordic.wordpress.com/tag/woolsack-race/ Tetbury woolsack race]

Category:Units of mass

Category:Customary units of measurement