[Bell Historians] long and short hundreds

[Anne Willis]

In medieval times, a 108lb hundredweight was the standard
hundred weight (insofar as anything was standard).  As the
modern 112lb hundredweight (a long hundredweight, apparently
also called a London hundredweight) became more common, the
108lb hundredweight was sometimes refered to as a short
hundredweight.  More recently (and particularly in the US),
a 100lb hundredweight has come into use and this is now
referred to as a short hundredweight.

Richard


 Thanks very much.  The variation reminds me of a wonderful book belonging
to a friend which has extensive tables converting various local German
weights; e.g. Westphalian lbs to Bavarian lbs.

Anne