Talk:Hundredweight

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[edit] Introduction date

Any source for the introduction-date claim in "a hundredweight is defined as 100 pounds. This equals 45.359 kg. This unit was introduced in the late 1800s."?

I'd suggest that it was much earlier (by centuries), will look for more on that. Didn't the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824 have something to do with the virtual disappearance from this short hundredweight from British usage? Gene Nygaard 10:08, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

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In U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson's 1790 report to the House of Representatives, Plan for establishing uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the United States, he calls the short hundredweight a kental, saying for the unit in his proposed decimal system based on the foot that his redefined kental would be "about 4/10 less than the English kental of 100 lbs. avoirdupois".
Gene Nygaard 13:17, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

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In Hutchinson's Encyclopaedia we have
hundredweight Imperial unit of mass, equal to 112 lb (50.8 kg). It is sometimes called the long hundredweight, to distinguish it from the short hundredweight or cental, equal to 100 lb (45.4 kg).
Gene Nygaard 13:30, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)