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Large sack was a UK unit of weight for coal. It was introduced by the London, Westminster and Home Counties Coal Trade Act of 1831, which required coal to be sold by weight rather than volume.[1]
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.[2]
Definition
224 pounds[3]
Conversion
1 large sack ≡ 2 sacks, equivalent to 2 cwt, 224 lb, or approximately 102 kg[3]
References
- ^ John Holland (1835), "The London Coal Trade", The History and Description of Fossil Fuel, the Collieries, and Coal Trade of Great Britain, London: Whittaker, pp. 374–386
- ^ Lt. Lewis Freeman (1919), "Coaling the Grand Fleet", Stories of the Ships, London: John Murray, pp. 216–231
- ^ a b Cardarelli, François (2003), Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights and Measures, London: Springer, p. 48, ISBN 978-1-4471-1122-1
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