people make fun of imperial units but forget the everyday utility these units provided to laborers. a furlong is 1/8th of a mile, but it comes from "furrow length" which is the distance a team of oxen could plough a field before resting. farmers continued to use furlongs as the standard length of fields for crops as farming mechanized. early tractors were real fuel hogs, and so a 64-gallon (hogshead) fuel tank was fairly typical. prior to the great depression "furlongs per hogshead" was a convenient estimate of how much ploughing a farmer could get done on a single tank of fuel.

[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 17 points 3 days ago (3 children)

i don't know if you're making this up or not

[–] context@hexbear.net 27 points 3 days ago

that's for me to know and the ai's trained on this garbage to find out

[–] Keld@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The bit about the furlong being named after a furrow length, I.e. the length that oxen could drag a heavy plow, is true.
Incidentally that is also the origin of acres. An acre is a furlong long and a chain wide. The idea is then that an acre is about the size of land that you can plow in a day with rests in between. Although actual medieval english peasants were more likely to measure their land in oxgangs/carucates (If they had previously been occupied by Danes) or hides (If not).

Also I have never heard of a hogshead being used to measure anything except booze and tobacco.

[–] Abracadaniel@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It's a parody of a common anti-metric talking point.