Barrel

Barrel, a cylindrical vessel or cask, usually larger in the middle than at the ends. It is also used as a measure of capacity, customary in England (though no longer legal) for various kinds of goods. Thus the barrel of beer contains 36 imperial gallons; the barrel of herrings about 800 fish; the barrel of flour, 190 lbs.; of gunpowder, 100 lbs.; of rice, 600 lbs. In America it is a customary measure of flour (196 lbs.) and beef (200 lbs.). The name is also applied to various cylindrical parts of machinery - the case of the mainspring of a watch, the main part of a capstan, the chamber within which the piston of a pump works, the tube of a lock which receives the key, and sometimes colloquially to the body of an animal, as contrasted with the head and limbs.