Ton

Ton is the same word as "tun," and may have been derived, through the Latin, from a Greek word denoting a vessel for wine, or may be merely derived from the verb tynan, "to enclose." The word exists under different modifications in most European languages. The ton is a mass of 20 cwt. or 2,240 lbs. in this country, but in some places the hundredweight is reckoned as only 100 lbs., which reduces the ton to 2,000 lbs. The tun was long used as a measure of wine and beer; in the case of the former it consisted of 252 gallons, while a tun of beer held 216 gallons. The gallon itself, however, varied in the two cases, so the the curious result was obtained that a tun of beer was actually a greater volume than a tun of wine These measures are now only used for the sake of convenience, the standard gallon being the highest legal measure of volume.