Tierce

US customaryHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)

42 US gallons (159 L), a third of a tun. The size of a standard oil barrel.

1 tierce = 158.9872949 liters (approximately).

1 tierce = 158.9872949 liters

About the tierce

Tierce is French for a third, and the cask earned the name as a third of a wine pipe, holding 42 wine gallons. Wikipedia credits a definition under Richard III with fixing the wine tierce at that size, and by around 1700 it was a standard shipping container for many goods in the English colonies, not only wine.

Its best known afterlife is in the oil fields. Pennsylvania producers, who started after the Drake well of 1859, first used whatever barrels they could find, including 40 and 45 gallon ones. Around 1866 they settled on the wine tierce, two gallons larger than a standard whisky barrel, and the 42 gallon figure was formally standardised by 1872 and adopted by federal agencies in 1882.

In US gallons the tierce is about 159 litres (158.99 L as used here), and the imperial equivalent of 35 gallons is nearly identical at 159.1 litres. That coincidence is why the unit lives on in the oil barrel, still quoted in petroleum markets even though no one ships crude in wooden casks of that size.

Sources: Wikipedia: Barrel (unit); Wikipedia: Tun (unit)

Tierce conversion chart

1 tierce expressed in every other volume unit:

Unit1 tierce
Liters158.9872949
Milliliters158,987.2949
US Gallons42
US Cups672
US Fluid Ounces5,376
Cubic Meters0.1589872949
Cubic Centimeters158,987.2949
US Quarts168
US Pints336
US Tablespoons10,752
US Teaspoons32,256
Metric Cups635.9491797
Metric Tablespoons10,599.153
Metric Teaspoons31,797.45899
Imperial Gallons34.97231575
Imperial Pints279.778526
Imperial Fluid Ounces5,595.570521
Cubic Inches9,702
Cubic Feet5.614583333
Cubic Yards0.2079475309
Oil Barrels1
Cubic Millimeters158,987,294.9
Microliters158,987,294.9
Centiliters15,898.72949
Deciliters1,589.872949
Hectoliters1.589872949
Cubic Kilometers1.589872949×10⁻¹⁰
Australian Tablespoons7,949.364746
US Legal Cups662.4470622
Imperial Quarts139.889263
Cubic Miles3.814308051×10⁻¹¹
Wine Bottles211.9830599
Magnums105.99153
Jeroboams52.99576498
Methuselahs26.49788249
Nebuchadnezzars10.599153
US Gills1,344
US Fluid Drams43,008
US Minims2,580,480
Jiggers3,584
Pinches516,096
Dashes258,048
Imperial Gills1,119.114104
US Bushels4.511676789
US Pecks18.04670715
US Dry Quarts144.3736572
US Dry Pints288.7473145
US Dry Barrels1.375
US Liquid Barrels1.333333333
UK Beer Barrels0.9714532154
Firkins3.885812862
Kilderkins1.942906431
Hogsheads (ale)0.6476354769
Hogsheads (wine)0.6666666667
Puncheons0.5
Butts (pipe)0.3333333333
Tuns0.1666666667
Acre-feet0.0001288930976
Cords0.04386393229
Board Feet67.375
Cyathi3,495.293201
Sextarii291.2744335
Congii48.54573891
Modii18.20465209
Amphorae6.068217364
Omers72.26695224
Hin43.36017134
Baths (biblical)7.226695224
Homers0.7226695224
Gō881.3498107
Shō88.13498107
Tō8.813498107
Koku0.8813498107
Charkas1,292.641638
Shtofs129.2641638
Vedros12.92641638

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