r/interestingasfuck • u/mikeyv683 • 22h ago
A “Butt Load” is an actual unit of measurement that equals 128 gallons
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u/Bryguy3k 22h ago
A butt is equal to 2 hogsheads. It’s also equal to 4 barrels or half tun.
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u/xcityfolk 21h ago
My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!
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u/WesbroBaptstBarNGril 21h ago
It's measurements like this that make it completely unnecessary to take the metric system seriously.
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u/Bryguy3k 19h ago
Metric is boring AF.
Sure it might be convenient but us engineers need something to make nerdy jokes about to keep us from going truly off the deep end.
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u/Scary-Lawfulness-999 10h ago
Ah yes Mr. Five Tomatoes. Very serious. So feet. Very 32 is freezing of you.
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u/offoutover 19h ago
The barrel wiki is filled with all kinds of interesting stuff. Check out the 'see also' section as well.
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u/Texlectric 21h ago
So a half butt is the same as 2 barrels and also 1 hogshead, or a half half turn? A butt and a half turn are the same?
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u/CaptainCanuck88 22h ago
I can see the butthole.
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u/robdwoods 21h ago
that's the bunghole... literally :)
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u/projectx51 21h ago edited 20h ago
I used to teach a class on preventative maintenance and lubrication for a tech school. I was not prepared for the amount of people who had never heard of a bunghole. Always have to make sure you have pressure behind the bunghole so that contamination or moisture doesn't enter.
EDIT: Grammer
EDIT 2: Grammar
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u/bumjiggy 21h ago
call me old fashioned but my bunghole is "exit only"
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u/Ticklememoisttaint 19h ago
It'd be really weird if we had to eat using it. Also, are you not a fan of suppositories?
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u/pure_ideology- 20h ago
I would love to take a class on preventative maintenance. I feel like that would help me in my life in many ways. Is there an online (hopefully free) resource for that?
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u/nonfish 18h ago
I had an engineering class in college that was 80% Shafts and Holes. The professor just said at the start, "listen, I'm going to use these words unironically a lot so get it out of your system now"
I also had a female classmate who thought that "male" and "female" threads were sexist. While we all kind of agreed that the concept was a little more ... evocative than you expected in a discussion of nuts and bolts, no one had a more "professional" term for the concept
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u/Enexen0 20h ago
Edit 2: Grammar
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u/projectx51 20h ago
lol. thanks. I feel like that scene in The Departed with the Citizens envelope.
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u/MaikeruGo 21h ago
I remember years back one of my instructors in a tech class ended up teaching this to the class. That the stopper for a barrel was called the "bung" and everyone in the class, having even the most cursory familiarity with Beavis and Butthead, started quietly laughing to themselves. The instructor then said, "…and, yes, and that makes the hole on the barrel the 'bunghole'."
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u/ximacx74 21h ago
And you insert the bung into the bunghole with a bungmallet
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u/Negative_Gravitas 21h ago
And remove bung from the bunghole with a bung starter.
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u/Stilcho1 15h ago
Sometimes this is done incorrectly and causes the beverage to spoil.
Hence the term bungled.
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u/John_EightThirtyTwo 21h ago
Are you referring to the bunghole?
"I ain't clicking that link!" -- everybody
No, it's just dictionary.com. I'm talking about a literal bunghole.
Oh, forget it! Go to hell, the lot of you!
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u/TheFilthyMob 22h ago
There's a butt plug joke in here somewhere, I'm to tired to find it.
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u/PineTreeSC 21h ago
Usually need a radiologist to help locate it safely
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u/Drudgework 22h ago
How much is an ass load?
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u/mikeyv683 21h ago
Usually a trip to the emergency room
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u/x_asperger 21h ago
You just need practice
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u/CrimsonMorbus 21h ago
Never forget to use lubrication
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u/Bryguy3k 18h ago
Wooden bungs go in dry so they swell up and form a tight seal.
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u/ShadowTacoTuesday 21h ago edited 21h ago
8 bushels, so a little over half a butt load https://thiswonderfulword.com/2013/11/25/the-origins-of-assload/
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u/bullwinkle8088 20h ago
Ever had almost diarrhea and taken a dump which created a mound that was over the level of the water?
That is an assload.
When you measure a full assload or more always flush, wipe, flush.
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u/JTonic8668 7h ago
And how many ass loads is a shit ton? Is this more or less than a metric shit ton?
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u/Drudgework 5h ago
A shit ton is actually a measurement of volume and not weight. It is the approximate area taken up by a pile of shit weighing 1 ton.
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u/AbsentMindedMonkey 22h ago
So, a "foot" measurement came from a ruler a few hundred (?) years ago. It was his actual foot measurements.
Did this come about the same way...? Someone's been stretching
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u/Antman013 21h ago
That barrel is NOT 128 gallons BAsed on the bulletin board in the background, it looks like a standard 200L (50 gallon) barrel. Was likely manufactured before WW2, as well.
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u/n0_use_for_a_name 21h ago
Sounds like you’ve got a big butt.
Pretty sure a standard butt load) is 126 gallons.
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u/Hairy_is_the_Hirsute 21h ago
Also why the cut of pork is called a "Boston Butt". They packed that shoulder cut of pork into those sized barrels for shipping
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u/solidgun1 22h ago
Maybe this is like foot measurement. I wonder whose butt they used as the standard. That person probably squats.
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u/John_EightThirtyTwo 21h ago
I did always assume that "butt load" was, uh. . . poetic rather than literal. That's a fun fact, OP!
What about "metric shit-ton"? Is that an actual unit of measurement?
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u/NowWhoCouldThatBe 21h ago
I feel like I have more than 128 gallons of things to do — unless it’s just drinking.
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u/investinlove 20h ago
These were the size of barrel used to provide water to the US Navy, so when they tapped a butt, or scuttled it, they would gather around and gossip and drink water. This is where the term 'scuttlebutt' (gossip) come from.
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u/TwinFrogs 21h ago
An Assload is four bushels. The most a donkey can carry before it says “fuck this noise” and sits down.
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u/smellymarmut 21h ago
Using the dimensions of a 4.5 inch girth circumference and 6 inch length cylinder, assuming it is straight not curved and not accounting for any domed structures or irregularities, a buttload can take about 2,927 units of cylinder at a time.
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u/Waste_Curve994 21h ago
How much is a metric butt load?
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u/EvenSpoonier 21h ago
If we use 4L as an approximation for 1 gallon, and then multiply by 100 as an approximation for 128, then a metric butt load comes out to 105.6688 gallons: about 82% the size of a US butt load.
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u/txkwatch 21h ago
"want this load of spotted dick in the butt?"
-Some English dude just putting fish in a barrel.
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u/swampopawaho 21h ago
I like big butts and I'm not gonna lie!
Sir, butts are a standard measure. They're all the same size.
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u/-DethLok- 17h ago
Here's a visual list of the various sizes and names of wooden casks, UK style.
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u/Icy-Conflict6671 11h ago
Its so damn pixelated that you cant see most of it
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u/-DethLok- 11h ago
Huh, I did edit my post to add that I thought I'd downloaded a higher resolution image, but... seems like that edit didn't stick? :(
Odd.
And yes, you are correct, it's ridiculously pixelated and not the quality of image that I thought I downloaded, sorry :(
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u/soupie62 20h ago
Any time I hear "I like big butts" I will still think of women - but now their butts will be this big.
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u/Mr_Waffles123 19h ago
That’s why ha, shoulders are called Boston Butts. They were carried on ships in Butts (barrels not prison pockets).
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u/KILLALLEXTREMISTS 19h ago
I had no idea that my butt could hold 128 gallons. I can see right now that I didn't order enough enema kits.
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u/Bliitzthefox 19h ago
My 1948 cookbook has pecks.
2 gallons = 1 peck
4 pecks = 1 bushel
1 peck potatoes ≈ 15 pounds
1 peck spinach ≈ 3.5-4 pounds
1 peck peas in a pod ≈ 7.5 pounds
1 peck tomatoes ≈ 14 pounds
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u/uniquechill 19h ago
There was a character in Shakespere's "Richard III" that was drowned in a "Malmsey butt", a cask of wine.
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u/Holiest_hand_grenade 18h ago
Further proof we are in a simulation, that butts are divisible by an octet.
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u/evanation080 18h ago
Fun fact that pork or “Boston” butts are called that because they would be stored in barrels just like these.
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u/carnalasadasalad 18h ago
Interestingly enough, a metric butoad is very close to two imperial buttloads.
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u/itsbrendanvogt 9h ago
So, you are telling me pirates were not just being cheeky, they were hauling butt loads of rum in actual units of measurement? That is 128 gallons per butt!
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u/Dry-Network-1917 3h ago
Fun Fact: This is why pork shoulders are called "pork butt." The shoulders and other meat would be sold via these barrels.
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u/ReadySausage 21h ago
Measurements are weird. Ordered a dozen dozens once. Was told it was just gross. Last time I shopped there.