Hand (unit) inches for the handsbreadth; Mortimer gives the same, three inches for the Hand's-breadth, and four for the "Handful, or simply, Hand", but adds "The hand among horse-dealers, &c. is four-fingers' breadth, being the fist clenched, whereby the height of a horse is measured", thus equating "hand" with both the palm and the fist. Similarly, Wright's 1831 translation of Buffon mentions "A hand breadth (palmus), the breadth of the four fingers of the hand, or three inches", but the "Encyclopædia Perthensis" of 1816 gives under Palm (4): "A hand, or measure of lengths comprising three inches". Today the hand is used
Quarter (unit) As 231 cubic inches were considered to make up a wine gallon, the measure was about 242¼ L. The ale gallon was 282 cubic inches, meaning the quarter of ale was about 295¾ L. Cardarelli also claims it can vary from 17–30 imperial gallons for liquor. Quarter (unit) The quarter ( "one-fourth") is used as the name of several distinct English units based on ¼ sizes of some base unit. The "quarter of London" mentioned by the Magna Carta as the national standard measure for wine, ale, and grain was ¼ ton or tun. It continued to be used, e.g.,