BBL - abbreviation for Barrel
Here is an Invoice dated 20 Aug 1757 from Richard Washington at "Loyds Coffee House London," known as Lloyds of London, popularized in a 1936 movie.
It is a bill for Colonel George Washington to pay.
One of the purchases in this invoice was one barrel of FF double fine black powder.
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See that Bbl abbreviation?
That Bbl is an abbreviation for barrel.
Some sources say Bbl stood for blue barrels.
" A persistent oilfield myth says that the abbreviation “bbl” for a barrel of oil resulted from Standard Oil Company’s early practice of painting their barrels blue – bbl for “blue barrel.”
Sources:
No sources can confirm why there is a 2nd "b' in the abbreviation for barrel.
Why a 42-gallon Oil Barrel?
Long before England’s King Richard III defined the wine puncheon as a cask holding 84 gallons and a tierce as holding 42 gallons, watertight casks of many sizes were crafted by “tight” coopers.
A powerful guild, the Worshipful Company of Coopers, prescribed the manner of construction. Lesser skilled craftsmen (known as slack coopers) made casks, barrels, and pails for dry goods. Practical experience and custom made the 42-gallon watertight tierce a standard container for shipping everything from eel, salmon, herring, molasses, soap, butter, wine, and whale oil.
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Source:
Compiled and authored by Jim Moyer 8/14/2022 updated 11/7/2022
Richard Washington? Who is he?
Founders Online footnote to the first letter from Colonel George Washington in Virginia writes to Richard Washington at Lloyds of London
This was the beginning of a friendly and active correspondence between GW and Richard Washington, a London merchant, to whom GW continued to send small consignments of tobacco and to place orders for household and personal items, even though after his marriage he conducted most of his business in London through Robert Cary & Co. and Capel and Osgood Hanbury. Unable to get a response from the merchant about a box of clothes that he was supposed to have sent in 1762 and GW never received, GW wrote Washington on 20 Sept. 1765 ending their relationship.
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