RED TAPE, WHITE LIES



Why do pint and half pint glasses in pubs have a crown and a number on them, and why does the number alter? Also, would anyone be interested in starting up a 'glass spotters' club? And why can't we sell bananas in lbs but we can sell beer in pints? Paul Trussler, London, UK The crown and number are official stamps and all licensed premises must use glasses bearing this stampm in order to adhere to weights and measures legislation. In a similar way, optics for spirits must have the measurment printed on them (25ml/35ml/50ml). Jenna Beatrup, Halesowen, UK Glasses with those marks have been checked to ensure they are of the specified capacity (pint, half pint, 125 ml, etc). This is to avoid short measures and to comply with the law. The number varies depending on which agency has done the checking. You will also find glasses without those markings in a pub, but in that case, the alcohol must first be measured separately using a spirit or wine measure (typically metal) and then poured into the glass. Beer may still be sold in pints because a specific exemption was made when the weights and measures legislation was changed to enfore metric quantities. G Muir, Glasgow, Scotland Because contary to popular opinion in this country - pounds and ounces are completely illogical and make no sense what so ever. 10s and 100s of smaller measures to make larger measures is much easier to learn than a series of random 3s, 8s, 12s, 14s or 16s. However things that are sold in particular measures (eg a pint) cause controversy when they are changed. If you were sold half a litre, you would complain that you'd lost 67ml. Sell 567ml of beer and everyone wonders why they don't just call it a pint. A banana would equally weigh 128g as it would 4.5 ounces. ie - you can't define how much it weighs, whereas you can define how much liquid you pour in a glass. Alec Cochrane, Sutton, UK The crown is the government stamp although there are changes planned in 2007 to move to a CE mark. Every Weights and Measures Inspector has their own unique number (like a police officer) and the number below the crown could be that of a particular officer but is usually the number of the officer who is responsible for that factory/premises. I am inspector 415 and in Derbyshire we used to have a a glass factory where we used the number 414 as that officer was responsible for the factory. The same applies to the optics, also to petrol pumps and other equipment. Mark Atherton, Derbyshire UK



Add your answer













