John's Malt Sticks

Provenance
The set of measuring implements shown in the photograph were amongst possessions left by a granddaughter of John's son, William. To the best of our knowledge none other of her relatives had been in the Excise Service. Her grandfather William moved from Leeds to live with his parents at 63 Horninglow Street, Burton on Trent in 1880/81 and stayed there with his mother when his father died in June 1882. William was an executor of his father's will and stayed with his mother at Burton until she died and it is surmised that the set had belonged to his father and that he retained it as a memento of his father's 30 plus years with the Excise service.

Use
The set has been identified as a set of malt sticks. Malt tax was introduced in 1697 and became more important from 1830 when the tax on beer was repealed. Beer tax had been repealed mainly because of the increasingly large number of brewers (by 1850 45,000) compared with maltsters (by 1850 10,000) and the technical difficulty of measuring beer in terms of quantity and strength ("small" beer versus "strong" beer). To gauge malt on the "couch" or "floor", the excise officer took its length and breadth and then the depth by the average of a number of "spits" taken on a "rod" or "dimension cane". There were many types of malt-rod but the ones shown here were the most compact.

Brief Description
The set is designed for portability and has the following components : -
- a purpose built carrier
- a set of 6 wooden rods, each 10" long, which screw together to make a 5' long measuring implement (of which one rod is missing)
- a set of 3 wooden rods, each 10" long which screw together to make a 2' 6" long measuring implement
- a 2' folding ruler with special brewing bottle scales

The purpose built carrier
This is made from a double layer of khaki coloured cotton. At the top, the two corners of the cotton have been folded over diagonally and sewn to the inner layer of cotton. The purpose of this appears to be to make a flap which could be folded over to stop the contents slipping out. The bottom double layer has been folded back up and sewn to the inner layer in a series of lines to create pouches for holding the contents.
It would appear that the container has been handmade to hold measuring implements that were made by different manufacturers and separately acquired. We know that John's wife, Esther, was good at needlework as a beautifully made sampler had survived (at least until the 1970's) so it may well have been constructed by her for John. The carrier has eleven pouches which from left to right are: -
Pouch 1
This is one inch wide at the entry point and an inch and a half wide at the bottom. It is empty. Because it is wider at the closed end, it is likely that it was a flap for use when the container was rolled up.
Pouches 2 - 7
These contain the set of 5 x 3/16" measuring rods (of which one is missing)
Pouch 8
This contains a two foot folding ruler.
Pouches 9 - 11
These contain the set of 3 x 1/4" measuring rods.

The set of 6 x 3/16" measuring rods
Each rod is 10" long, made of a light coloured wood, and has at each end a 3/4" brass cap. On the first rod of the set the brass cap at one end is solid and rounded and the brass cap at the other end has a male screw connection. The other four remaining rods each have a brass female screw connection at one end and a male connection at the other. All the brass connections are exactly flush with the wood and carry continuations of the measuring scales marked on the wood. The fifth rod has the maker's name T. O. Blake, 58 Hatton Garden, London marked on it. This rod also has a screw connection for the addition of further rod. This together with the fact there are six matching pouches leads one to concluded that there was a further sixth rod that is missing.
When screwed together the five rods combine to make a single rod 50" long which, with the addition of the missing 6th rod, would make a single rod 5' long. There are two scales - the first measures from 0 - 50 inches. The second measures Imperial Gallons but is on a sliding scale. On the first rod 10" measures to 2 gallons whereas on the fifth rod 10" measures from 150 - 280 gallons.
The wood on the first rod appears more discoloured than the others implying grater use. Rods 2 and 5 are more warped than the others.

The Folding Ruler
This folds into four six inch lengths. The first length has a brass capped bevelled end. On each of the four sides, there are three graduated scales measuring quarts. It seems strange for there to be three because the middle graduated scale on each side has no markings on the edge and thus cannot be precisely lined up if used like a conventional ruler.
Two of the sides are marked "boogie bottles". The other two sides are marked "cylinder bottles".
The maker's name is "W. Reeves & Co. London".

The set of 3 x 1/4" Measuring Rods
These are of the same construction as the 3/16" rods. The end of the third rod is plain wood. Each rod bears 4 scales : -

Scale 1 is clearly marked "Barrel" but curiously the graduations lessen and then increase.

Scale 2 is clearly marked "Kilderkin" but again the graduations lessen and then increase

Scale 3 is clearly marked "Firkin" in one direction and "Pin" (t?) in the other. Again the graduations lessen and then increase.

Scale 4 is clearly marked "Hogshead" but again the graduations lengthen at both ends and reduce in the middle.

Diagarams

The two sets of rods and the ruler are represented in more detail on the following diagrams : -