cubic gallons

[Michael McKernan]

Wilson Gray wrote:

>FWIW, back in the '70's, there was a company that sold liquid
>hand-cleaner in containers whose content it referred to as "four
>liters - one metric gallon." I thought that was pretty cool.
>Unfortunately, Weights & Measures did not agree and the company had to
>simplify the statement of content to the far more prosaic "four
>liters." My feeling is that, if there can be metric tons, why not also
>metric gallons? For the average Joe Blow working a job that requires
>the use of a special hand-cleaner, "one metric gallon" probably makes
>more sin... uh, sense than "four liters."

A 'metric gallon' consisting of four liters (to approximate the English
gallon), would be a departure from the basic ideology of the metric system,
which AFAIK, is firmly committed to the 'decimal' system.  Thus, it already
has a volume measure, the 'deciliter', (1/10 of a liter).  Apparently not
in common use, the next-larger-than-liter metric unit would be a
'dekaliter' (or'decaliter'?), equal to 10 liters.

Michael McKernan