Wine & weight

I discovered a small, about two by seven inches, silverfish-eaten piece of paper carrying a few line of scribblings in my hand as I was sorting out old, accumulated assortment of documents and newspaper clippings from a cupboard attacked by white ants today. I could not make out the age of the piece as there was no date mentioned on it, but circumstantial evidences like the company of the documents this piece of paper had been keeping gave me an idea that it should not be less than 10 years old. The other circumstantial evidence was an email address at the back of the piece ostensibly in the handwriting of my brother. The last time he was staying with me long enough to be able to litter the house with small, apparently meaningless scribblings on almost all my documents was more than ten years ago.
Today, I want to share here the few lines found on that ten years old piece of paper which possibly my son will find useful ten years from now.

" North European ships were measured by the number of wine casks they could carry. These casks were called Tuns.
Today, ships are still measured in Tons. This is because the English authorities fixed the size of Tun at 252 Gallons of wine, the weight of which was 2,240 lb (that equals 1,016 kgs)."