What does "BBL" stand for?

Regarding the abbreviation for pounds. As correctly pointed out it is derived from the Latin word libra (pound) but it is abbreviated as lb, preferably without a period. lb is also the abbreviation for the plural, librae (pounds), never with an "s" at the end (which might be intended as an English-language plural), lb should always be lower case. lb is both the official abbreviation and the international symbol (symbol can never have a period and must be lower case). The symbol lb would recognized in all languages as pound/pounds, with 1 lb = 453.59237 g exactly.

Which brings up the point that muzzle energy is rated as ft·lb or the more modern technical designation of ft·lbf meaning foot-pound-force. lbf, pound-force refers to a force of 1 pound as opposed to a mass of 1 pound.

Probably more than most people ever wanted to know about the matter. And yes, almost all gun writers write it wrong.

Revision for precision: Rather than my reposting, let me revise "all languages" above to what I really mean, namely all countries who have occasion to use the pound. Obviously, some languages are not even written, and many people have never even heard of the pound.
 
Last edited:
[
added]
You piqued my curiosity on the origin of bbl. First of all, it should be lower case only. BBL stands for Billion Barrels of Oil as it turns out. "bbl" came about in the 1800's when oil was delivered in barrels of lots of different capacities. Standard Oil standardized their oil delivery in 42 gallon barrels and painted them all blue - hence bbl stands for blue barrel.
Click to expand...

I work in mining, oil and gas and didn't know the origin of bbl, just that it now means a 42-gal barrel. Thanks much for this bit of history!
 
The symbol lb would recognized in all languages as pound/pounds, with 1 lb = 453.59237 g exactly.
Click to expand...

Having lived in South America for most of 10 years and worked there much longer, I'll assert that "lb" is anything but "recognized in all languages." Without an explanation it wouldn't mean anything to many people down there.
 
I saw a different account for the origin of the 42 gallon oil barrel.
Standard announced that due to the many different size containers in use, they would bill oil sales at 40 gallons to the barrel "with an allowance of two gallons for the meter."

I have been tempted to dream up an exotic term for CTG to abbreviate since it seems to mystify many new Smith & Wesson owners.
 
Jim, I believe that when the .32 S&W first came out, the gun owners would go to the hardware or general merchandise store to buy their cartridges. Now most of those types of stores always had a small shooting range out back so the customers could practice. So the store clerk would ask if they were going to use the cartridges at the range or take them with them. It made a difference in how they packed them up for the customer. After a while, if the customer wanted to take the cartridges with them, they would just tell the clerk something like, "give me 100 .32 S&W cartridges to go". That was soon shortened to ".32 S&W CTG". The abbreviation was carried over to many of the other calibers.

And now you know the rest of the story.











;)
 
Even in the 60s, (perhaps further, but the 60s were when I first took an interest) cars had 2 or 4 bbl carburetors, rather than the 2 or 4V (venturi) that is common in print now. We called them 4 burbles just to be smartasses as a kind of protest against what we thought was a ridiculous abbreviation.
 
Figured I put one in as well. The word S.H.I.T is an old sailors term for storing cargo that could not get wet on the old wooden ships while in transit. They would mark the cargo **** meaning " store high in transit. The old wooden ships weren't completely water proof and did not have bilge pumps like on boats today, and also in rough seas the waves that broke onto deck or rain would also drip through the decks to the lower cargo holds and have water somewhat fill them up. So any cargo that had to stay dry " was the S.H.I.T cargo ".
 
"Son of a gun" has naval roots as well. When wives were still allowed on British ships, they would deliver their baby behind the big gun.
 
4thHorseman said:
That's really interesting. Thanks
The term the "whole nine yards" came from the WW1 aircraft. Thier gunes had nine yards of ammo on the feed belt. If they used all their ammo for their machine guns, they would say,"the whole nine yards"
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that "whole nine yards" was from WWII 50cal aircraft guns. 300 rounds of 50cal was a continuous belt 27' (9 yards) long.
 
I was under the impression that "whole nine yards" was from WWII 50cal aircraft guns. 300 rounds of 50cal was a continuous belt 27' (9 yards) long.
Click to expand...

That's what I always thought. In WWI I don't see many aircraft having 50 cal machine guns.
 
The "bbl" question rears its ugly head again....

First:

Regarding "the whole nine yards," click on the following link. I disagree with the author's conjecture that the concrete truck origin would've made no sense because the standard, legal truckload at the time was 8 yards. However, one could fit 9 yards in the truck if one drove with care and didn't slosh it out the back. Even so, if the expression's origin was found in WWII ammo belts, it probably would've made a written appearance sooner than 1962. I couldn't find anything earlier myself and, trust me, I looked.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-whole-nine-yards.html

Now, back to "bbl." It's not from any blue barrels of oil. The abreviation "bbl" for "barrel" was certainly in use 49 years before Standard Oil was formed and at least 18 years before its founder, John D. Rockefeller, was even born.

I looked into this the last time this came up in a gun forum a couple of years ago. The invoice below dates from June, 1821, seen above the large, printed "Packages and Contents" column heading. Handwritten, in the itemized part, line 8 reads "Part of a bbl. of Pork and Part of a bbl. of Beef" and, on line 10, "Half bbl. Sugar." This is the earliest written "bbl" I could find.

BBL1821.jpg

PS The English "s h i t" has been in use at least since the 14th century and for longer than that in German. In Old English, it was "scite," which meant "dung." Notice that we still use it when referring to certain wild animals' droppings ("scat.")

Just sayin'!
 
Last edited:
BBL stands for barrel only, not bull barrel. I'm not sure where or why the initials originated, but I believe the petroleum industry used it first to stand for their standard measure barrel of oil and the firearms public picked it up from them.
Click to expand...

I work in the auto industry, and think that this may not just be the firearms public. I have seen old parts catalogs - fifties and earlier - that discriminate between vehicles fitted with, for instance, 2- and 4-barrel carburetors, also abbreviated 'bbl.'

I'm not sure if that's relevant here, but carbs and guns sure are different items - I think it might be more widespread than just us gunnuts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top