What does BBL stand for?

-
jos51700

jos51700

Green Bearing thread connoisseur
Joined
May 24, 2009
Messages
8,002
Reaction score
3,760
Location
Bel-Ray
I know it means the number of barrels in the carburetor/induction system, but why BBL, and not BRL or whatever. How did the BBL come to be that abbreviation?

And why is abbreviation such a long word, anyway?

Always wondered...
-J
 
I see it was a acronym for a oil barrel. Why the BBL is a good question.
 
Years ago, my dad worked for Sunoco and he was always answering this little mystery of where BBL used for barrel came from...

In the early 1860's, when oil production began, there was no standard container for oil, so oil and petroleum products were stored and transported in barrels of all different shapes and sizes (beer barrels, fish barrels, molasses barrels, turpentine barrels, etc.). By the early 1870's, the 42-gallon barrel had been adopted as the standard for oil trade. This was 2 gallons per barrel more than the 40-gallon standard used by many other industries at the time. The extra 2 gallons was to allow for evaporation and leaking during tranport (most barrels were made of wood). Standard Oil began manufacturing 42 gallon barrels that were blue to be used for transporting petroleum. The use of a blue barrel, abbreviated "BBL" guaranteed a buyer that this was a 42-gallon barrel.

Ever since then, BBL became the standard abbreviation for "barrel" across all industries.
 
When I was raising my 3 sons and teaching them the value of a good day's work, around our house BBL meant "Back Breaking Labour".

They still joke about the good old days of BBL, and they have all bought their own houses and performed their own major renovations.
 
Take a look at the old Ford standard.

351 4v.

Well, "v" for Venturi makes sense.

Then it became the number of valves.

My dual overhead cam 3v or 4v engine.

I see the "v" and I still think Venturi.
 
For extra credit. What do they call company's that manufacture barrels .
No. not drum or barrels company's.
 
haw many lb do they weigh.

Wait, why is pound abbreviated lb?


Disclaimer- I am a founding member of the AAAAA
(Americans Against Annoying Acronym Abuse).
 
...isn't the 50 gal drum std?
 
I thought BBL stood for Beer Bellied Ladies.. We have a contingent of them at a local strip club. Even worse in person than it sounds, yet I keep going back.. Big girls got to make money I suppose..
 
Ben Drinkin said:
I thought BBL stood for Beer Bellied Ladies.. We have a contingent of them at a local strip club. Even worse in person than it sounds, yet I keep going back.. Big girls got to make money I suppose..
Click to expand...
The ones around here are butter faced.
 
YY1 said:
haw many lb do they weigh.

Wait, why is pound abbreviated lb?


Disclaimer- I am a founding member of the AAAAA
(Americans Against Annoying Acronym Abuse).
Click to expand...
You can blame the Romans for that one...

Lb is an abbreviation of the Latin word libra. The primary meaning of libra was balance or scales (as in the astrological sign), but it also stood for the ancient Roman unit of measure libra pondo, meaning “a pound by weight.” We got the word “pound” in English from the pondo part of the libra pondo but our abbreviation comes from the libra. The libra is also why the symbol for the British pound is £—an L with a line through it.
 
You would think after all the oil I pumped through that asphalt plant that I would know how much 1 barrel of oil weighed. Nada. My mixes were in lbs/tons, my tankers hauled tons, inventory was in tons. I can tell you that the 4" injector pumped 1200 lbs per minute, handy to know when oil had to be moved from 1 tank to another to avoid a Sisquoc Valdeez. :rofl:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top