2 ms·

Without rigorous original sourcing, I'd take that statistic with a large grain of salt. Would not be surprised to see it originate from the WCTU, which in other

Without rigorous original sourcing, I'd take that statistic with a large grain of salt. Would not be surprised to see it originate from the WCTU, which in other places claimed that alcohol could set fire to a man's body. The only really credible way to calculate that would be to backsolve the number of liters sold from alcohol company revenues at the time, and divide by population.

caf 15y ago
The figure is plausible. Recent figures for Australia's Northern Territory give 14.6 litres of pure alcohol per year per person aged 15 years and older: http://tinyurl.com/5uyyuv5 http://tinyurl.com/5uyyuv5 This equates to about 50 bottles of whiskey.
- DanBC 15y ago
  As a bit of noodling: (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+of+US+in+1830 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+of+US+in+183...) the US had about 12 million people in 1830. Life expectancy is here: (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=life+expectancy+in+US+in+1830 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=life+expectancy+in+US+i...) If we say that 3 million people were drinking 50 bottles of whiskey each per year that's 150 million bottles. If each bottle is half a litre that's 75 million litres. It takes about 100 kg grain to make about 80 litres. 75m / 80 * 100 == 93,750,000 kg grain. That's about 90,000 imperial tons of grain. It takes about 250 labour-hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat. (http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farm_tech.htm http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farm_tech.htm) That's, uh, my conversions are failing now. (http://www.interstock.ru/0obuch/conversion.pdf http://www.interstock.ru/0obuch/conversion.pdf) okay, I give up. I was trying to see roughly how many people and acres it would take to fuel an 1830 population of 15 year olds at 50 bottles a week.

2 ms·

Without rigorous original sourcing, I'd take that statistic with a large grain of salt. Would not be surprised to see it originate from the WCTU, which in other

by ramanujan 15y ago

caf 15y ago
The figure is plausible. Recent figures for Australia's Northern Territory give 14.6 litres of pure alcohol per year per person aged 15 years and older: http://tinyurl.com/5uyyuv5 http://tinyurl.com/5uyyuv5 This equates to about 50 bottles of whiskey.
- DanBC 15y ago
  As a bit of noodling: (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+of+US+in+1830 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+of+US+in+183...) the US had about 12 million people in 1830. Life expectancy is here: (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=life+expectancy+in+US+in+1830 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=life+expectancy+in+US+i...) If we say that 3 million people were drinking 50 bottles of whiskey each per year that's 150 million bottles. If each bottle is half a litre that's 75 million litres. It takes about 100 kg grain to make about 80 litres. 75m / 80 * 100 == 93,750,000 kg grain. That's about 90,000 imperial tons of grain. It takes about 250 labour-hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat. (http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farm_tech.htm http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farm_tech.htm) That's, uh, my conversions are failing now. (http://www.interstock.ru/0obuch/conversion.pdf http://www.interstock.ru/0obuch/conversion.pdf) okay, I give up. I was trying to see roughly how many people and acres it would take to fuel an 1830 population of 15 year olds at 50 bottles a week.