"Give me a Shot of Whiskey"

The scenes of a Hollywood movie repeated, time and time again of a cowboy that enters a saloon. He walks towards the bar counter as he knocks the dust off his hat and chaps that has collected during the many weeks on the cattle drive. 

The bartender ask, "What will you have?" as the cowboy replies, "Give me a shot of whiskey."

The noun; shot glass is a small, heavy glass for serving a shot of whiskey or liquor. The amount of spirits a person receives in a shot glass varies by country, from as little as 20 mL to 60 mL. (The United States) falls slightly in the middle since our traditional 1.5 US fl oz equals about 44 mL). Although, in the United States there is no actual standard set forth by the government regulating the exact amount of liquid that needs to be a shot, except in Utah where it is defined as 1.5 fl oz. THe modern term is jigger for the exact measurement of 1.5 fluid ounce.

The first mention using the term "shot glass" can be found in the New York Times during the 1940s. Even though shot glasses as we know them today were extensively used across American towns during the 1930s. But, we see these act repeated by movies over and over again. So where did Shot Glass originate?

Forms of shot glasses do date back more than 200 years, and it seems nobody will agree on just when, or where and just how they came about. So here are a few on the lore of shot glasses.

- In the early days following the American Revolution, it was common that dinner tables include a small glass. The glass was used by members and guest seated while eating to place lead shot often remaining in hunted foul being serve, hence the term "Shot Glass."

- Although, others will suggest, it comes from German chemist Friedrich Otto Schott, the co-founder of the glassworks factory Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Genossen which in 1879, Schott developed a new lithium-based glass that possessed novel optical properties. Though not a glass for serving whiskey from, it was “Americanized” in saloons to serve SHOT vice Schott Glass.

- Less told but known was a glass resting on the writing desk. The small thick walled glass would be filled with lead shot. As you finished writing be it letters or entries into ledgers, it provide a place for the feather ink quill to rest upright when not in use, trust the lead shot filled glass.

- I even recall hearing someone tell me another story as we sat in a lounge ordering a shot of whiskey for everyone at table. They exclaimed, and this is why it is called the shot glass. They then drank the content in one quick gulp and slam the glass to the table echoing the sound of a shot.

- Yet, my favorite remains the claim

which comes from the old west

when cowboys flanked the counter of saloon bars. At the end of the cattle drive, still waiting to be paid, the cowboys had not money, but since the cost of a shot of whiskey happen to be about the same price as one bullet, the patrons toss their pistol or rifle cartridge upon the bar in trade for the small glass of whiskey. One shot for one shot.

-R. Edison