Actually it doesn't mean 100, it is a measurement of weight. Everything go a bit mixed up when the metric system was introduced. In the imperial system a ton (known now as a long ton) was worth 2,400lb, and the new metric tonne was introduced, now equal to 1000 kilograms. However America being America decided to keep imperial, but altered that to make a ton only 2,000lb (this is now known as a short ton). Subsequentlly there are many arguments when it comes to trading goods, as there are three systems, the old imperial, the american imperial and the metric. In naval terms a deadweight ton is a measure of a ship's carrying capacity, including bunker oil, fresh water, ballast water, crew and provisions. It is expressed in metric tonnes, or the old long ton. Interestingly the US navy use the long ton, making for much confusion in the country. Translating everything into metric however you'll find that 1 American ton (short ton) is equal to about 907.18474 kilograms, whereas one tonne is equal to 1000 kilograms. However in The International System of Units a tonne is actually a megagram, but the term is very rarely used.

Twenty times the load. Mr Bill

A ton means 2,000 lbs. in the US

In the UK we have two measures that are called a ton: Imperial 1 ton = 2240lb Metric 1 tonne = 100kilograms but also in slang a ton means 100 especially in terms of speed... "Had a great hirecar last week it was doing a ton in forth"

1) "To most people living outside London a "Cockney" is any Londoner; But a Cockney is a person born within hearing distance of the sound of Bow bells, the bells of the Church of St Mary Le Bow in Cheapside, London, EC2 . Although much of Cockney Rhyming slang has now become part of general speech, originally it was a secret language, thought to have originated in the 18th century by street traders to communicate with each other whilst trading illegally. (although it's roots may go far deeper)" "MONEY SLANG: Archer = £2000 Grand = £1000 Monkey = £500 Ton = £100 Carpet = £30 Pony = £25 Macaroni = £25 (r/sl) Score = £20 Nicker or Quid = £1 Ten Bob Bit = 50p piece Oxford = 5 shillings Tanner = sixpence" Source and further information: http://www.philbrodieband.com/jokes_rhyming-slang.htm 2) "Miscellaneous tons - Ton is also used informally to mean a large amount of something (material or not), for example, "We've been having a ton of good luck recently". - In Britain, ton is colloquially used to refer to 100 of a given unit. Ton can thus refer to the speed of motor vehicles, namely to the speed of 100 miles per hour e.g. "Lee was doing a ton down the motorway", to money e.g. "How much did you pay for that?" "A ton" (£100), to 100 points in a game e.g. "Eric just threw a ton in our darts game" or to a hundred of pretty much anything else. A ton is also equivalent to 100 runs in the game of cricket (more commonly known as a century)." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton