Patman gave you at least part of what you want. Expanding on
that, the Cst he give is centistokes. Most methods of measuring
viscosity are based on gravity. A less dense material will have a
higher viscosity measured in stokes or centistokes. Multiplying by
the specific gravity gives poise or centipoise. Often viscosity is
measured using a cup with a hole in the bottom, and timing how
long it takes for the material to run out and reporting it in seconds.
Naturally there are several different cups, Saybolt, Ford, Redwood,
Engler, etc. Another common method is Gardener Holt. These
use small glass tubes with lines etched on them. You time how
long a bubble takes to rise from one line to another or compare
them to standards. The time in seconds is the centistokes. That is
too simple. The standards have letters of the alphabet. They ran
out and had to go to Z, Z1, Z2, .... That is where the famous Z7
came from. Another method is the Brookfield viscometer. It
measures the torque it takes to spin a disk in the fluid. It gives
readings in poise.
I am not sure where you would find a standard cup if you wanted to
measure the viscosity yourself. A paint supply house might be the
best place to start. I think I may have seen them as part of a spray
gun outfit. Any viscosity is affected by temperature. Oil isn't too
bad, but many materials are affected by shear, thinning out under
shear. Oil is permanently degraded somewhat by very high shear,
but has almost the same viscosity at different shear rates below what it takes to break it down.
Another possible source of viscosity measuring equipment may be
http://www.sciencelab.com/.