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Troy weight is a system of units of mass that originated in the Kingdom of England in the 15th century [1] and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the grain, the pennyweight (24 grains), the troy ounce (20 pennyweights), and the troy pound (12 troy ounces). The troy grain is equal to the grain unit of ...
A grain is a unit of measurement of mass, and in the troy weight, avoirdupois, and apothecaries' systems, equal to exactly 64.798 91 milligrams. It is nominally based upon the mass of a single ideal seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissance, the average masses of wheat and barley grains were part of the legal definitions of ...
An apothecaries' pound normally consisted of 12 ounces. (In France this was changed to 16 ounces, and in Spain, the customary unit was the marco, a mark of 8 ounces.) In the south of Europe and in France, the scruple was generally divided into 24 grains, so that one ounce consisted of 576 grains.
dram now meant only avoirdupois drams, which were 1 ⁄ 16 of an avoirdupois ounce. An ounce consisted of 437.5 grains, thus making the dram approximately 27.34 grains. drachm now meant only apothecaries' drachms, which were 1 ⁄ 8 of an apothecaries' ounce of 480 grains, thus equal to 60 grains.
The troy pound (5760 grains) was used for precious metals, the apothecaries' pound, (also 5760 grains) was used by pharmacists and the avoirdupois pound (7000 grains) was used for general purposes. The apothecaries and troy pounds are divided into 12 ounces (of 480 grains) while the avoirdupois pound has 16 ounces (of 437.5 grains).
Such scales are used to make the most accurate of fine measurements, such as in the needs of empirical chemistry. Avoirdupois (/ ˌævərdəˈpɔɪz, ˌævwɑːrdjuːˈpwɑː /; [1] abbreviated avdp.) [2] is a measurement system of weights that uses pounds and ounces as units. [3][4] It was first commonly used in the 13th century AD and was ...
An avoirdupois pound is equal to 16 avoirdupois ounces and to exactly 7,000 grains. The conversion factor between the kilogram and the international pound was therefore chosen to be divisible by 7 with a terminating decimal representation, and an (international) grain is thus equal to exactly 64.798 91 milligrams.
The Avoirdupois, Troy and Apothecary systems of weights all shared the same finest unit, the grain; however, they differ as to the number of grains there are in a dram, ounce and pound. This grain was legally defined as the weight of a grain seed from the middle of an ear of barley. There also was a smaller wheat grain, said to be 3 ⁄ 4 ...