Ounce

“ The following table gives the produce in ounces and decimals of an ounce per ton of 2240 pounds:—
When, as in this table, the fraction of an ounce is expressed by two places of decimals, it may be reduced to pennyweights (dwts.) [Pg 108] by dividing by 5. For example, 0.40 of an ounce is 8 dwts. The fraction of a dwt. similarly expressed may be converted into grains with sufficient exactness by dividing by 4. ”

“ No two places have the same "ounce," unless by accident, and each place has a great variety of different ounces, to the extreme bewilderment of the stranger, the certain loss of all except those who deal in silver, and the endless vexation of all honest persons, of whom there are many, even in China. ”

“ First of all, it is manifest that an ounce, or a pound, or a ton, or a thousand tons, all fall equally fast, no one faster than another: here are two balls of lead, a very light one and a very heavy one, and you perceive they both fall to the earth in the same time. ”

“ In the second class of cases the fraction of the unit quantity is a quantity of the same kind, but cannot be determined with absolute exactness. Weights come in this class. The ounce, for instance, is one-sixteenth of the pound, but it is impossible to find 16 objects such that their weights shall be exactly equal and that the sum of their weights shall be exactly equal to the weight of the standard pound. ”

“ In short, I am myself quite unacquainted with any logic by which it can be maintained that while a newspaper weighing six or eight ounces is conveyed for a halfpenny, a letter weighing but half an ounce should be chargeable with a penny, or, in other words, why the lightest letter should be charged twice as much as the heaviest newspaper. ”

“ If I am carrying a small weight, for example, and the addition of an ounce is required to make the burden perceptibly heavier to me, two ounces will have to be added in order that I may notice a difference when I carry twice the weight, and a whole pound when I carry sixteen times the weight. ”

“ When weighing for gross, the fractions of a pound are discarded; when weighing for tares, the pounds above the actual weight are written. The greatest loss that can occur by this method, on one package, is 1 pound 14 ounces of Tea. It (this greatest loss) must always occur when the gross is 1 ounce short of a pound, and the tare 1 ounce more than the pound. ”

“ Previous measures have been represented by monosyllables, as grain, dram, gross, ounce, pound, stone, ton. Where a word is often repeated, in the hurry of business, it is instinctively abridged. We shall not err, if we profit by this experience, and seek to reduce the new nomenclature to its smallest proportions.
Twelve words only are required by this system. Learning these, you learn all. There are five designating the different units of length, surface, solid capacity, liquid capacity, and weight. ”

“ Avoirdupois weight is used for all commodities except the precious metals, gems, and medicines. The pound avoirdupois, which is equal to 7000 grains troy, or 453·54 grammes, is divided into 16 ounces, and the ounce into 16 drams. ”

“ Of the Apothecaries’ measure of weight, the grain is the same as the Imperial grain; and the Apothecaries’ ounce contains 480 grains, like the Troy ounce. But, of the measures of capacity, the Apothecaries’ drachm is not the same as the Imperial dram, and the two words are spelt differently. A fluid ounce of distilled water at a temperature of 62° Fahrenheit is equal in weight to the Imperial ounce (437.5 grains) , and the fluid drachm (54.6875 grains) is equal in weight to two Imperial drams. ”

“ That every Pound contain 12 ounces of Troy weight and every ounce contain 20 sterlings and every Sterling be of the weight of 32 corns of wheat that grew in the midst of the ear according to the old law of the said land. ”

“ An Apothecaries’ Troy ounce lingers in the Board of Trade list of standards, for a permissive use utterly unrequired by medical prescribers or by druggists; the British Pharmacopœia only recognising Imperial weight, the ounce and the grain. For convenience, a 105weight of 60 grains is called a Drachm, and one of 20 grains is called a Scruple. It is most rare for prescriptions to contain an ounce of any solid medicine; and when an ounce of such a medicine is most exceptionally prescribed, it might be an Imperial ounce, just as ounces of fluid medicines prescribed are Imperial ounces. ”

“ If the weight of the bar has been correctly stated in the memorandum, the scale which holds it should be exactly half an ounce in excess. This or any less excess of weight over the three hundred and sixty ounces in the opposite scale is instantly registered by the machine, a pointer travelling round a dial until it indicates the proper amount. The function of the machine, however, is limited to weighing half an ounce only. ”

“ A “drop” or a “teaspoonful” is a most uncertain quantity. Remember that a drop is a minim, a teaspoonful is a dram, and a tablespoonful is half an ounce. But these measures are now old-fashioned, and in a few years will be obsolete. ”

“ And so, as long as the index number persists in staying even a little above par, the dollar will continue to be loaded at each adjustment period, until, if necessary, it weighs an ounce—or a ton, for that matter. ”

“ A gram is about one twenty-eighth of an ounce; a milligram is one thousandth of a gram. One millionth of a milligram of an odorous substance is sufficient to affect the organ of smell. Taste also is sensitive, particularly when supported, as in tasting wine or tea, by smell. ”

“ Use two to eight ounces for every four square feet—that is, from four to sixteen table-spoonfuls, for lime weighs a little less than ground bone, and it takes, therefore, a little more to make an ounce. A border two feet wide and ten feet long would need ten to forty ounces, or twenty to eighty table-spoonfuls—which is quite a job of measuring, is it not? ”

“ Thus we increase the total of our consumption to eighty-two million pounds, which gives about three pounds eight ounces to every inhabitant of the United States, against seventeen ounces in England, and eighteen ounces in France. From 1840 to 1850, the consumption in the United States, per head, increased from two pounds and half an ounce to three pounds eight ounces. Here, we buy our tobacco at a fair profit to the producer. ”

“ The old Saxon pound was the earliest standard of England. It was identical in weight with the old apothecaries’ pound of Germany, and equal to 5,400 of our later Troy grains. The pound sterling was determined from this weight in silver. Henry III., in 1266, decreed the following standards: The sterling, or penny, to weigh equal to thirty-two wheat corns, taken from the middle of the ear; twenty pence, one ounce; twelve ounces, one pound; eight pounds, one gallon of wine, which is the eighth part of a quarter. ”

“ Use the above weights to determine which size gives you the best return for your money. For instance, if medium eggs weighing 21 ounces are 56 cents a dozen (22⁄3 cents an ounce) they are a better buy than large eggs weighing 24 ounces at 66 cents a dozen (23⁄4 cents an ounce) . ”

“ The common weight of these halfpence is between four and five to an ounce, suppose five; then three shillings and four pence will weigh a pound, and consequently twenty shillings will weigh six pounds butter weight. Now there are many hundred farmers, who pay two hundred pounds a year rent; therefore, when one of these farmers comes with his half year's rent, which is one hundred pounds, it will be at least six hundred pounds weight, which is three horses load. ”

“ I have never been able to get more than fifteen shillings an ounce for it, taking it all round at fifteen carats. His offer is as good as thirty shillings an ounce, which leaves a margin for a man to get a living out of it, if the dwarf is safe. ”

“ In the Tower there is a standard pound. An English silver penny should weigh 1/240 of this pound and 1/20 of its ounce, and the penny-weight may be divided into 32 aces or little grains. But there is another old-established pound used for all goods but gold and silver, bread and drugs. Our regard for the unity of weight forbids us to describe this pound otherwise than by mentioning that a wine-gallon contains 8 of these pounds weight of wine or of water, that 8 larger gallons each containing 8 pounds, not of wine, but of wheat, make a Bushel ”

“ The
ounce and pound in this are same as in Apothecaries' weight.
Apothecaries' Weight.--20 grains make one scruple. 3 scruples make 1
dram. 8 drams make 1 ounce, l2 ounces make 1 pound.
Avoirdupois Weight.--6 drams make 1 ounce, 16 ounces make 1 pound, 25
pounds make 1 quarter, 4 quarters make 1 hundredweight, 2,000 pounds
make 1 ton.
Dry Measure.--2 pints make 1 quart, 8 quarts make 1 peck, 4 pecks make 1
bushel, 36 bushels make 1 chaldron.
Liquid or Wine Measure.--4 gills make 1 pint, 2 pints make 1 quart, 4
quarts make 1 gallon. ”

“ Let all elastic fluids be measured by the ounce measure of water, by which the valuation of different cubic inches will be avoided, and the common decimal tables of specific gravities will immediately give the weights of those elastic fluids.
If all philosophers cannot agree on one pound or one grain, let every one take his own pound or his own grain ”

“ You will see from the experiments further on that three-quarters of an ounce of starch' will throw a box, weighing six pounds, easily twenty feet into the air, and that half an ounce, burned in a box, will throw up the cover three inches with a heavy man standing upon it. ”

“ A 9subdivision of the talent would become the pound or common unit of weight in the retail market, and a subdivision of the pound would be fixed as the weight of silver which, impressed with signs guaranteeing its fineness, if not its actual weight, would be the currency of the merchants.
Then arose, by involution, another system of weights in which the pound was usually of 12 or 16 ounces, and the ounce was the weight of so many standard coins. Every modern pound was based on this system. ”

“ One pound makes 12 ounces One ounce contains 8 drachms One drachm is equal to 3 scruples One scruple consists of 20 grains One grain has the weight of a barley-corn P. stands for particula, a little part, and means so much as can be taken betwixt the ends of two fingers P. æq. ”

“ The WEIGHTS are avoirdupois; the MEASURE, Lyne’s graduated glass, i. e. a wine-pint divided into sixteen ounces, and the ounce into eight drachms. By a wine-glass is to be understood two ounces liquid measure; by a large or table-spoonful, half an ounce; by a small or tea-spoonful, a drachm, or half a quarter of an ounce, i. e. nearly equal to two drachms avoirdupois.
At some glass warehouses, you may get measures divided into tea and table-spoons. No cook should be without one, who wishes to be regular in her business. ”

“ The rate of postage on first-class matter was reduced from three cents to two cents on the 1st of October 1883, and the unit of weight was increased from half an ounce to one ounce on the 1st of July 1885. ”

“ And that you gave them a half ounce; for, according to what Maria Remedios has told me, Florentina went down to the shop of the Extramaduran this afternoon to get a half ounce changed. They could not have earned it with their sewing. ”

“ The Weight and Value of a Cubic Foot of Solid Gold or Silver.—A cubic foot of gold weighs about 19,300 ounces, and gold is worth $20.67 per ounce. Silver is worth $1.29 per ounce, and a cubic foot weighs 10,500 ounces. ”

“ If the cake weighs two pounds, and each child eats two ounces, it will be all eaten up when sixteen children have gone through the room. If the cake weighs only one pound, it will be eaten up when eight children have gone through the room. But if each child eats only one ounce, then again sixteen children will have to go through the room before the cake is eaten up, and so on. ”

“ One would, indeed, believe that this is easy to answer. A person might assign almost any weight, and be perfectly certain that nobody would run after a scale, in order to examine, whether or not an ounce were wanting. ”

“ And 1000 ounces of water at the original weight of the averdepois ounce, of Roman standard = 437 grains, would weigh 999·5 of such ounces, at 62° in air.
Practically measures of capacity need only approximate coincidence with standards; they are used for 143convenience in order to avoid weighing, especially in retail trade. Corn and many other kinds of produce are more conveniently measured than weighed, the average weight being ascertained, if desired, by a sample bushel. ”

“ It is by the avoirdupois pound and ounce that our citizens have been used to buy and sell. But the smaller subdivisions of drachms and quarters are not in use with them. On the other hand, they have been used to weigh their money and medicine with the pennyweights and grains troy weight, and are not in the habit of using the pounds and ounces of that series. It would be for their convenience, then, to suppress the pound and ounce troy, and the drachm and quarter avoirdupois; and to form into one series the avoirdupois pound and ounce, and the troy pennyweight and grain. ”

“ Thus the gold was left pure, and with the blade of a sheath-knife, it was easily transferred to the big tin dish.
“What weight?” asked Jack, as he lifted the precious load.
[Pg 85] Moonlight solemnly took the “pan” from his mate. “One-fifty to one-sixty ounces,” he said oracularly. His gaze wandered to the heap of wash-dirt which remained. “We’ve washed about one-sixth,” he said. “Six times one-fifty is nine hundred. We’ll say, roughly, £4 an ounce: that gives us something like £3600 from that heap.” ”