Weight
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 (barley) grains or about 48.6 milligrams.
Read more about this topic: English Units
Famous quotes containing the word weight:
“Now mark me how I will undo myself.
I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart.
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The weight of its body
cleverly suspended
by its own wings,
the bee
sips at the bud
of the night-blooming jasmine,
opening it,
greedy for its juice.”
—Hla Stavhana (c. 50 A.D.)
“Europe has lived on its contradictions, flourished on its differences, and, constantly transcending itself thereby, has created a civilization on which the whole world depends even when rejecting it. This is why I do not believe in a Europe unified under the weight of an ideology or of a technocracy that overlooked these differences.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)