[Sca-cooks] dram?

[WyteRayven at aol.com]

Thank you Bear! I'll get some gram scales. I have seen those on ebay at reasonable prices. I had looked for apothocary scales and had no luck in finding any, so this will be easier.

Ilia

In a message dated 3/28/2003 2:34:23 PM Eastern Standard Time, TerryD at Health.State.OK.US writes:

>
>
> My recommendation is get scales that use gram measures and translate into
> the metric system.
>
> The Troy grain is 1/480th of a Troy ounce and is equivalent to 64.79891
> milligrams.  Theoretically, the English systems are derived from the Troy
> measures, so the grain is essentially equal in all European systems of
> measure.  There is a discrepancy in that the English initially used the
> barleycorn as the grain and the rest of Europe used a grain of wheat, but
> given the complexities of translating between barleycorn and wheat, just
> forget it and use the standard metric equivalent.  There are some other
> discrepencies between various the various systems, but they shouldn't cause
> any problems in the kitchen.
>
> In the Troy system, there are 480 grains in an ounce (31.1035 grams) and 12
> ounces in a pound (373.242 grams).
>
> The apothecary, jewellers, and money exchange systems which are based on
> Troy measures further divided this into 24 grains = 1 pennyweight, 20
> pennyweights = 1 ounce.  Additionally, 20 grains = 1 scruple, 3 scruples = 1
> dram, and 8 drams = 1 ounce.
>
> Note that the Troy system is designed to handle weights, not fluid volumes.
> A fluid dram is 1/8 of a fluid ounce.  The actual weight and volume vary
> between systems.
>
> Bear