Spool - a measure of weight in the old days

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Spool - a measure of weight in the old days
Spool - a measure of weight in the old days
Anonim

With the transition of all progressive mankind to the SI system, many ancient Slavic measures of weight and length gradually became a thing of the past. Among them, the spool is a measure of weight that was actively used from the beginning of the eighteenth century until the thirties of the twentieth century.

Spool - what is it

Spool in the old days was a measure of mass used to determine the weight of a metal (most often gold and silver). In relation to the gram used today, one spool weighed 4.3 grams or 1/96 of a pound (Russian).

The history of the appearance of a measure of weight called the spool

Today, scientists cannot say for sure where the very name of such a measure of weight as a spool came from. Presumably this name came from the time of Kievan Rus. So it is known that during the time of Prince Vladimir the Great (X century), one of the small princely gold coins was called “zlatnik”.

spool share
spool share

Probably, later this coin was actively used as a weight when weighing items made of precious metals. And gradually from the name of the coin got its name "spool" - a measure of weight used to determine the mass of a product made of precious metal.

The first written mention of the spool as a measure of weight dates back to the 13th century. In one of his business documents, Prince Mstislav from Smolensk uses the word "zolotnik" no longer as the name of a coin, but as a measure of weight. Probably, it was at that time that with the help of spools they measured the proportion of pure precious metal in a particular coin or other product made of gold and silver.

Over time, the popularity of the spool as a measure of weight has spread. And since 1711, the spool received the status of an official measure of weight not only for gold and silver, but also for other precious metals and was used until 1927.

There is also an alternative opinion that the word "spool" comes from the name of the metal gold. However, this is unlikely, since a spool was also used to measure the weight of platinum and silver.

This measure of weight contributed to the emergence of the so-called spool sample system, which was widespread in the Russian Empire.

Spool probe system

This sample system made it possible to determine the presence of precious metals in a particular alloy, as well as their quantity. In other words, the sample of the precious metal (its purity) helped to determine the spool. This measure of weight contributed to the formation of the spool sample of gold, as well as the spool sample of silver.

spool measure of weight
spool measure of weight

So pure gold without impurities (now 999 fineness) was considered a precious metal weighing 96 spools. This meant that if the composition of the metal is taken as 100%, then everything is 100% gold. However, in the spool system of samplesthe maximum amount was not 100%, but 96 units of the precious metal. And if all 96 of them were gold - the metal was pure and had a fineness of 96 (now 999).

The smallest spool fineness was 56 (now 585) because it only contains 56 parts of gold, and the rest is impurities of other metals. In total, in the old days there were six spool samples of gold.

Today, happy owners of pre-revolutionary gold jewelry can notice the spool test of that period on them. To translate it into a modern system and find out the pure metal of the product, you can use the simplest formula: A / 961000 \u003d B. In this case, A is a spool sample, and B is a modern one.

silver spool
silver spool

Measuring the purity of silver in spools also did not differ much from gold. However, initially there were more samples of this metal - as many as nine (from 72 to 95). True, at the end of the 19th century they were significantly reduced to four (from 84 to 95).

As with gold, the silver spool helped to determine the number of shares of this metal in 96 units. Today, you can convert a pre-revolutionary spool sample of silver into a modern one using the same formula as with gold.

Ratios of the spool with other measures of weight in the old days

Spool - share: 1/96.

Pood - spool: 1/3840.

Lot - spool: 1/3.

Pound - spool: 1/96.

Spool and modern measures of weight

In comparison with modern units of weight, one spool is approximately 4.3 grams (SI).

According toBritish Pharmacy Measures, the weight of one spool is approximately 0.01143 troy pounds or 0.14 troy ounces.

Regarding the US weight system, one spool is approximately 0.151 ounce or 0.01 US pounds.

"Small spool, but expensive" and other sayings about this measure of weight

This measure of weight was quite popular with the ancestors, sayings were often composed about it. For example, when they wanted to characterize a small, but very valuable thing, they used a saying known to everyone since childhood.

small spool
small spool

There was also a slightly different analogue of it: “Small spool, but heavy.”

There is another similar saying, also dedicated to small but important things. She illustrated the principle in more detail: it is not the size that matters, but the value.

spool share
spool share

To describe the value of he alth for a person, the following saying was used:

small spool
small spool

And the following saying is devoted directly to the spool as a measure of weight:

spool share
spool share

Today, it has long been out of use to determine the purity of a sample of gold or silver spool. This measure of weight has become part of history. However, the word itself is now actively used in speech, however, it has a slightly different meaning. Now the word "spool" has become the name of the distributor part, but that's a completely different story.

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