And apothecaries were not very serious about counting by 12's, there may be 12 oz in a troy or apothecary pound, but the ounce was divided into 8 drams, and the dram into 3 scruples, while gold merchants divided the troy ounce differently, into pennyweights and grains. Just to confuse everyone, the av. oz. was divided into 16 drams instead. Apothecaries had their own liquid measure too, with fluid ounces divided into 8 drams, each dram being 60 minims. The only evidence of twelve counting in Imperial Customary is the inch/foot relationship and ounces in the troy pound. Generally, it is indicative of completely arbitrary, unrelated, nonsensical factors, and the same words used repeatedly to mean different things. A perfect model for success if the goal is to baffle and overcharge the customer.
________________________________ From: Paul Trusten <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Cc: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 9, 2013 12:38 PM Subject: [USMA:53046] Re: Why We Should Switch To A Base-12 Counting System Past tense, Mr. Dvorsky---pharmacists USED the 12-ounce (apothecary) pound. In my 37 years of practice, I have NEVER used it. Except where they have to intersect with the pre-metric world (those blasted pint stock bottles from outside the Rx-Only realm), pharmacy calculations employ ONLY metric units. Yeah, right---don't like decimal measurement? WHY, change the numeration system, of course! I'd like to see the attitude of your average dozenal supporter toward metric. I notice that the two dozenal societies are based in the U.S. and Britain. Find me one in France. Just FYI: avoirdupois pound = 16 ounces of 437.5 grains each apothecary pound = 12 ounces of 480 grains each Somebody back there liked ONE standard unit--the grain, common to both avoirdupois and apothecary. It's the same grain. 1 gr. ~= 65 mg Paul Trusten, Registered Pharmacist Vice President and Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. http://www.metric.org/ [email protected] On Jul 8, 2013, at 19:41, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: > FYI- > > http://io9.com/5977095/why-we-should-switch-to-a-base+12-counting-system > > > Sent from my iPad > >
