Apothecaries' Drams to Pounds (ʒ to lb)
1 apothecaries' dram equals 0.008571428571 pounds (rounded).
How to convert apothecaries' drams to pounds
To convert apothecaries' drams to pounds, multiply the number of apothecaries' drams by 0.008571428571. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply pounds by 116.6666667 (rounded).
pounds = apothecaries' drams × 0.008571428571
Example: 10 apothecaries' drams = 0.08571428571 pounds.
About these units
Apothecaries' Dram (ʒ)
60 grains or 3 scruples (3.888 g). Used in old medical prescriptions.
Greek drachma coins left their mark on this unit, which the apothecaries' tables spelled drachm or dram and abbreviated with a curled symbol. It was worth 60 grains, or three scruples, or about 3.89 grams, and eight of them filled an apothecaries' ounce.
Doctors wrote it into Latin prescriptions with Roman numerals, so three drams appeared as the symbol followed by iij and half a dram as the symbol followed by ss, short for semis. Until about 1900 most prescriptions were written this way.
Do not confuse it with the avoirdupois dram, which is much smaller than this one, and with the fluid dram used for liquids. An Irish pharmacopoeia of 1850 even proposed an avoirdupois-based version of about 54.68 grains. British law ended the apothecaries' system in the 1970s, and modern doses are given in grams or milligrams.
1 apothecaries' dram = 0.0038879346 kilograms (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Apothecaries' system; Wikipedia: Troy weight
Pound (lb)
Exactly 0.45359237 kg, divided into 16 ounces. The standard unit of weight in the US and common in the UK.
Why is pound abbreviated lb? The answer is Roman. The English word comes from the Latin libra pondo, roughly the weight measured in libra, and the symbol keeps the first word. The Roman libra was divided into 12 unciae. The avoirdupois pound of 16 ounces came into general use around 1300 and was initially equal to 6,992 troy grains; under Elizabeth I it was redefined as 7,000 grains. The UK's Weights and Measures Act 1878 set the imperial standard pound as a platinum cylinder, and the troy pound was abolished for trade the following year.
Today the pound is defined from the kilogram. The International Yard and Pound Agreement of 1959 fixed it at exactly 0.45359237 kg, and the UK's Weights and Measures Act 1963 wrote the same figure into law. Pounds remain the everyday unit for body weight, groceries and shipping in the United States and are widely used in the UK. The word also survives in odd places: a six-pounder cannon was named for the weight of its shot, not its own.
1 pound = 0.45359237 kilograms (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Pound (mass); NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8 (mass conversions)
Related conversions
- Pounds to apothecaries' drams (reverse)
- Apothecaries' drams to kilograms
- Apothecaries' drams to grams
- Apothecaries' drams to metric tons
- Apothecaries' drams to ounces
- Kilograms to pounds
- Grams to pounds
- Metric tons to pounds
- Ounces to pounds
- Milligrams to pounds
- Micrograms to pounds
- Carats to pounds
- Stone to pounds
- Short tons to pounds
- Long tons to pounds
- Troy ounces to pounds
- Daltons to pounds
See all weight & mass units.