Zolotnik - a measure of weight in the old days

With the transition of all progressive mankind to the SI system, many ancient Slavonic measures of weight and length gradually disappeared. Among them, the spool is a measure of weight, actively used since the beginning of the eighteenth and up to the thirties of the twentieth century.

Zolotnik - what is it?

Zolotnikom in olden times called the measure of mass, used to determine the weight of the 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 weight measure called a slide valve

Today, scientists can not say for certain, where the very name of such a weight measure as the spool came from. Presumably this name came from the times 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".

Probably, later this coin began to be actively used as a weigher when weighing products 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 from a noble 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 "spool" no longer as a coin name, but as a measure of weight. Probably, it was at that time, with the help of spools, that the proportion of pure precious metal was measured in a particular coin or other piece of gold and silver.

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

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

A measure of this weight contributed to the appearance of a so-called spooling system of samples, which was widespread in the Russian Empire.

Zolotnikovaya system of samples

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

So pure gold without impurities (now 999 test) was considered a precious metal weighing 96 gold. This meant that if the metal composition was taken as 100%, then all 100% gold. However, in the slide control system, the maximum number was not 100%, but 96 units of precious metal. And if all 96 of them were gold - the metal was clean and had a sample of 96 (now 999).

The smallest spool test was 56 (now 585), because in it only 56 parts of gold, and other - admixtures of other metals. In total in the old days there were six spools of gold.

Today, lucky owners of gold jewelry of pre-revolutionary manufacture can see a slide test of that period on them. To translate it into a modern system and learn the pure metal of the product, you can use the simplest formula: A / 96 * 1000 = B. In this case A is a slide test, and B is a modern one.

The measurement of the purity of silver in the spools was also not very different 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 XIX they were significantly reduced to four (from 84 to 95).

Just as with gold, the silver slide helped to determine the number of shares of this metal in 96 units. Today, the prerevolutionary gold sample of silver can be transferred to the modern one using the same formula as gold.

The ratio of the spool to other measures of weight in the old days

Valium - the share: 1/96.

Pud is a spool: 1/3840.

Lot - spool: 1/3.

Pound - spool: 1/96.

Zolotnik and modern measures of weight

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

According to the British system of pharmacy measures, the weight of one spool is approximately 0.01143 troy pounds or 0.14 troy ounce.

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

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

This measure of weight was quite popular with ancestors, often about her composed sayings. For example, when they wanted to characterize a small, but very valuable thing, they used the proverb known to all from childhood.

Also there was a little bit of its analogue: "Small spool, yes weighty".

There is another similar saying, also dedicated to small but important things. She more fully illustrated the principle: not the size is important, but the value.

To describe the value of health for a person, used this saying:

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

Today, a gold spool has long been out of order to determine the purity of a sample of gold or silver. A measure of this weight has become part of history. However, the word itself is now actively used in speech, although it has a slightly different meaning. Now the word "spool" has become the name of the detail-distributor, but this is a completely different story.