Lot (mass)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Lot (formerly also written ''Loth'') was a unit of measurement of mass, which was mainly used in German-speaking states of the Holy Roman Empire and in Scandinavia. It was replaced in the German Reich in 1868/69/72, in Austria in 1871/76 and in
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
in 1875/77 by the metric unit of measurement, the
gramme The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...
. But in the early 20th century it was still used as a popular unit of measure in cooking and baking recipes. An imprecise but clear rule of thumb is that a ''lot'' corresponds to a "spoonful".


Old ''Lot''

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the following weight system was traditionally used: (trading) '' Pfund'' = 1 ''Lot'' = 4 ''Quents'' = 16 ''Pfennig'' weights = 32 ''Heller'' weights The ''Lot'' had different weights in the various German states depending on the definition of the ''Pfund'' ("pound"); its definition also varied over time. However it was mostly set at between 14 g and 18 g. Some examples: * 14.606 g before May 1856 in Prussia, Anhalt, Hesse, Homburg, Frankfurt am Main, Lippe-Detmold, Schaumburg-Lippe,
Mecklenburg-Strelitz The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a duchy in northern Germany consisting of the eastern fifth of the historic Mecklenburg region, roughly corresponding with the present-day Mecklenburg-Strelitz district (the former Lordship of Stargard), ...
,
Nassau Nassau may refer to: Places Bahamas *Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence Canada *Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792 *Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
,
Reuss Reuss may refer to: *Reuss (surname) *Reuss (river) in Switzerland *Reuss (state) or Reuß, several former states or countries in present-day Germany, and the Republic of Reuss *Reuss Elder Line and Reuss Younger Line (House of Reuss), members incl ...
, Saxony, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Gotha,
Saxe-Weimar Saxe-Weimar (german: Sachsen-Weimar) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia. The chief town and capital was Weimar. The Weimar branch was the most genealogically senior extant bra ...
, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Waldeck and Württemberg * 15.1 g in
Mecklenburg-Schwerin The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1701, when Frederick William and Adolphus Frederick II divided the Duchy of Mecklenburg between Schwerin and Strelitz. Ruled by the successors of the Nikloting Hous ...
* 15.2 g in Lübeck * 15.6 g in Baden,
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
and the
Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine (german: link=no, Großherzogtum Hessen und bei Rhein) was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Grand Duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 ...
* 15 = 15.625g in Württemberg * 15.9 g in Saxe-Meiningen * 17.5 g in Austria * 17.6 g in Bavaria


New ''Lot'', ''Zoll-Lot, Postlot''

On 27 May 1856, an act concerning "a common state weight" system was issued in Prussia for the German Customs Union (''Deutscher Zollverein''). This redefined the weights as follow: * 1 ''Pfund'' = 0.5 kg * ''Last'' = ''Center'' = ''Pfund'' = 1 ''Lot'' = 10 ''Quents'' = 100 ''Cents'' = 1,000 ''Grains'' 1 ''Lot'' corresponded to 16.666 g and at the same time to a ''
Vereinstaler The Vereinsthaler (, ''union thaler'') was a standard silver coin used in most List of historic states of Germany, German states and the Austrian Empire in the years before German Empire, German unification. The Vereinsthaler was introduced in 1857 ...
''
fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...
. It was thus also used as a unit of silver fineness within the monetary system. See
Lot (fineness) A ''Lot'' (formerly ''Loth'') was an old unit of measurement for the relative fineness_ (1896), ''The Journal of Political Economy'', Vol. 4, p. 190. to gross weight in metallurgy and especially in coinage until the 19th century. A ''Lot'' was t ...
. In comparison tables of old and new units of measurement of the same name in Prussia, the pre-1856 ''Lot'' (and also other units of measurement) was often used with the prefix "old" and the new ''Lot'', valid from 27 May 1856, with the prefix "''Neu''" ("new") or "''Zoll''" ("customs"). The post office also used the term ''Postlot'' from 1858.Leopold Herzka: ''Der Bauratgeber. Handbuch für das gesamte Baugewerbe und seine Grenzgebiete.'' Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-70919-993-0, p. 4.''Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon''. Vol. 16, Leipzig 1908, p. 221. Apart from Prussia, this classification of weights also applied in Anhalt,
Mecklenburg-Schwerin The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1701, when Frederick William and Adolphus Frederick II divided the Duchy of Mecklenburg between Schwerin and Strelitz. Ruled by the successors of the Nikloting Hous ...
,
Mecklenburg-Strelitz The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a duchy in northern Germany consisting of the eastern fifth of the historic Mecklenburg region, roughly corresponding with the present-day Mecklenburg-Strelitz district (the former Lordship of Stargard), ...
, Saxony and the Thuringian states.''Allgemeine deutsche Real-Encyklopädie für die gebildeten Stände. Conversations-Lexikon.'' 11th, revised, improved and expanded edn. Vol. 9: ''Konradin bis Mauer.'' Brockhaus, Leipzig 1866, pp. 567 f., keyword ''Loth;'' ebd., Vol 11: ''Occupation bis Prämie.'' Brockhaus, Leipzig 1867, p. 634, keyword ''Pfund''. In north-western Germany, on the other hand, the unit system was adapted more closely to the metric system at the same time. In Brunswick,
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
, Hamburg, Hanover, Lübeck,
Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to: Places *Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica *Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany **Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony *Olde ...
and Schaumburg-Lippe the lot was defined as a tenth of a '' Zollpfund'' = 50g. In the other states, the pound remained divided into 32 lots. In Austria and Bavaria there was for a time a "metric ''Lot''" of 10 g (repealed by law in 1888). In Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland, this metric ''Lot'' lives on as the
decagramme Decagram may refer to: * 10 gram, or 0.01 kilogram The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce world ...
to this day.


See also

*
Old Polish units of measurement The traditional Polish units of measurement included two uniform yet distinct systems of weights and measures, as well as a number of related systems borrowed from neighbouring states. The first attempt at standardisation came with the introductio ...
*
Obsolete Finnish units of measurement The obsolete Finnish units of measurement consist mostly of a variety of units traditionally used in Finland that are similar to those that were traditionally used in other countries and are still used in the United Kingdom (imperial units) and t ...
* Obsolete Russian units of measurement *
Obsolete Tatar units of measurement A native system of weights and measures was used by Tatars until 1924, but became obsolete when the Soviet Union adopted the metric system. The Tatar system shares many units with the Russian system (e.g. and ), which is close to the English (The ...


References

{{Reflist


External links

* :sk:Libra (hmotnosť) an extensive (20+) list of values (in grams) a pound had at various times and places in Europe * :bg:Фунт (единица) a historical value of lot in Bulgaria Obsolete units of measurement Units of mass