Carat

kar'at, a unit of weight for precious stones. The word is derived from the Arabic, having reference to the hornshaped pod of a locust tree, whose dried beans were used as weights. By a conference of jewelers held at Amsterdam in 1877, the weight of a carat was fixed at 205 milligrams or 151.76 carats to the troy ounce. In estimating the fineness of precious metals a carat is a twenty-fourth part. A ring eighteen carats fine contains eighteen twenty-fourths of pure gold. The standard fineness of a wedding ring is twenty-two carats. A gold chain should not be over fourteen carats fine if wearing qualities are desired.