CARACT

, or Carat, a name given to the weight which expresses the degree of goodness or fineness of gold. The whole quantity of metal is considered as consisting of 24 parts, which are the carats, so that the carat is the 24th part of the whole; this carat is divided into 4 equal parts, called grains of a carat, and the grain into halves and quarters.

When gold is purified to the utmost degree possible, so that it loses no more by farther trials, it is considered as quite pure, and said to be 24 carats fine; if it lose 1 carat, or 1—24th in purifying, it was of 23 carats fine; and if it lose 2 carats, it was 22 carats fine; and so on.