<P> In 1843, the British painter and inventor William Brockedon was granted a patent for a machine capable of "Shaping Pills, Lozenges and Black Lead by Pressure in Dies". The device was capable of compressing powder into a tablet without use of an adhesive . </P> <P> A pill was originally defined as a small, round, solid pharmaceutical oral dosage form of medication . The oldest known pills were made of the zinc carbonates hydrozincite and smithsonite . The pills were used for sore eyes, and were found aboard a Roman ship Relitto del Pozzino which wrecked in 140 BC . Today, pills include tablets, capsules, and variants thereof like caplets--essentially any solid form of medication, colloquially falls into the pill category . </P> <P> A caplet is a smooth, coated, oval - shaped medicinal tablet in the general shape of a capsule . Many caplets have an indentation running down the middle so they may be split in half easier . </P> <P> An orally disintegrating tablet or orodispersible tablet (ODT), is a drug dosage form available for a limited range of over-the - counter (OTC) and prescription medications . </P>

Thickness of the tablet will be measure using