EXHIBIT OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22921, 18 January 1940, Page 10

EXHIBIT OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

r* PERIOD. OF< THOUSANDS OP YEARS COVERED A collection of weights covering a period of several thousands of'years , is one feature*.of the interesting ex- ■ hibit in the Labour. Department's section of the Government Court at the

' Centennial Exhibition. Shaped. and polished', stones' of the ancient-Egyptian era, dated'3ooo 8.C., commenced the fascinating story of standards of .weight Later developments in weighing technique are illustrated by old English, butter scales, at least 200 years old, of a type used for many centuries for the weighing

of' dairy produce; iron steel yards, weighing appliances, that were used in -the eighteenth and" -nineteenth centuries; and;a Scottish hauls, a wooden weighing beam about 250 years old. Other unusual ■ appliances include the egg. weigher, a small wooden contraption, which passed out of favour when weighing machines came under the control of legislation, and a spnng-into-position balance. The majority of weighing machines ■ to-day work on the Roberval ;prm-

ciple, and a model of the original Roberval balance' is displayed. It is in the form' of a. rectangle pinioned at the- four' corners and with horizontal rods extending from the ends.

It' mystified Roberval's contemporaries because it could be balanced by placing equal weights at-unequal distances from the central .support, which is in the middle, of the long sides of the rectangle.- Sectionalise'd' examples of model scales, illustrate this principle as used -to-day. As well as this interesting collection of weighing machines, unique his-

I toric measures' for fluids and grain are also included'in the exhibit.