. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 556 ancip:nt desemers or Fin. 9.—From Audsley's Onui iiHMital Arts of Japiiii. l>>ii (Ion, 1HK2. (2 kilos) it iioods fully one-third of an ounce (1 <ir;uns), or one two- hundredth, to turn it .sensibly. The re^julations of tiie Prussian stand- ards office would rc(|uirc it to turn with 80 trrains (2 o'ranis), or one one-thousandth. The givin<i- of a tongue to the halance nui}' l»e regarded as niarkino- the substanti
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 556 ancip:nt desemers or Fin. 9.—From Audsley's Onui iiHMital Arts of Japiiii. l>>ii (Ion, 1HK2. (2 kilos) it iioods fully one-third of an ounce (1 <ir;uns), or one two- hundredth, to turn it .sensibly. The re^julations of tiie Prussian stand- ards office would rc(|uirc it to turn with 80 trrains (2 o'ranis), or one one-thousandth. The givin<i- of a tongue to the halance nui}' l»e regarded as niarkino- the substantial coin- l)lction of the inv(Mition, and further inipi-ove- nients were confined to details, to diminution of friction, and the like. These last perfected the instrument, and w'e may now pass to the origination and perfecting- of the simplest of the une<iual-armed weighing- machines, which is the desemci". The san)e familiar experiences from which we drew a conjectural account of tiie first idea of an eipial-armed balance suffice for a possible explanation of the orij^in of the In seesawiiijif, as in using the porter's yoke, it could not but l)ecome well known that very unecpial loads could l)e bahmced by shifting the point of sup- poit. The idea would also be directly sug- gested b}' the use of levers to lift great loads. A desemer which should consist simply of a staff without any special counterpoise and without any graduation would be made as soon as it occurred to the person concerned to apply the otherwise familiar principle to this new purpose. I therefore figure the first desemer as an ordinary stick, with some- thing fastened to the end of it to carry the thing to be weighed. That only a few difierent weights could be distinguished by so rude an apparatus is evident. But an example from Assam (fig. 11) shows that just such simple apj^aratus was actualh' used. The stafl' is unloaded, so that, long as it is, but few discrimina- tions of w'eights cou
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