The Penn's Grove record., 1884-03-08

In the ancient Egyptian belief the
hearts or all the dead were weighed
before osiris in the Hall Of Perfect
Justice, and q papyrus representing
the ritual forthe dead, preserved in the
British Museum, pictures the ceremony
of the weighing ''for good OF evil, -
and incidentally affords an excellent
view of the scales of early Egypt. In
these scales the b~alance-beam is neither
suspended by the centre, as in the
modern form, nor after the manner
of the stcclNard, but is arranged with a
shifting fulcrum, the adjustment Of
which shows the difference between the
weights of two objects. The weights
used were of metal in the form of
rings. and it may be said in general
that this was the prevailing type of all
early weights. These scales, it will be
observed, are by no means of the sim
plest form, or that which would natur-
ally first suggest itself to mankind,
and this fact argues the employment
and gradual Improvement of weighing
apparatus long anterior to the date of
this papyrus $3.50 b. ca We have no
knowledge of their earliest invention
or forms. The discovery Of their uses
has been attributed to many geniuses,
and doubtless with something of truth
in the individual cases. Pliny credits
them to Phidon of Argos, Gelliu5 says
that Palamedes invented them, and a
host of writers following in their wake,
each crownsh is own particular inventor
with the honor. Among others
"Juno pours out the urn, and Vulcan claims
The scales as the just product OF his names"
But certain it is that they have been
known and employed from time i'm
memorial. Their known existence,
however, dates back very far, and puts
to the blush the fictitious origins attri-
buted to them. When in 1850 b. G.
Abraham weighed out 400 shekels of
| silver as the consideration for the first
real-estate transfer of which history
makes mention, he used them, and
they are frequently referred to in t he
Bible, in Zachariah, Leyiticus, &c.
The earliest scales were temporary, sim
pIy a beam balanced in a stirTup, the
weights being arbitrary and varied,
though as above stated, usually in the
form of metal rings. In ancient Egypt
they were strictly under the superin-
tendence of the priesthood, and so con-
tinued until that people can't under
the Roman sway. They were kept In
the public markets, as was also the
practice in Greece and modern Egypt.
The larger scales were constructed on
the same principle Of the beam and
stirrup, with. the addition of a fiat
board or platform suspended from each
end Of the beam by four ropes or chains.
In all scales accuracy and the quality
of turning under the slightest possible
inequality IN balancing weights, are
the highest desiderata, and 50 great
has been the perfection obtained by
means of knife edges and agate planes
in some of the finer scales that the
! declaration to Shyloek that
"If the scale turn
But in the estimation Of a hair,
Thou diest.R
would be robbed of its terror. The
English mint is said to possess a scale
which turns at 1-9,00O,OOO Of the
weighing capacity. In all ages the
scales have been the emblems of JUS
tice, and it is to be hoped that the lat
ter has kept pace with the improve
ments of it's emblems.