Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-10-30
ART OF WEIGHING.
WONDERFUL Scales That Are Not
Made of Anything.

The art or weighing mas expanded
into a comprehensive science and can
no longer be called mere art. Scales
are made of metal. but the set herein
described is not made of anything.
Scales are in hourly use that can
weigh a pencil mark whose length is
one-fourth of an inch; or section of
a hair OF equal length. The usual
practice in weighing runs from grains.
ounces. pounds up to tons. usually one
ton. and then up to fifty or more tons
in railroad weighing. costing hundreds
and thousands of dollars.
But humans would find it quite diff
cult to make scales that would weigh
millions. billions. trilions, Quadrillions,
quintillions, seXtillions, septillions. oc-
tillions and nonilliOns of tons. or de-
cillions. An instrument able to weigh
a decillion tons can now be purchased
for one cent-a pencil. The scales are
not made of metal; instead set and
fixed specific speed is the next to all
powerful engine used. But it is far
more easy to run a locomotive or
steamship without knowing single
law of these complex machines than
to even attempt to use the speed
scales without knowing every minute
detail OF every velocity law Of NOV
ing bodies.
Let street car start from rest and
keep moving faster and faster until its
rate of motion is. say. twenty miles
per hour at the end of one minute. IL
the speed Of the car increased uniform
~ during the entire minute its aver
age speed is ten miles per hour. be-
cause it started from rest and in
creased TO twenty miles per hour. If
body moves during one minute ut
twenty miles per hour the distance
traversed will be speed multiplied by
time. or twenty miles multiplied by
one-sixtieth of an hour. or onethird
of a mile; but the average speed in
case of the car is ten miles per hour.
so that the distance moved over is half
rs great or one-sixth mile This Is
/ fundamental law Of nature and is of
enormous Importance.
! Law: For uniformly increasing
! speed. starting from rest. the velocity
! increases with the time. but the dis
! lance traversed is that moved over by
the moving body with its average
| speed. or one-half.
IF measuring the distance fallen
through by body let fall Mt the rig
! idly exact beginning Of one second of
time to the rgidly exact end thereof Is
| difficult. what shall be said of finding
how fast il is falling at the end OF the
second. Go try: work from the ages of
twenty to sixty years daily and you
will fail The fact is. the time required
to find the fundamentally exact spe.
cific speed of falling body in still air
was almost that required to measure
the distance OF the nearest star. about
100 years.
Then Atwood invented his machine
and this finally came 10 some near ap,
proach 10 accuracy. But this instru
ment of precision fell far short of the
electrical chronographlc apparatus
When all Of this very complex mechan
ism is In perfect order 1t releases the
ball at the exact beginning of a sec
ond and records the absolute time OF
the cylinder Of chronograph electric
ally and repeats the process at the ab
solute end of the second so far as hu
man hands are able to do riGidly arcu
rate work
The moment that those supermen
Newton and I.iebnitz. discovered that
mighty power. beside which NIL else
human pales into insignifcance-thC
stupendous calculus or differentials-
. every mathematician saw Immediately
J that one OF natures most magnificent
laws was found IN falling bodies. And
then began the relentless and arduoui
self imposed work Of more than hun
/ dred years to find the set specific speed
! acquired by a falling body M the in
: Simultaneous and absolutely exact ent
! Of the first exactly measured second o
time since man appeared.
!. The result is one grand. all potent
= all powerful mean or average Of n cen
uIry of world wide measures. the dia