A NEW PORTABLE EQUILIBRIO STATICK AND HYDROSTATICK MACHINE OR BALLANCE FOR WEIGHING ANYTHING, PARTICULARLY GOLD, WITHOUT WEIGHT OR SCALE AND ALSO FOR DISCOVERING THE VALUE OF GOLD
Year: 1773

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ANDREW, of Aldersgate Street, London, Surveyor in the Excise, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
the Thirty-first day of August, in the thirteenth year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said John Andrew, His especial licence that I, the said
John Andrew, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW PORTABLE EQUILIBRIO STATICK AND
HYDROSTATICK MACHINE OR BALLANCE FOR WEIGHING ANYTHING, PARTICULARLY GOLD,
WITHOUT WEIGHT OR SCALE, AND ALSO FOR DISCOVERING THE VALUE OF GOLD;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a provisoe obliging me, the said
John Andrew, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of
the nature of my said Invention, and how the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar
months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, I, the said
John Andrew, do hereby declare that my said Invention of A new Portable

page_text: Equilibrio Statick and Hydrostatick Machine or Ballance for Weighing any-
thing, particularly Gold, without Weight or Scale, and also for Discovering
the Value of Gold, is described in the manner following (that is to
say):
This machine consists of a tube or pipe of brass or other metal, bone, glass,
ivory, or wood, of any length from two inches to thirty feet, upon which is
placed a slide or box, with a spring to fix it at pleasure, and a slide underneath
the said spring, to make it easily move to the marks or points hereafter men-
tioned; to which slide is fixed a cock and cheek or cheeks. Upon the back
or sides of the said tube are marks or points, against which the slide is to be
placed, according to the quantity to be weighed. At one end of the tube
bangs a chain with a pair of spring hook tongs and a ballance and cross, to
which ballance is fixed a piece of Indian grass, gold wire, or silk, which is made
use of as hereafter is mentioned, to find the quantity of base metal contained in
any counterfeited gold coin. In the hollow of the tube is a slide, or occasionally
two slides, of nearly the length of the tube itself, which draw out, to which
slides are fixed springs to keep them steady in any position, and also calculated
scales, with lines and characters upon the said slides. There are likewise
fixed at the ends of the said slides a knob or ball, with or without quicksilver,
and a ballance or cross made of brass or other metal, and also two small
pieces of silk twist or cord to hang occasionally to the said knob or ball, which
will make the whole into equilibrios. This last-mentioned slide is divided and
subdivided into certain spaces denoting the value or weight of gold, silver, or
any other thing. The weight is ascertained by putting the thing to be weighed
into the spring tongs or ballance and cross, and by moving the above-men-
tioned slides to the proper points or characters. To discover the quantity of
base metal in a piece of counterfeited gold coin, first weigh the piece in air, then
put it in the noose which is in the above-mentioned piece of Indian grass, gold
wire, or silk, and suspend it in water, whereupon the before-mentioned scale
and characters upon the slides which are enclosed in the tube will shew and
prove the quantity of base metal.
In witness whereof, I, the said. John Andrew, have hereunto sett my
hand and scal, this Seventeenth day of September, One thousand
seven hundred and seventy-three.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Seventeenth day of Sep-
tember, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Andrew came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
of his Invention aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the
reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary of England, and so
forth.
Inrolled the Eighteenth day of September, in the year above mentioned.