Chainomatic Balance
date: label: Date made
content: ca. 1916
label: date made
content: ca. 1921
name: label: maker
content: Christian Becker, Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: Chainomatic analytical balance in a wooden frame, made by Christian Becker, Inc., New York, and sent to the Smithsonian for exhibition in 1921.
label: Description
content: By using a chain weight instead of several small weights, the form permitted rapid weighing. Christian Becker’s son, Christopher A. Becker, did not invent the Chainomatic, but he did obtain a U.S. patent in 1916, and receive the Edward Longstreth Medal of Merit from the Franklin Institute in 1917.
label: Description
content: Ref: C. A. Becker, “Weighing Scale,” U.S. Patent 1,203,686 (Nov. 7, 1916).
label: Description
content: John T. Stock, “Victor Serrin and the Origins of the Chainomatic Balance,” <i>Bulletin of the History of Chemistry</i> 3 (1990): 12-15.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Weights & Measures
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.307259
label: catalog number
content: 307259
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Analytical Balance
label: Object Type
content: Balances
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: pan support: 4 1/8 in; x 10.4775 cm
label: Measurements
content: beam: 7 in; 17.78 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall with leveling screws: 18 1/2 in x 9 1/4 in x 16 in; 46.99 cm x 23.495 cm x 40.64 cm
label: Measurements
content: pan: 2 3/8 in; x 6.0325 cm