Steelyard
date: label: date made
content: around 1870
name: label: maker
content: Walker, P. H.
notes: label: Description
content: This resembles the reversible steelyard described in the 1869 patent issued to Peter H. Walker, a Boston merchant who sold scales, balances and other hardware. The inscription at the short end of the beam reads “P. H. WALKER BOSTON.” The patent claimed “The employment, for the purpose of suspending the weight from a reversible scale-beam, of a tubular sliding cross-head, which encircles and fits the beam, and upon which the weight is hung, substantially in the manner and for operation as herein shown and described, so that when the beam is reversed, the position of the weight may be correspondingly changed without removing the cross-head from the beam, or the weight from the cross-head.”
label: Description
content: Ref: Peter H. Walker, “Steelyard,” U.S. Patent 97,839 (Dec. 14, 1869).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
topic: label: Subject
content: Weights & Measures
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Arthur M. Greenwood
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.388278
label: catalog number
content: 388278
label: accession number
content: 182022
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Steelyard
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: steelyard: 300 mm x 32 mm x 420 mm; 11 13/16 in x 1 1/4 in x 16 9/16 in
label: Measurements
content: poise: 163 mm x 58 mm; 6 7/16 in x 2 5/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall; steelyard: 16 1/2 in x 4 in x 1 7/8 in; 41.91 cm x 10.16 cm x 4.7625 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall; weight: 4 3/8 in x 2 1/2 in; 11.1125 cm x 6.35 cm