Analytical Balance
date: label: date made
content: early twentieth century
name: label: maker
content: William Ainsworth and Sons
notes: label: Description
content: William Ainsworth & Sons won a gold medal at the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904. Notable among their wares was an analytical balance with a short beam made of hard-rolled nickel-aluminum (rather than pure cast aluminum), bearings and knife edges of agate, a double rider apparatus of improved design, and a frame of wood with glass sides and drawer in the base. This example is of that sort. It is a Type T with a 6-inch beam. An inscription on the ivory index reads “Wm. Ainsworth & Sons / DENVER, COLO. U.S.A. 8095.” New it cost $125.
label: Description
content: William Ainsworth (1850-1917) was born in England, came to the United States as a small child, and grew up in the Mid-West. He moved to Central City, Colorado, in the mid-1870s, and earned his living repairing watches and other small instruments. He made his first balance in 1879, and moved to Denver in 1880. The firm became William Ainsworth & Sons in 1899, and soon claimed to be “the largest manufacturers of fine balances in the world.” It later became Denver Instrument, and was acquired by Sartorius in 1999.
label: Description
content: Ref: “A Short-Beam Analytical Balance,” <i>The Engineering and Mining Journal</i> 78 (1904): 877.
label: Description
content: Denver Fire Clay Company, <i>Illustrated and Priced Catalogue of Assayers’ and Chemists’ Supplies</i> (Denver, 1905), p. 33.
label: Description
content: Mine and Smelter Supply Co., <i>Assayers’ and Chemists’ Supplies</i> (1912), p. 30.
label: Description
content: William Ainsworth & Sons, Inc., <i>Ainsworth Balances, Bulletin A-11</i> (Denver, n.d.), p. 3.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Colorado, Territory of, Denver
topic: label: Subject
content: Weights & Measures
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Department of Interior, Fish & Wildlife Service
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.317544.1
label: catalog number
content: 317544.1
label: accession number
content: 230395
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analytical balance
label: Object Type
content: Balances
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 49 cm x 51 cm x 26 cm; 19 5/16 in x 20 1/16 in x 10 1/4 in
label: Measurements
content: beam: 6 in; 15.24 cm