Balance
date: label: Date made
content: ca. 1794
label: date made
content: late eighteenth century
notes: label: Description
content: Hand balance with a 6.5-inch steel beam, index, two shallow brass pans, four square brass weights, and a rectangular wooden case. A paper inside the lid is marked: “Money SCALES and WEIGHTS, of all KINDS, sold by WILLIAM POYNTELL, IN PHILADELPHIA” and “All GOLD of equal fineness, with the Coins here mentioned, is taken at the Bank of North-America, at 6/8 of a Penny Weight.” This paper also has a conversion chart for various European coins (English Guineas, French ditto, Moidores, Johannes’s, Half ditto, French milled Pistoles, Spanish ditto, Doubloons, English Crowns, French ditto, Spanish Dollars, and English Six pence) giving the value of each in pounds, shillings and pence in England, in Philadelphia, and in New York; it also gives the true weight of each.
label: Description
content: William Poyntell (1756-1811) was an English merchant who settled in Philadelphia at an early age. He established a printing office in 1803, for the purpose of printing Greek and Roman classics. And he was a director of several public institutions.
label: Description
content: This balance apparently belonged to Joseph McClellan (1747-1834), an Army officer who served in the American Revolutionary War.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Weights & Measures
label: related event
content: American Revolution
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Henry C. J. Evans
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.336755
label: catalog number
content: 336755
label: accession number
content: 1978.2178
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Hand Balance
label: Object Type
content: Balances
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: box: 3 cm x 9.6 cm x 20.5 cm; 1 3/16 in x 3 3/4 in x 8 1/16 in
label: Measurements
content: each pan: 55 mm; x 2 3/16 in
label: Measurements
content: balance weight:;
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 1 1/4 in x 8 in x 3 3/4 in; 3.175 cm x 20.32 cm x 9.525 cm