Balance
date: label: date made
content: eighteenth century
name: label: maker
content: Pourin
notes: label: Description
content: Hand balance with a 5.5 inch iron beam, iron index, brass pans, five nested brass weights, and three flat brass weights. The oval case is made of wood. A paper label in the lid is marked: “AU P. COURONNE / Rue St. Denis No 38, entre la Rue Trousevache et / celle des Lombards, à Paris. / . . . OURIN, / . . . Méchanicien & Ajusteur, / Fabrique toutes sortes de Balances & Poids.”
label: Description
content: Each balance maker in France had, as a personal mark, a letter of the alphabet with a crown above. This practice began in the pre-revolutionary period, and continued into the nineteenth century. Pourin’s shop and work was identified by a crowned P.
label: Description
content: Bruno Kisch purchased this balance in Paris in 1960, for the new National Museum of History and Technology.
label: Description
content: Ref: Bruno Kisch, <i>Scales and Weights. A Historical Outline</i> (New Haven and London, 1965), pp. 196-199.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Département de Ville-de-Paris
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.318237
label: catalog number
content: 318237
label: accession number
content: 235400
objectType: label: Object Name
content: balance with weights
label: Object Type
content: Weights
label: Object Type
content: Balances
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: apex: 7/16 in; 1.11125 cm
label: Measurements
content: cross arm: 5 5/8 in; 14.2875 cm
label: Measurements
content: base: 7/8 in; x 2.2225 cm
label: Measurements
content: pan: 1 7/8 in; x 4.7625 cm
label: Measurements
content: case: 3/4 in x 2 3/8 in x 7 1/8 in; 1.905 cm x 6.0325 cm x 18.0975 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 3/4 in x 7 1/8 in x 2 5/16 in; 1.905 cm x 18.0975 cm x 5.87375 cm