Grain Balance
date: label: date made
content: nineteenth century
name: label: maker
content: Corcoran & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: This simple device, also known as a chondrometer, consists of a steelyard, pedestal, and bucket. In operation, the bucket would be filled with grain, and the weight per bushel read on the scale. The form came into use in Europe in the early nineteenth century, as dealers began selling grain by weight rather than by volume. The beam of this example is marked “Corcoran & Co., London” while the slide is marked “Lbs per Bushel” and “799.”
label: Description
content: Bryan Corcoran was a millstone builder, millwright, and instrument maker in London by 1780. His firm became Bryan Corcoran & Co. in the 1830s. Bryan Corcoran, Jr., showed a chondrometer, or Corn Balance, at the Royal Agricultural Society of England exhibition of 1879.
label: Description
content: Ref: R. Peters, “Improved Pocket Chondrometer,” <i>Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture</i> 4 (1818): 313-314.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
topic: label: Subject
content: Weights & Measures
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of E. A. Lauste
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.310958
label: accession number
content: 134833
label: catalog number
content: 310958
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Grain Sampler's Balance
label: Object Type
content: Balances
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: bucket: 3 3/8 in x 2 3/4 in; 8.5725 cm x 6.985 cm
label: Measurements
content: pedestal: 7 1/8 in x 2 5/8 in; 18.0975 cm x 6.6675 cm
label: Measurements
content: beam balance: 10 3/4 in x 1 1/4 in x 7/8 in; 27.305 cm x 3.175 cm x 2.2225 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: stand: 7 1/4 in x 2 5/8 in; 18.415 cm x 6.6675 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: beam: 1 1/16 in x 10 3/4 in x 1 1/4 in; 2.69875 cm x 27.305 cm x 3.175 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: bucket, with handle: 5 1/2 in x 2 5/8 in; 13.97 cm x 6.6675 cm