556 



ancip:nt desemers or steelyards. 



Fin. 9.— From Audsley's Onui 

 iiHMital Arts of Japiiii. l>>ii 

 (Ion, 1HK2. 



(2 kilos) it iioods fully one-third of an ounce (1<> <ir;uns), or one two- 

 hundredth, to turn it .sensibly. The re^julations of tiie Prussian stand- 

 ards office would rc(|uirc it to turn with 80 

 trrains (2 o'ranis), or one one-thousandth. 



The givin<i- of a tongue to the halance nui}' 

 l»e regarded as niarkino- the substantial coin- 

 l)lction of the inv(Mition, and further inipi-ove- 

 nients were confined to details, to diminution 

 of friction, and the like. These last perfected 

 the instrument, and w'e may now pass to the 

 origination and perfecting- of the simplest of 

 the une<iual-armed weighing- machines, which 

 is the desemci". 



The san)e familiar experiences from which 

 we drew a conjectural account of tiie first 

 idea of an eipial-armed 

 balance suffice for a possible explanation of 

 the orij^in of the de.senier. In seesawiiijif, as 

 in using the porter's yoke, it could not but 

 l)ecome well known that very unecpial loads 

 could l)e bahmced by shifting the point of sup- 

 poit. The idea would also be directly sug- 

 gested b}' the use of levers to lift great loads. 

 A desemer which should consist simply of a 

 staff without any special counterpoise and 

 without any graduation would be made as 

 soon as it occurred to the person concerned 



to apply the otherwise familiar 

 principle to this new purpose. I 

 therefore figure the first desemer 

 as an ordinary stick, with some- 

 thing fastened to the end of it to 

 carry the thing to be weighed. 



That only a few difierent weights 

 could be distinguished by so rude 

 an apparatus is evident. But an 

 example from Assam (fig. 1 1) shows 

 that just such simple apj^aratus 

 was actualh' used. 



The stafl' is unloaded, so that, 

 long as it is, but few discrimina- 

 tions of w'eights could be made 

 with it. But the beginning once 

 made, the inventor had learned how 

 to weigh with no instrument but a stick and a string. In practice it 

 would soon be found that the stick \\'as inconveniently long, and if 



Fk;. U). — Berlin Musi'uni ul" (icr- 

 man Costumes. 



-Royal Ethnological Mnscum of Berlin 

 One-eleventh natural size. 



