558 



ANCIENT DESEMERS OR STEELYARDS. 



Fiii. II.— Kciyiil Kthnidofficiil 

 Miisciiin of lU-rlin. (Hir- 

 fiiiirtli imtnnil si/t-. 



acc'unu'v. ^\'ith this staj^e of dovelopiiKMit a handy instrunuMit, suffi- 

 cient for ordinary purposes, was reached. How very simple such 

 a balance may be is shown by an example (tig. 17) from White Russia, 

 the pi-operty of Mr. Bartels. It consists of a stick with a natural 

 knob as counterpoise, and will weij^h u}) to 80 pounds and more in 

 about twenty distinct quantities. 



In many places such simple contrivances are 

 us«>d «'ven in the shops. But it nuist soon be 

 found that the state of dryness or moisture of 

 the wooden knob affects the weight, so that the 

 scale is dcrang(>d. In order to meet this ditlicultj'^ 

 desemers were made with iioliow counterpoises, 

 which could l)c tilled with sand or pieces of iron 

 (tig. IS), and thus the balance could easily be cor- 

 rected. It is also possible that this arrangement 

 served the cheat. On the frontiers desiMuers 

 were in use which, like that of Kg. l!>, had two 

 scales, for (Tcrman and Russian units. 

 All the designers so far considered are wooden, ]^ut d(\semers were 

 iiiso nijide of iron, as one fiom the province of l>ran(ienbui'g (tig. 20) 

 :iiid (tiie Iroiii Tiliet piove (hg. 21). This German instrument is only 

 for heavy goods, while the Tibetan runs from 1 oiuice (80 grams) 

 to 5^ pounds {2h kilos). This balance can only have been used for 

 weighing gold, since its 

 tiny pan would not hold 

 such a weight of other ijia- 

 terial. 



We have now made the 

 acciuaintance of an entire 

 series of desemers, and have 

 seen that they can be used 

 to weigh fi'om 30 pounds 

 down to a drachm — ))ut not 

 with any one example. The 

 Cierman desemers are con- 

 lined to large weights; the 

 Thibetan to small ones. 

 The limitations were not, 

 however, universal; for 

 the Romans had desemers, 

 which, in addition to an 

 essential advantage which the}' share with those of Tibet, also 

 embraced a nuich more extended series of weights. 



Three Roman balances of this description have been brought to 

 light, of which onh' two, so far as is known, still exist. The finer of 

 these two, shown in tig. 22, is supposed to have come from Chinsi 



Fig. 1ft. — Royal Ethnologiciil Mii.s(_niin of Berlin, 

 .si'venth natural .size. 



