Weight to weigh
Article
May 23, 2022
Weights, sometimes called scales, are the accessories of different materials used together with a balance to determine the mass (the weight), that is to carry out the weighing of an object, a thing, a body. In scientific terms, they are called “marked masses”. The weight of things reported to the unit takes the physical and real form of the measuring accessories that are the "weights", calibrated pieces of copper, iron or lead or other materials, associated with the use of primitive instrument of measurement that is the balance: is heavy what tilts the balance. The adjusted and calibrated weight is placed in one pan of the balance, while the body whose weight (gravity) we want to know is in the other. The weights are different according to the places, the countries and the times and one can sometimes make the estimate from one system to another by arithmetic way when the archaeological testimonies are sufficient. We have always been able to draw a parallel between weight and money, because the first often regulates the size of the second. Hence the ambiguity in the terms 'livre', 'pound', 'drachma', 'marc', etc. which designate in turn a currency or a weight. The estimation of currencies of exchange is more problematic since the value of a metallic currency is largely due to its speculative value, its legal tender and to the remote era when fiduciary money was not yet generalized, i.e. second recourse, its weight and its title. “The weight alone first regulated the value of the coins, then the authority made them worth by the imprint of the die”. The control method most practiced during Antiquity was the comparison of densities, by immersing the precious object in water and comparing the overflowing volume of the container with a known sample. According to Vitruvius, Archimedes would have used this method to confuse a dishonest goldsmith.