Description:
Set of folding brass scales in a rectangular, green baize-lined wooden box with nailed corners, which contains a steel balance beam with swan neck pivots; 2 brass pans suspended from the beam with cords; 9 brass scale weights; and a piece of rock quartz. There is a piece of paper in the box inscribed in ink: "These scales belonged to my grandfather Capt. William Perkins Matchett. You will see his name & that of his grandson W. F. Matchett Nov. 1847 written in lead pencil on the inside of the cover of the case. Clara E. Hatchett." The two names are barely legible, written across the upper half of the inner lid. The son of John and Elizabeth (Perkins) Matchett, Captain William Perkins Matchett (1774-1851) was a sea captain who married Joanna Stetson (1776-1851) in 1802 and moved to Brighton, Massachusetts, where they both died. Their son, William Perkins Matchett (1805-1834), graduated from Harvard in 1824 and married Catherine Marriott Plummer, and their son was William Frederick Matchett (b.1832) who married Sarah Amanda Bennett in 1854. Clara E. Matchett may be Clara Elizabeth Matchett. Smaller, portable scales, which were either held in the hand for weighing or hung from a metal stand, used the Roman system of the scruple, drachm, grain. These beam scales were used to measure the overall quantity of metal such as coins brought in by a client or provided by the silversmith for fashioning an object; measure the mixture of metals for solder in deterimining the amount of metal needed for casting; and calculate the client's cost by weight of finished piece. Brass weights have been used tradtionally since brass can be milled to exact weights. These scales were also used by apothecaries and physicians for weighing and compounding drugs and calculating fees. These 9 brass scale weights include 3 round weights marked "L/3" and 5/12" and "S/3.6" and S/2.1" used a check weights for coinage; and 6 smaller square weights used as apothecary weights in drams and scruples.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+62.214 |
