Grain Balance

Grain Balance

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Description
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.”
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.
Ref: R. Peters, “Improved Pocket Chondrometer,” Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture 4 (1818): 313-314.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
Grain Sampler's Balance
Object Type
Balances
date made
nineteenth century
maker
Corcoran & Co.
place made
United Kingdom: England, London
Measurements
bucket: 3 3/8 in x 2 3/4 in; 8.5725 cm x 6.985 cm
pedestal: 7 1/8 in x 2 5/8 in; 18.0975 cm x 6.6675 cm
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
overall: stand: 7 1/4 in x 2 5/8 in; 18.415 cm x 6.6675 cm
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
overall: bucket, with handle: 5 1/2 in x 2 5/8 in; 13.97 cm x 6.6675 cm
ID Number
CH.310958
accession number
134833
catalog number
310958
Credit Line
Gift of E. A. Lauste
subject
Weights & Measures
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Chemistry
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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