Balance
Balance
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- This small and heavily restored balance belonged to Joel Reed (1827-1900), owner of several gold mines in North Carolina, and it was probably used for weighing gold.
- The balance stands on a wooden box with drawer. The pans are deep, made of copper, and 4.75 inches diameter. The 12-inch steel beam is marked “J. WHITTY N. YORK” on front and back. The brass lifting lever is marked "PATENT."
- James Whitty was a New York City tinsmith who, at the time of his death in 1834, was described as a “Scalebeam Maker.” James Martine, a hardware dealer in Fayetteville, N.C., advertised “Whitty’s Patent Balances” in 1835.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- balance
- Object Type
- Balances
- date made
- around 1830
- nineteenth century
- original owner
- Reed, Joel
- inheritor
- Reed, John Franklin
- maker
- Whitty, James
- place made
- United States: New York, New York
- Associated Place
- United States: New Jersey
- Measurements
- carrier: 5 1/2 in; 13.97 cm
- box: 9 1/4 in x 16 3/4 in; 23.495 cm x 42.5704 cm
- each weighing pan: 4 3/4 in; x 12.065 cm
- arms: 13 1/2 in; 34.29 cm
- ID Number
- CH.321598
- catalog number
- 321598
- accession number
- 185076
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mrs. John Franklin Reed
- subject
- Weights & Measures
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Chemistry
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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