Scales

Whether someone is buying their fruit and vegetables from the village greengrocer, getting a check-up at the doctors or weighing out the ingredients to make a lovely cake, scales get used in all sorts of settings to accurately measure the weight of an object. We might not think of scales very often, but these precision machines are the result of thousands of years of development. From deep spiritual symbolism to weighing out basic foodstuffs, scales have long been of vital importance, all around the globe. Read on for a whistle-stop tour of the history of the weighing scales!
The Early History of Scales
The very earliest scales ever found by archaeologists were found at excavations in the Indus River Valley near present day Pakistan, and they probably date back to around 2,000 B.C.E. These would most likely have been used by traders, and evidence has been found across the ancient world of similar designs of simple scales. These early scales usually consisted of a horizontal bar or beam with a central pivot point like a cord or a peg drilled through the beam. From either end of the horizontal beam would hang simple plates, or maybe hooks, where goods could be placed on one side and weights could be placed on the other. By finding equilibrium between the two sides, these early scales were simple but effective.
These early scales had strong symbolism and often featured in religious practices. The Ancient Egyptians believed that when a person died, their heart was weight against an ostrich feather taken from the hair of the goddess of justice and truth who was called Maat. The ancient Greeks often used scales to symbolise the decisions of the fates and their judgement of people’s lives.
Cheating the Scales
The problem with these early scales is that they were easy to cheat. In ancient bible times the Mosaic Law specifically prescribed that measuring tools should be accurate, and that honesty was required in business dealings. The Romans had standardised weights which they introduced across the empire, but traders were often accused of carrying their own inaccurate weights to try to fox the system.
Modern Scales
Despite their inaccuracy and the easy with which they could be cheated, these early scales went much unchanged until the Western Industrial Revolution when Richard Salter, a British scales maker, designed the spring scale in around 1770. The simple and hard to cheat design became ubiquitous in homes and businesses and is still popular today for low-cost scales.
The next leap forward was the digital scale, which surprisingly only saw the first request for patent as recently as 1980. These days, digital scales are essential to businesses and science labs to record accurate and clear weights.
If your business needs scales at your till point, contact Garrod and Co. Ltd. for simple, easy to use scales that can integrate with your current till system for fast, easy use. For free, clear advice and support, get in touch with the friendly team today.