Weighing Machines

Weighing machines and scales or some Iriiid were in use 1800 B. C, for it is said that Abraham at that time "weighed out" 400 shekels of süver, current inoney, with the merchant to Ephron, the Hittite, as payinent for a piece of land, including the cave and all the standing timber "in the field and in the fence." Thisis said to be the earliest transfer of land of which any record survives, and that the payinent was made in the presence of witnesses. The original form of the weighing scale was probably a bar suspended f rom the middle, with a board or shell suspended from each end, one to contain the weight, the other to contain the matter to be weighed. The steelyard was probably so called from the material of which it was made and from its former length. It is also knowu as the Roman balance, and is of great