Comparative weighing scale
                                Date
                            
                            
                                16 January 1683
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Creator
                            
                            
                                Unknown, Artist
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Object type
                            
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Archive reference number
                            
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Manuscript page number
                            
                            
                                p102
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Dimensions
                            
                            
                                height (page): 375mm
width (page): 239mm
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            width (page): 239mm
                                Subject
                            
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Content object
                            
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Description
                            
                            
                                Robert Hooke's design of scales placed on cross beams. Hooke produced a model at the meeting on 16 January 1684, but it was judged as inaccurate.
This image is copied from RBO/6/141.
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            This image is copied from RBO/6/141.
                                Transcription
                            
                            
                                I shewed a New Instrument I had invented by which immediately and without any trouble the Comparative weights of any two body's given might be found if at least the Beam were big enough to bear them, or any Aliquot or Aliquant part of any ponderable body.
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            Transcribed by the Making Visible project
                                Object history
                            
                            
                                Hooke was absent at the beginning of the meeting on 16 January 1684, but it seems that he attended later, as it is recorded that he ‘shewed a way how to give the proportions of two weights one to another, the apparatus being not designed for an accurate trial’ (Birch 4:250).
The paper with the figure are printed in Robert Hooke, Philosophical Experiments and Observations, ed. by W. Derham (london: 1726), pp. 121-22.
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            The paper with the figure are printed in Robert Hooke, Philosophical Experiments and Observations, ed. by W. Derham (london: 1726), pp. 121-22.
                                Related fellows
                            
                            
                                Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher