On Aug 13, 12:13?am, (axlq) wrote:
> I went looking online for kitchen scales today. Lots of digital
> things, but nothing I am looking for.
>
> For the past 40 years my mother had (from Germany) this incredibly
> useful kitchen scale. It needed no batteries, had no moving
> mechanism (just a couple parts you move yourself), simple to
> operate, fool-proof, etc.
>
> The whole thing was plastic. It consisted of a measuring cup at
> one end of a balance beam, a counterweight at the other end, and a
> sliding pivot in the middle, on which the whole scale would balance
> on your countertop. The sliding piece had a small bubble-level in
> it. Well, not all plastic; the counterweight clearly had some metal
> in it and the bubble-level contained liquid.
>
> You set the sliding thing to point at the weight you want (written
> on the balance beam) and fill the measuring cup with ingredients
> until the bubble-level shows it's balanced. The scale will then be
> sitting on your countertop rocking back and forth on the sliding
> pivot. In ASCII art (fixed-width font) it looked something like
> this:
>
> measuring
> \ cup / sliding adjustable
> \ / pivot counterweight
> \__/ ____ ____
> |===============| |=======####
> balance beam \/
>
> Of course, being from Germany, the weights on the balance beam were
> marked off in grams, and the volume increments on the measuring cup
> showed milliliters. That's OK.
>
> Try as I might, I can't find this device ANYWHERE. Not on eBay, not
> on my Google searches, noplace. Are these still sold anymore?

Don't know why you would want one other than as a conversation piece,
but they are readily available. I think for general kitchen use a
mechanical dial scale is most advantageous. Digital scales are good
too but unless you use it often you'll still be changing worn batterys
and for nothing.

http://www.fantes.com/scales.htm#balance

Sheldon