The history of the scale

In China, the earliest weighing balance excavated was made of wood and used bronze masses. It was found in a tomb dating back to the 3rd to 4th century BC in Mount Zuojiagong near Changsha, Hunan.

When the Romans invaded Britain, stone weights were replaced with more accurate metal weights and a system of measurement was imposed to eliminate dishonest weighing practices by the merchants. The image below on the left shows the weights cabinet at the Museum of Naples, depicting the types of metal scales used during the Roman times, and on the right is a Roman carving showing a butcher with his weighing scales behind him. These practices first enabled the commodities market and the wheels of industry that we know today.