The history of scales in short
The origin of weighing
When commerce began to flourish, the necessity for weighing things arose – so as to determine an object’s value by its weight. The oldest discoveries of scales used for this purpose stem from Egypt and are more than 7000 years old – simple beam scales. They function through the use of a balancing beam equipped with a blade that is mounted on a socket. The object being weighed is balanced out with a counterbalance until the beam is in full balance.
The blade is not only a main component of the original scale mechanism, the Latin term for its function – secare – also gave way to our brand name seca. The Greek and Romans then developed the first steelyards, which no longer consisted of one balancing beam but two arms differing in length and one counterweight for balancing. By moving the counterweight, the ratio between both leverage arms was shifted and could be balanced out easily. The counterweight’s position then informed the user of the object’s weight. This mechanism made various counterweights in differing sizes unnecessary.
The problem with heavy goods
While both scale types worked well for small goods and objects, heavier items were hard to measure, as counterweights with a greater mass were needed to balance out the scale. To weigh a 220 pound bag of potatoes with a beam scale, a counterweight with the same mass was needed. Depending on the leverage arms, steelyards require only a fraction of this weight to balance out the mass. If one arm is double the length of the other, only half of the weight is necessary. An arm with 20 times more length would even require only 11 pounds. Lengthening the leverage arms is only possible up to a certain point, which is why in reality the necessity for relatively heavy counterweights remained.
A monk solves the problem
In 1821 the Benedictine monk Quintenz registered the decimal scale for patenting. Its construction required only a tenth of the weight to be measured and therefore enabled easier weighing of heavy masses. This innovation formed the foundation for developing the first column scales in the USA. This system used sliding weights that were positioned on a column at eye or hip level for easy reading. The term column scale derives from exactly this column. The scale was initially used for mainly weighing heavy goods, but then was quickly adapted for determining a person's body weight. By the end of the 19th century, the medical aspect of weighing patients became relevant and medical weighing systems were essential.
seca and the mechanical column scale
seca’s company history is tightly connected to Quintenz and his development of a column scale. The company’s founder, A.C.C. Joachims, dove into Quintenz’s research and calculations as a young locksmith to find the first German scale manufacture in Hamburg in 1840. He produced decimal and column scales early on, which with high quality and reliable precision were unique on the market and therefore popular systems for determining weight. His company soon became the market leader in Hamburg. Column scales developed into an important mechanism for determining body weight and found their way into everyday life, as well as the medical sector. Their functional basics have remained unchanged ever since.
This photo from 1928 shows the Hamburg premises and the precursors to the mechanical column scales seca 700 and seca 711. Both seca classics mark the end of the long development history of mechanical column scales. Even though digital column scales have existed since the 1970s, the mechanical scales remain an important tool in the clinical and ambulatory sectors due to their robustness and high precision.
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