Weighing machine
probably Merlin
Category
Scientific instruments
Date
c. 1750 - c. 1850
Materials
Wood
Place of origin
Great Britain
Collection
Leith Hill, Surrey
NT 767964
Summary
Weighing machine, most probably made by John Joseph Merlin (1735-1803), with weights and case.
Full description
A late 18th/early 19th-century British mahogany weighing machine with central wooden column enclosing mechanism, a brass beam mounted on an axle and set within a slot cut into the head of the wooden column, the beam with a perpendicular steel needle mounted on upper face and moving through a narrow steel arch to indicate equilibrium, one end of the beam terminating in eye to suspend the copper weight pan with [?]cords or chains, the central column with an applied manuscript ruler graduated in inches and feet on the front face, with a further extension ruler housed within the central column, a slate tablet inset into the left-hand face of the column with incised legend ‘Weight’ and columns headed ‘C’ and ‘lb’, two wooden shelves on the right-hand face of the column, the upper holding a copper pan for weights and the lower holding a set of graduated weights. Wooden [?stained pine] protective case. It is most probable that this weighing machine was designed and made by John Joseph Merlin (1735-1803), an inventor who was born in the Low Countries. Merlin worked as a scientific instrument maker in Paris before moving to England in 1760, where his ingenuity found exuberant expression in a variety of clocks, musical instruments, scientific instruments, and automata. In 1773 Merlin founded his own business and he also established Merlin’s Mechanical Museum near Hanover Square, a fashionable venue which attracted the patronage of London society – Merlin’s friends, admirers, and associates included Charles Burney, Charles Babbage, Johann Christian Bach, and Thomas Gainsborough (whose portrait of Merlin is at Kenwood House, London). Comparison of the present weighing machine and its mechanism with images of a very similar weighing machine made by Merlin and held by the Science Museum, London (object number A602026) indicates that Merlin was most probably the maker of this weighing machine (it is not clear, however, whether the extension ruler found in this example is also present in the Science Museum’s). It appears that the weighing machine was originally acquired in c. 1791 by the physician Robert Darwin, who recorded a series of weights (presumably measured with this machine) in a manuscript notebook titled ‘Weighing Account’ from 1791 onwards. Robert Darwin’s father, the physician, inventor, and poet Erasmus Darwin, had worked on a weighing machine in the 1770s (cf. D. King-Hele, Erasmus Darwin: A Life of Unequalled Achievement (London, 1999), p. 138) and it seems possible that he was aware of his contemporary Merlin’s work, due to their many shared interests; indeed, it is tempting to speculate that Robert Darwin bought this machine on his father’s recommendation. Robert Darwin married Susannah Wedgwood (1765-1817) in 1796, and the weighing machine and the accompanying notebook most probably moved with them to their new house, The Mount, Shrewsbury, shortly afterwards.
Provenance
Given to the National Trust by Ralph Vaughan Williams (listed in 1978 inventory) together with the 'Weighing Account' book NT 767995.
Makers and roles
probably Merlin , inventor