Permanent Collection
Permanent collection
Since 1989, through the exhibition of numerous scales from around the world, from Roman times to the present day, the Museum of Scales and Balances offeres visitors the chance to retrace the evolution of all kinds of instruments used for weighing, to discover their curiosities and secrets, and to enjoy their beauty and attention to detail.
To date, some 1,345 instruments currently make up the heritage of the Museum, of which three quarters are scales of various types, and the others are weights (including coin weights) and weight sets, linear measures and measuring devices of capacity for both dry goods and liquids.
The records of the scales belonging to the Museum in the Catalogue of the Cultural Heritage of Emilia-Romagna (compiled by the ‘Institute for the Artistic, Cultural and Naturalistic Heritage of the Emilia-Romagna Region’) may be consulted.
A few examples
The scales to be found in the Collection are of various types:
- Equal-arm beam scale (suspended, in a column, encased in glass displays)
- Steelyard balances (simple, double capacity, composed, moving fulcrum)
- Bascule
- Counterweight
- Special bascule (air)
- Decimal balance (by Quintenz)
- Lower-suspension scale (Beranger type, normal Roberval type, inverted Roberval)
- Lower-suspension steelyards
- Pendulum scale (simple or double)
- Spring scale (compression, traction)
- Swing-weight scale
- Rocker scale
- Torsion scale
- Semi-automatic and automatic scale
- Weighs crane
- Weights and weight sets
- Ratio weights
- Steelyard poises
- Measures
- Capacity measurements for drylands
- Capacity measurements for liquids
- Various
