Written for Brought to Light by: Rebecca Vandepeear. Student Researchers: Daniel Lyas, Rebecca Vanderpeear, Erkin Gulsen, and Henry Doyle.
This instrument is listed as a weighing device for geological specimens. However, there are many features to this instrument, suggesting it has other potential functions. It contains a balance scale, a very small and accurate measuring gauge, a brass viewing table that can move from side to side, and a spirit level. As the plate for the balance is so small it may have been used to measure very minute accurate materials. This instrument does hold a resemblance to a triple beam balance scale however, it doesn't quite fit the dimensions of our instrument.
There is little information available in regards to what the item is and where it derives from. However, the lack of the manufacture's name on the instrument suggests it could have been made at the University of Adelaide and used by students and professors on campus. There was speculation that it may have been used in the field, though it is very heavy and thus more likely to have been used in the Mawson Laboratories were it was recovered from.
There is evidence that manufacturing with cast iron became popular in the 1920s in America, which gives a general indication for when the instrument could have been made. It could be estimated it was made in the 1930s onwards, as cast-iron manufacturing would have taken slightly longer to gain traction in Australia. It is unknown when exactly it was donated and by whom. Though, the accession number was from 2009, thus it is assumed it was donated around this time. It could possibly have been donated as a result of the rapid development of scientific technology in the past few decades and its sudden lack of importance.
