A GEORGE III MAHOGANY WEIGHING MACHINE OR "SANCTORIUS'S BALANCE"
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A GEORGE III MAHOGANY WEIGHING MACHINE OR "SANCTORIUS'S BALANCE"

BY JOHN JOSEPH MERLIN, BEARING A LABEL MERLIN/HANOVER/SQUARE, CIRCA 1785

Details
A GEORGE III MAHOGANY WEIGHING MACHINE OR "SANCTORIUS'S BALANCE"
BY JOHN JOSEPH MERLIN, BEARING A LABEL MERLIN/HANOVER/SQUARE, CIRCA 1785
The box base with interior lever mechanism in the form of two rigid Vs, attached to the central mahogany column with steel pointer atop beneath a loop and with arm to the pan, with two hinged circular trays beneath the pan, the central column houses a sliding measuring stick calibrated in inches to measure height, together with associated brass nested cup weights
41¼ in. (104.5 cm.) high unextended
Literature
The Ingenious Mechanick, Kenwood House, Page 70 of the exhibition catalogue,
Clifton, G. Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851 (Zwemmer: 1995)
Exhibited
John Joseph Merlin, The Ingenious Mechanick, 19th July - 26th August 1985, Kenwood House, London
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. This lot is subject to storage and collection charges. **For Furniture and Decorative Objects, storage charges commence 7 days from sale. Please contact department for further details.**

Lot Essay

John Joseph Merlin was born on September 4th,1735 in Huys approximately five miles from Maastricht. Little is known of his parents but his half brother Charles Merlin was an inventor in Strasbourg and amongst other things invented a heavy weighing machine. Studying in Paris for six years at the Academie des Sciences he made his mark and came to London as part of the entourage of the Conde de Fuentes (d.1771). Arriving in 1760 Merlin formed part of the Count's household and was introduced to fashionable London and its scientific luminaries. As early as 1763 Merlin was granted an important commission for the French astronomer/clockmaker Gérome Lalande; a barrel organ for the Princess of Wales (Augusta of Saxe Gotha, widow of Frederick Prince of Wales and mother of George III). By about 1766 Merlin began working for the celebrated clock and automaton maker James Cox. He spent as many as four or five years in the employ of the famous master of automata in Spring Gardens, apparently as 'Principal Mechanic'.

Merlin invented the personal weighing machine offered and is known to have sold one as early as 1780 to Lord Stormont. His workshop, where the weighing machine was manufactured, was based in Hanover Square, London from 1783 onwards. The mechanism of Merlin's weighing machine is in effect that of James Wyatt's machine for weighing wheeled vehicles developed after the introduction of the Turnpike Act of 1741. The idea of weighing one's body seems to have been due to the Italian physician Santorio Santorio (Sanctorius) (1561-1626), who used a large steelyard for the purpose. In Paris in the mid-18th century a public weighing machine was maintained for persons to weigh themselves and it is likely that Merlin knew of this from his time in Paris (1754-1760). Merlin's contribution was to adopt this arrangement to a small, elegant and robust machine that was easy to use and to popularise it. A number of similar machines bearing Merlin's signature are known. Merlin opened his mechanical museum in the 1780s which he maintained until his death in 1803.

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