雙語科技百科(物理) 第38期:桿秤
Chinese Steelyard-Gancheng
The steelyard is a Chinese early as 200 B.C.,China be-gan to make a scale of this type big enough to weigh several hundred pounds. The steelyard consisted of the following parts: an arm, a hook, lifting cords and a arm or beam measured about l.5 metres long, graduat-ed with the weight units- jin and liang*. The hook, hanging from one end of the arm, was used to lift up the object to be weighed. Hanging from the other part of the arm was the freemoving weight, attached on a looped string. On the arm was fixed one, two or three lifting cords, placed much closer to the hook than to the other end. Anything to be weighed should be picked up by the hook, while the weigher lifted up the whole steelyard, holding one of the then slided the weight left or right until he found a perfect balance of the beam. He then read the weight from the graduation mark on which the weight-string rested.
桿秤是中國發明的歷史最悠久的一種衡器。早在公元前200年前，已有了各種規格的桿秤砣，大的足以稱重幾百斤的物品。桿秤由木製的秤桿、金屬秤砣、提繩等組成。秤桿長約1.5米，上面標有斤兩刻度的星點。秤桿的一端懸掛着秤鉤，用來吊起要稱重的物品。秤桿上還掛有一個自由移動的秤砣。在靠近秤鉤的一端固定了一到三個提繩。稱重時必須用秤鉤勾起物品，稱重人提着提繩舉起整桿秤，並將秤砣左右滑動直到完全平衡，然後根據秤砣上的繩子所在的星點位置讀出重量即可。This kind of steelyard is still in widespread use at market gatherings in may be made in varying sizes working by the same principle, with the large ones to weigh food grain in bulk, pigs or sheep or their carcasses, and medium-sized ones for smaller transactions. There is also a miniature steelyard only about one third of a metre ( about i foot)long,graduated with liang and qian,** to weigh medicinal herbs and silver or gold, it first appeared about l,000 years ago.
至今在中國的集市上仍然廣泛使用桿秤。儘管大小不同，原理都是一樣的。大的用來稱糧食、牲畜等，中等的用來稱稍小的物件。還有一種只有普通桿秤的三分之一長的小桿秤，上面的星點刻度是“兩”和“錢”，是用來稱中草藥或金銀的。這種小桿秤最早出現於1000多年前。
The steelyard is more convenient than the platform scale. Not only can it be carried around easily, but there is also no need for a whole set of e-sponding to the lifting cords are different sets of graduation marks on the arm for different measuring ranges.
桿秤和檯秤相比更加方便，因爲它易於攜帶，也不需要一整套的秤砣，不同的重量範圍取決於秤桿上不同的提繩。It is perhaps worthwhile to mention that the equal-armed platform scale ap-peared in China earlier than the steelyard with a sliding weight. A scale of the for-mer description with a complete set of weights was discovered lately from a tomb near Changsha, Hunan Province, which dates back to the Warring States Period. It is in size similar to those in use today and its component parts are found to be in good proportions.
還值得一提的是，在中國天平秤比桿秤出現得更早。在湖南長沙出土的天平帶有一整套的秤砣，據考爲戰國時期所造。它的大小和目前使用的天平大小接近，組件比例合適。* One Jin, equals 500 grams or about l.1 pounds; it used to be divided into 16 liang , but now 10 lian,g .
* 一斤相當於500克或1.1鎊，古代一斤是16兩，而現在是10兩。** A qian is orie-terith of a liang.
*一錢爲1/10兩。
