balancing scales

On-Yomi: ショウ

Koohii stories:

1) [mantixen] 27-7-2009(40): I use balancing scales to make sure everyone gets an even amount of Wheaties.

2) [Meconium] 21-2-2010(7): Before the technology of balancing scales was widely available, farmers used to sell their wheat grain using the following method: customers would visit, and shovel as much wheat grain as they could onto a giant lilypad. They were allowed as much as they could pile on, and they were charged according to the number of lilypads they filled. This ensured that the greedy were punished, because if the lilypad sunk under the weight, they were still charged for the grain.

3) [astridtops] 31-3-2007(5): He didn't have a balancing scales to figure out how much his wheat weighed, but he came up with a solution: he loaded a vessel with wheat and let it float in his lily pond, and then he measured how deep the vessel would be in the water.

4) [herman] 5-6-2009(1): Picture weighing wheat on a lilly.

5) [dihutenosa] 4-8-2008(1): This is the set of balancing scales that they use to figure out how much Cap 'n Crunch to put into each box. They have a control weight off in the distance (you can't see it), and then a small lily pad. They pour an appropriate amount of Cap 'n Crunch onto the lily pad, and just before it starts to sink below water level, they know that's the proper amount.