Research on the Elastic Fulcrum of the Balance

Abstract

In our considerations, the dispersion of the balances arises from the variation of the conditions at the contact surface. This variation arises from the roughness of the contact surface, and, by the plastic deformation of this microscopic roughness at the contact surface, the roughness changes at each time of the contact. This cause of the dispersion is the specific character of the knife edge, so this failure cannot be avoided by controlling the circumferential conditions as long as this mechanism is used. But if the beams and weights to be measured were hung with the elastic fulcrum instead of the knife edge, this cause may be vanished. The sensitivity of the balance having the elastic fulcrum is given, and it is revealed that the dispersion in this case is very little as compared with the dispersion in the case of knife edge.