ARTIFACTS
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Click on any image for an enlargement.
DRAWING
This is a drawing made a long time ago. The place is Burbage Edge,
on the Sheffield to Hathersage road.
CARVED ELEPHANTS
These carved elephants make a nice little decoratave book end. In fact they
conceal a balance. These small scales are called 'opium scales', and can
be acquired in
Mae Sae
on the Thai Burmese border. It is possible
to buy a set of elephant type weights.
Mae Sai is also a great place to buy rough gemstones, and so these scales
can be brought home as a souvenir along with a few lumps of red ruby, or
green jade or whatever. If you intend staying long in Mae Sae then the
YA HOUSE guesthouse is strongly recommended.
OPIUM SCALES
Impress your friends and show off the scales by weighing real things such as
bits of glass, pebbles, pearls, sea-shells, or any other items of permanent
or transient value.
In the UNITED KINGDOM weights of up to one ounce may be computed by using
coins. The units are 1/2 pence for 1/16 oz, 1 penny for 1/8 oz, and 2 pence
for 1/4 oz. This means that one ounce can easily be weighed by 4 x 2 pence
pieces.
It would be interesting to know if any countries have common coins in use
that are in round metric weights (grammes).
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