balance, ball a unce

[In Dut. balans; Ger. (in Mech.) † balance; Fr. balance; Prov. balans, balanza; Sp. balanza; Ital. bilancia; Lat. bilanz having two scales: bi (in compos. only) = two, and lanx = (1) a plate, platter, dish, and specially (2) the scale of a balance. Compare also Low Lat. bal lancia, valentia = price or value. (See Du cange.).] A. Ordinary Language: I. An instrument for weighing. 1. Lit. That which has two scales; viz., the instrument, described under B., I. 1, for weighing bodies. It is called "a balance," "a pair of balances," or, more rarely, "balances." "A just weight and balance are the Lord's: all the Weights of the bag are his work."- Prov . xvi. 11. "... had a pair of balances in his hand."- Rev. vi. 5. "Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a Just hin, shall ye have..."- Lev . xix. 36. 2. Figuratively : (a) What may be called mental scales; those powers or faculties which enable one to estimate the relative weight, advantage, or importance of two things, neither of which can be cast into material scales. "If a person suffer much from sea-sickne , let him weigh it heavily in in the balance ."- Darwin : "-Darwin: Voyage round the World , ch. xxi. (6) The emblem of justice, often figured as a bandaged person holding in equilibrio a pair of scales. To sway the balance: To administer justice. "Discernment, eloquence, and grace, Proclaim him born to sway The balance in the highest place, And bear the palm away. Cowper: Promotion of Thurlow. II. The state of being in equipoise. 1. Lit. The equipoise between an article and the weight in the opposite scale; or any similar equipoise without actual scales being used. "And hung a bottle on each side, To make his balance true." Cowper: John Gilpin. "I found it very difficult to keep my balance."Darwin: Voyage round the World , ch. xvii 2. Figuratively: (a) The act of mentally comparing two things which cannot be weighed in a material balance. "Upon a fair balance of the advantages on either side, it will appear that the rules of the gospel are more powerful means of conviction than such me age."-Atterbury. (b) Mental or moral equipoise or equilibrium; good sense, steadine , discretion. the English workmen completely lose their balance." J. S. Mill: Polit. Econ., vol 1, bk. i, ch. vii. (Note!. III. That which is needful to be added to one side or other to constitute an equilibrium; also the preponderance one way or other before such adjustment is made. 1. Lit. Used in connection with the weighing of articles or the making up of accounts. [B.] 2. Fig .: Used in the estimating of things immaterial which cannot be literally weighed or calculated. "... the balance of hardship turns the other way." J. S. Mill: Polit. Econ., vol. i, bk. ii., ch. ii, §2 B. Technically: I. Mechanics, .: 1. Common balance: An instrument for determining the relative weights or ma es of bodies. It consists of a beam with its fulcrum in the middle, and its arms precisely equal. From the extremities of the arms are suspended two scales, the one to receive the object to be weighed, and the other the counterpoise. The fulcrum consists of a steel prism, called the knife -edge, which pa es through the beam, and rests, with its sharp edge or axis of suspension, upon two supports of agate or polished steel. A needle or pointer is fixed to the beam, and oscillates with it in front of a graduated are. It points to zero when the balance is at rest. When A the beam is horizontal, the centre of gravity of the instrument should be in the same vertical line with the edge of the fulcrum, but a little beneath the latter. A good balance po e es both sensibility and stability. balance is said to be sensible which so easily revolves upon its fulcrum that, when in equipoise, the addition of the minutest particle of matter to one scale makes it sensibly move. It is stable when, owing to the low position of the centre of gravity, it does not long oscillate on being disturbed. This first type of balance may be modified in various ways. (a) A false balance of this type is one in which the arms are unequal in length, the longer one being on the side of the scale into which the article to be weighed is to be put. As the balance is really a lever [LEVER], it is evident that a smaller weight than that in the scale will put the beam into equilibrium. The fraud may at once be detected by putting the article to be weighed into the scale containing the weight, and vice vers a. (b) Hydrostatic balance : A balance designed for the weighing of bodies in water, with the view of ascertaining their specific gravity. 2. A "Roman" balance, the same as the steelyard. [STEELYARD.] Of this type the Chinese, the Danish or Swedish, and the bent lever balances are modifications. II. Mechanics and Natural Philosophy : Balance of Torsion : An instrument invented by Coulomb for comparing the intensities of very small forces. It consists of a metallic wire suspended vertically from a fixed point, to the lower end of which a horizontal needle is attached with a small weight designed to keep the wire stretched. The magnitude of a small force acting on the end of the needle is measured by the amount of "torsion," or twisting of the wire-in other words, by the arc which the needle pa es over measured from the point of repose. III. Mechanics and Horology: 1. Balance of a Watch : The circular hoop or ring which takes the place of the bob of a pendulum in a clock. The action of the hairspring causes it to vibrate. "It is but supposing that all watches, whilst the balance beats, think and it is sufficiently proved, that my watch thought all last night."-Locke. 2. Compensating Balance of a Chronometer: A balance or wheel furnished with a spiral spring, with metals of different expansibility so adjusted that, in alterations of temperature, they work against each other and render the movements of the chronometer uniform. IV. Astron.: A constellation, one of the signs of the zodiac, generally designated by its Latin name, Libra. (LIBRA.] V. Book & Account Keeping : The exce on the debtor or creditor side of an account, which requires to be met by an identical sum entered under some heading on the other side if an equilibrium is to be established between the two. VI. Comm. & Polit. Econ. Balance of Trade : Properly an equilibrium between the value of the exports from and the imports into any country, but more commonly the amount required on one side or other to constitute such an equilibrium. "Nothing, however, can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade. When two places trade with one another, this doctrine supposes that if the balance be even, neither of them either loses or gains; but if it leans in any degree to one side, that one of them loses and the other gains, in proportion to its declension from the exact equilibrium."-Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations , bk. iv., ch. iii., pt. ii. VIL. Politics. Balance of Power : Such a condition of things that the power of any one state, however great, is balanced by that of the rest. To maintain such an equilibrium all the nations jealously watch each other, and if any powerful and ambitious one seek to aggrandize itself at the expense of a weaker neighbor, all the other states, parties to the system, hold themselves bound to resist its aggre ions. The ancient Greek states thus combined first against A then i an and then against Spartan domination. Several of the modern European states did so yet more systematically, first against Spain, then against France, and more recently against Ru ia. Many of these wars have tended to the vindication of international law and the preservation and increase of human liberty; but others have been detrimental to humanity, and the "balance of power" does not now override every consideration to the extent that it did formerly. Those who advocate it have no other ambition than to maintain the "status quo," however arbitrary or obsolete. They are logically bound to condemn the resurrection of Italy, the unification of Germany, the destruction of the Pope's temporal power, and the curtailment of Turkey events which have reconstructed a great portion of Continental Europe on a basis more natural than that previously existing, and therefore more likely to maintain itself spontaneously, in place of requiring, at intervals, a great expenditure of blood and treasure to prevent it from being overturned.