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probably made in Edinburgh

Scale
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This boxwood scale was made in 1881, probably by Bryson of Edinburgh. It appears to have been made for Charles Piazzi Smyth, and was probably one of a number distributed among friends and supporters in a controversy about the unit of construction of the Great Pyramid: others are known to survive.

The scale is is divided into five Great Pyramid Inches. It is stamped 'BRYSON EDINBURGH 1881' and inscribed on the reverse 'Dec 1882 from/my friend C. Piazzi Smyth, Esq, Edinburgh, Astronomer Royal Scotland'.

Each Great Pyramid inch is .001 of an inch longer than the British inch. Charles Piazzi Smyth noted that 25 Pyramid inches were one ten-millionth of the earth's semi-axis of rotation, and this, he claimed, made the Pyramid inch the most scientific unit ever proposed as a standard of length.

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