The Weight of those Four Weights.
The man who dropped a 40-pound article and broke it into 4 scale-weights excited the Table's curiosity. It was a singular fall. The 4 pieces weighed 1, 3, 9, and 27 pounds respectively. To get 2 pounds he puts the 3-pound weight on one side, and the 1-pound one on the other, and has a 2-pound balance on the 3-pound side. If he has occasion to weigh 35 pounds he puts the 27-pound weight and the 9-pound weight on one side, and the 1-pound weight on the other. We have tested these and a few other weights. Our correspondent says any number of pounds from 1 to 40 can be weighed with these weights.