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Hi All,
during the last year I several times heard a story about lead weights that looked like a duck. Because then, the weight will be half in the water, half out of the water, and so be a better tool to keep your perpendiculum of your groma for instance better straight.
Does anyone know more about these. Are they real found? And where? All info is welocme! Pics?
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Sorry, I didn´t understand the explanation.:?
Leads with shapes are conmon, I have seen lions, etc, but that use of "duck" ones it´s quite puzzling for me. If it´s a hollow metal one, capable of floating, won´t be good as groma or lead...the wind will move it easilly (I used it last summer, for making straight walls :roll: ).
-This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how
sheep´s bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.
![[Image: escudocopia.jpg]](http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc320/iagoba_f/escudocopia.jpg)
Iagoba Ferreira Benito, member of
Cohors Prima Gallica
and current Medieval Martial Arts teacher of
Comilitium Sacrae Ensis, fencing club.
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I've had much experience last year with the groma. And I know that the wind takes the perpendicula with them.
To make them less moving I would put the weights in a cup of oil, to improve the friction. But because the friction of the oil and the air are different that wouldn't be the best option, I was told. Better would be to use weigths that are half under the oil-level, half above. This would make the perpendicula more accurate, I was told. I think they don't mean hollow ones, but small solid schaped lead weights.
I'm sorry that I used to say water in me previous post, it should be oil.
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Salve Jurjen,
I think this is not exactly the thing you are looking for but at least this is the only thing coming near to that with ducks. It is a scale which both arms have the same length and the end of the arms are decorated with duck heads. They look a bit like hooks so you could hand the good to be weighted and a weight into them.
This was found at the vicus Schwarzenacker near Homburg/Saar in the Saarland, South-West Germany. The picture is taken from the book "Die Römerstadt in Homburg-Schwarzenacker" by Alfons Kolling.
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Here's a photo from the same book showing a duck head and a goose head to be found at the end of a scale.
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It sounds like this lead weight may well have belonged to Roman steelyard weight system. this is where they used differing sized weights at various points along the balance rod of the scale. It was some years now that my son in law found a one that looked like the head of a wrestler, however the top was bronze and the lead weight had fallen out of this one. It was a system used for measuring small quantities such as spices maybe.
Brian Stobbs
