"Here, sir! Please take this bird around to Albro's, and see how much
it weighs."
The idea! What would the folks over the way say, to see the
"professor" walking out with a big turkey under his arm? That was the
way the thing presented itself to the good-natured college-student
acting as private tutor in the family. But Mrs. Simpson, the portly
and practical housewife, had no such idea of the fitness of things.
It was the day before Thanksgiving, and the farmer who had agreed to
supply her with a turkey had brought it, but had not weighed it, and,
of course, they could not agree on its weight, all of which ended in
the startling proposition with which we began.
"Well, if you aint the laziest man--! Just as though it was going to
hurt you any to take this bird to the corner and back!" she went on,
as she saw me looking, apparently, for a hole to crawl into, but, in
reality, for the broom, which, when I found, I made use of in putting
into execution a plan I had formed for weighing the turkey at home.
I hung the broom-handle to the gas-jet by a wire loop, and slid it
along in the loop until it balanced. By this time all were curious to
see what I was about.
I then fixed a wire to the turkey's feet and hooked it so that it
would slide on the broom-handle. Next I got a flat-iron and fixed it
in the same way. When the broom was nicely balanced, I hung the turkey
on the broom end of the stick, two inches from the balancing loop.
Then I hung the flat-iron on the other side, and shoved it along until
it balanced the turkey. Next I measured the distances of the turkey
and flat-iron from the balancing loop, and found that the turkey hung
two inches and the flat-iron eight inches from the balancing loop.
That was all. I had found the weight of the turkey, and told them:
Twenty-four pounds.
"Do you s'pose I'm going to believe all that tomfoolery? It doesn't
weigh more'n twenty, I know. Here, Maggie! Take this out and ask Albro
to weigh it for you."
"I'm blamed if he hasn't hit it about right," said the farmer who had
brought the turkey. "How did you find out?"
"Well, you see," said I, "the flat-iron has a figure 6 on it; that
shows that it weighs six pounds. Now, if the turkey had not weighed
more than the flat-iron they would have balanced each other at the
same distance from the balancing loop; but the turkey was the heavier,
so I had to move the flat-iron out further. At the same distance from
the loop as the turkey (two inches), the flat-iron pulled six pounds'
weight, and at every addition of that distance it would pull six
pounds more. Thus: at four inches it pulled twelve pounds; at six
inches, eighteen pounds; and at eight inches, twenty-four pounds.
At that distance it just balanced the turkey, thus proving that it
weighed----"
"Well, Maggie, what does Albro say?"
"Twenty-four poun', mum," replied Maggie, coming in.
"Well, I give up," said Mrs. Simpson; and she did, and so do I--till
next time.