The Field Guide · FN-0012

Notes on a Market Scale

Status
Observation, ongoing.
Place
Queens, New York
First observed
2026-05-14
Last revised
2026-06-02

A brass balance still in daily use, its pan replaced twice, its beam original. The vendor trusts it more than the digital scale beside it, and so do the regulars. I keep returning to the question of what makes an instrument credible: accuracy, or the visible mechanism of its accuracy.

Provenance and method

Research methods

  • Field observation

Sources

  1. 1Field observationRepeat observation, one stall, four visits.

Revision history and errata

1 recorded revision

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First published
2026-05-16
Last revised
2026-06-02
  1. Added the regulars' behaviour; the first version described only the vendor.

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