What scruples

Had a seriously left of field thought in my brainium as I woke.  Probably something to do with my leisure reading,,,

What are ‘scruples’?   Well, semantically, the term comes from sellers in the dark ages of medieval Europe.  The scruple was the smallest weight to determine proper scaling for sales and  transactions.    A seller with no scruples was considered disreputable.   The term evolved from there to modern life as someone with a solid reputation or a bad one. “That woman has no scruples!” for example. 

That got me to thinking about our modern world: when was the last time you  saw a mechanical scale in use?.  Not talking the postal scale at the post office either, which more than likely isn’t mechanical anymore  anyways.   (they are purely electronic and attached to small computers attached to the net that determines postal  charges and even prints the label for such.   Not part of this discussion.)

Were the world to take a sharp turn downward in technology, there would be a lapse in how business is done.  We have “Units and Measures” for a reason.   And yes, those measures change with time.  Such as the “cubit” of biblical lore.   The cubit was anthropomorphic (like the ‘foot’ was at one time) and  was the measure  from the elbow to the extended finger tips.   Generally speaking, roughly 20″ in modern terms.   I stress the roughly there.  (apologies, I learned a lot about anthropomorphic measures building my skin of frame kayaks.  It still fascinates me how many of them  carried forward.)  The problem  with anthropomorphic measures was lack of uniformity.   My ‘foot’ is not going to be the ‘foot’ of the king, which was the basis of measurement, and highly inpractical for reference.   And why we started making things uniform.   If Noah were to have farmed out building the Ark, he wouldn’t have gotten three builders to make anything that would work.   His cubit was not that guys cubit and this guys cubit was a fingerwidth longer than both.   Nothing would have fit together.

The industrial revolution really brought this home.  The history of making screws shows how people worked together to come up with a system to make parts interchangable, where before, they were literal custom fit, each and every one.  this screw couldn’t change with that screw, on the same peice of equipment.

And that brings me back to the weights and measures and scruples thing.  We lost so much of that ability, and granted our scales are much more uniform and adjustable  (my pocket scale for archery, for example: I can change from ounces, troy ounces, grams, and even GRAINS for  measuring powder.  But its  purely electronic in action, and when the battery starts to die, my measurements can be off by magnitudes.)  

Even now there are discrepencies.   I have three DVOM’s,,, all are within a 1000ths of a volt.  But my two meters on my battery bank system can’t agree within 2 volts.  Same bank, two meters, two readings.  (and I have not found a calibration mode in either.)  granted they are close enough for what I need, but that could be an issue in a system using two charge controllers that can’t agree.   Especially in lithium banks which are more prone to charge failure if overcharged by a mere volt.  (the charge controller reading is ‘close enough’, the meter on the wall is under, but has no control over things, it just ‘looks’.)

We have no scruples anymore.   Our trust is complete in a system that could fail us tomorrow.  (seriously, when was the last time you looked at a wieght scale and questioned its validity?  Not talking the bathroom scale, but actual commerce scales, like at the grocery store.   )  

This is the one area where I see “government” as a useful tool: establishing the commons that we can all agree with and use, to carry out our daily lives without need of questioning a persons integrity on every detail.  Sure, someone could put a thumb  on the scale and skew the measurement,  but I am certain said someone would get caught out quick

Ok,  enough of my wild ass brain wanders,,, its time to get back to wrenches and greasy bits.   Wanna pull a block out today.  Ordered some of the parts earlier.  More to go yet, but gotta spread that burden  out over a few pay periods.  (‘essentials’ to ‘could use to refresh’ order of priority)

Y’all take care today, do something fun.  (believe it or not, I do find this stuff fun, when I’m not trying to make a living with it.)

Love y’all

LLLLL!!!

(, ‘)