No, I'm not trying to get out of weighing myself!

[major_clanger]

I have quite a nice set of bathroom scales. Sorry, I had quite a nice set of bathroom scales. One of those which comprised a sheet of tempered glass on four metal feet with strain gauges attached and a digital readout. No moving parts, looked nice and vaguely geeky, and did the job.

Yesterday, when I weighed myself, I didn't push them quite back as far into the corner of my rather small bathroom as I usually do.

Last night, bumbling around in a sleepy manner, I stubbed my toe on the side of the scales and kicked them a few inches across the floor, so that the corner hit the plinth of my handbasin.

There was a sort of muffled bang, and I found myself looking at a skeletal structure of strain gauges, metal feet and LCD display amidst a shower of tiny little glass beads. Even the bits of glass remaining had converted into miniature crazy paving that was visibly (and audibly!) popping apart.

Ah yes, tempered glass. Well, it did as designed in the event of breakage - no sharp fragments and very easy to clean up. But I'm sure my mum's old spring-pointer version didn't have such a spectacular failure mode.

Comments

[ben-jeapes.livejournal.com]

My grandparents had an authentic Bergholt Stuttley Johnson weighing machine in the bathroom. It was a metal pedestal about six inches high and not quite wide enough for two adult feet to stand on comfortably. The dial was set into one of the vertical sides, in reverse writing, behind a flap that was hinged at the bottom and mirrored inside. To weigh yourself you had to perch on top, then squint through your toes at the reflected image of the dial. Then you jumped off quickly before gravity took over and you fell and snapped an ankle.

Your mum's spring-pointer still wins.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I've got one of those. Thanks, something else to worry about...

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I've seen demonstrations of double-glazed windows where they have hit the middle of one with a sledge hammer and it bounced, but then they used a much smaller punch on a corner and the whole window shatters.

As you know, as a science person, it's the "load over the area", so big feet on a wide piece of glass is going to have a much lower pressure than a sharp hard knock on a corner.

So you shouldn't need to worry ... much :-)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Trust me, it's pretty low on my list of worrying priorities.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, and ROFL.

I guess it was designed to take strain vertically rather than edge on (very sensible really) and yes, to fail in a safe way.

I've got a plastic one (with digital readout and fat percentage) as does <lj user="ms_cataclysm") ... not as trendy or pretty, but they work just as well and don't shatter :-) I hope the new scales will register the same weight so your graph is continuous!

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Could have been worse: you'd've been really embarrassed had it exploded when you stood on it.