steel·yard / ˈstēlˌyärd/ • n. an apparatus for weighing that has a short arm taking the item to be weighed and a long graduated arm along which a weight is moved until it balances.

steelyard

Steelyard. The Steelyard, on the site of Cannon Street station (London), was for more than three centuries the headquarters of the Hanseatic traders. They were charged with the repair and defence of Bishopsgate, but were deprived of their privileges by Elizabeth in 1598 in retaliation for restrictions placed upon English merchants in the Holy Roman empire.

J. A. Cannon