BALALAIKA

balalaika, a stringed instrument said to have retained its primitive form unchanged, very popular in russia among the peasants, more especially in ukraine. the instrument has a triangular soundboard to which is glued a vaulted back, forming a body having a triangular base, enabling it to stand upright. to the body is added a fretted neck strung with two, three or four strings, generally so tuned as to produce a minor chord when sounded together. the strings are generally plucked with the fingers, but the peasants obtain charming "glissando" effects by sweeping the strings lightly one after the other with the fingers or side of the hand. the balalaika is common to the slav races, who use it to accompany their folk-songs and dances. it is also to be seen in the hands of gipsies at rural festivities and fairs. balance (derived through the fr. from the late lat. _bilantia_, an apparatus for weighing, from _bi_, two, and _lanx_, a dish or scale), a term originally used for the ordinary beam balance or weighing machine with two scale pans, but extended to include (with or without adjectival qualification) other apparatus for measuring and comparing weights and forces. in addition to beam and spring balances (see weighing machines), apparatus termed "torsion balances," in which forces are measured or compared by their twisting moment on a wire, are used, especially in gravitational, electrostatic and magnetic experiments (see gravitation and electrometer). the term also connotes the idea of equality or equalization; _e.g._ in the following expressions: "balance," in bookkeeping, the amount which equalizes the debit and credit accounts; "balance wheel," [v.03 p.0235] in horology, a device for equalizing the relaxing of a watch or clock spring (see clock); the "balancing of engines," the art of minimizing the total vibrations of engines when running, and consisting generally in the introduction of masses which induce vibrations opposed to the vibrations of the essential parts of the engine.