Plastic scale with special TALC spring (weighing to 17kg), hook, suspension cord, and one Child Health Chart, from the TALC Direct Recording Scale Kit, for weighing babies and young children, used to monitor child growth in the developing world (to indicate nutritional failures or the presence of disease), by TALC (Teaching Aids at Low Cost), St. Albans, England, 1992

Teaching Aids at Low Cost (TALC) is a charity. It made these simple plastic scales with hook and suspension cord. They weigh babies and young children up to 17kg and were for use in the developing world. They are deliberately ‘low tech’. The set includes a ‘Child Health Chart’. This allows the child’s weight to be plotted on the paper chart and compared against a normal growth rate. Monitoring a child’s growth rate is one way of diagnosing malnutrition and the presence of disease.

TALC was founded by Professor David Morley in 1965. It was a response to overseas students requesting teaching materials they could use back in their own countries.