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1914 Article-E. & T. Fairbanks & Co., Builders of the Scale Industry |
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The Town of St. Johnsbury, VT, 1914, pg. 410 |
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1/7/2021 12:33:11 PM |
THE PLATFORM SCALE
“Jonathun ffayerbancke" of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, migrated to Massachusetts in 1633, and built in Dedham the now quaint and famous structure known as the Old Fairbanks House, of which his descendants in America are the present owners and custodians. In the sixth generation from Jonathan was Major Joseph Fairbanks of Brimfield, who came to St. Johnsbury in the spring of 1815, and set up a grist and saw mill on Sleepers River. His sons having a practical and mechanical turn of mind, employed themselves in a small wheelwright and foundry business, which in time developed into a manufactory of hoes, pitchforks, cast-iron plows and stoves.
In 1830, having gained a reputation for skill and reliability, they were awarded a contract for making hemp-dressing machines, required by a new industry then springing up. This presently necessitated some means of weighing rough hemp by wagon loads. A rude apparatus was therefore contrived by Thaddeus Fairbanks, second son of Joseph, by which chains dropping from a steelyard beam suspended on a high frame could grapple the wheel axles, lift the load and get its weight approximately. This arrangement answered the purpose fairly well, but it was too awkward and inefficient to suit the mind of the man; he thought something better might be devised, and while exercising his ingenuity upon it, he caught the idea, wholly novel to him, of a platform resting on levers, which embodied the principle of what is now known as the platform scale. Indeed, though not suspected, a new age had dawned. The ancient reign of Astræa was disturbed, the steelyard of old Rome was taking its departure. The new scale was at hand, getting ready to lift the loaded train from the track as a very little thing; to bear on its platform the light or ponderous traffic of the world.
In making the first scale a pit was dug in which was placed a triangular lever, suspended at its point from a steelyard beam; on this was balanced a platform level with the ground, held in position by chains attached to posts. A team could then be driven on and the weight determined. This was a clumsy affair, but for practical use it was so much better than anything then existing, that a patent was applied for. Some machines were made and an agent was engaged to try and sell them. “He was to take the stage at three o'clock in the morning, and Mr. Fairbanks sat up to call him and to start a fire for breakfast. He was thinking how to build and improve his scales, when it occurred to him that with two A-shaped levers, or four straight levers meeting at the steelyard rod, or hanging from one that hung upon the steelyard rod, he could secure four knife-edge supports for his platform, from all of which the leverage as related to the steelyard beam might be the same. As a practical weighing machine that was the birth of the modern scale."
“Mr. Fairbanks quietly woke the agent, saying that he need not go for a few days, told his wife there would be no early breakfast to get, as he had a plan that he thought was very valuable, and rested-from that hour the leading scale-maker of the world.” It is worthy of remark, that as early as 1826 Thaddeus Fairbanks had patented the cast-iron plow, regarded at that time with suspicion by farmers; also, the Fairbanks cook stove. He was also the original inventor of the method now universally adopted in construction of refrigerators, but having neither time nor capital to give to this, he relinquished his rights in it, which subsequently were valued at a million dollars. From some notes made by him half a century after the first scales were made the following reminiscence is taken :
"My plans were all made in the night, frequently working nearly all night. For lack of tools the scale work all had to be finished by hand, and this with work on patterns, etc., required all my time during the day in the shops. Faulty work was sure to be sent out unless I was watching all the time; men had to be educated to do the simplest things; there was no uniform machine-work as now; it was 15 years before we had a planer in the shop. In the south end of the old red shop Mr. Levi Fuller and I made the platform scale patterns from number 1 to 10, also in the west end of the grist mill chamber the number one and two iron lever hay scales. Our casting was done in a shed annexed to the old forge; we were still in want of funds, but a larger building was finally put up; it devolved on me to put in the cupola and fixtures, blast, etc., and start operations. I moulded and took the melting often; there was no other way to learn what made the unsound stogy places and air blisters; in order to teach the men how to make sound castings I had to work several months mixing metals and testing their composition.
“In making plans for scales I found three things to be considered the strength of material, the best shape to secure greatest strength with least material, and the beauty and symmetry of outside appearance. To imagine what the tastes and notions of men in reference to the right proportioning and beauty of this then new article would be, was difficult; but now after the lapse of fifty years our platform scales are made precisely after the original design, and all other makers follow the same."
. The original platform scales of 1830 were built of wood and were soon introduced as town hay scales among the villages of Vermont. Nothing further than this was at the time contemplated. But it appeared that the principle was capable of much wider application. New styles and sorts were gradually invented, including at first portable platform, warehouse and counter scales, and later, railroad-track, canal, elevator and live-stock scales; also postal and druggist balances; comprising many hundred varieties, and ranging from one-tenth of a grain to five hundred tons. One result of the introduction of these weighing machines was an entire change in methods of trade transactions, the old fashion of measure and count giving way to that of weight, whether of hay, coal, grain, or livestock. It is on record at the United States Patent Office that the track scale has effected a complete revolution in railway transportation.
A serious difficulty in the early days of scale-making was that of construction. Plans, machinery and scales had to be made by the inventor, till men could be trained to the work. This was done in two or three inadequate shops or sheds. “There were no tools except for half a dozen blacksmiths, and one old wooden bed lathe, and later, a few vises and anvils found in a Boston junk shop.” Neither was there any capital to speak of. As Mr. Fairbanks once remarked, to make everything out of nothing was a difficult task; a task withal that might never have been achieved had not his ingenuity, tenacity and mechanical skill been supplemented by the remarkable business and executive abilities of his brothers.
In 1834, the three brothers, Erastus, Thaddeus and Joseph P., founded the firm of E. and T. Fairbanks and Co. They were men of strong individuality, serious-minded, plain in habit, profoundly conscientious, most happily adapted to each other in the partnership.
Joseph, fifteen years younger than Erastus, had a quick, strong, capacious mind, remarkably well balanced, and made brilliant attainments in law, business, science, history, literature and practical life in all its phases. In finance, in details of the counting-room, in all delicate dealings with men and corporations, his sagacity, alertness of thought and sound judgment won the public confidence and gave steadiness and solid quality to the business. But his intensity of application proved fatal; he died in 1855 at the age of forty-eight, universally beloved for the worth and beauty of his character.
Erastus, the elder brother, was for thirty years, i. e., till his death, the head of the firm. He was a born leader, well trained in the early school of adversity, a man of indomitable purpose, large views, solidity of personal character and fine presence. He became prominent in public life and a trusted leader in civil affairs; he secured the construction of the Passumpsic River Railroad of which he was first president; was made governor of Vermont in 1852; again in 1860, when on the breaking out of the civil war the state placed a million of dollars at his disposal, relying entirely on his judgment as to its use-a mark of confidence amply justified, for his administration of state was, like that of his private business, energetic, true, firm, successful. He died in 1864, aged seventy-two years.
Thaddeus, entirely averse to public life, gave his undivided work of brains and hand for fifty-five years to the mechanical department of the business, continuously advancing on his original invention, constructing special machinery, devising new applications for which he secured a series of patents, thirty-two in number. He died at the age of ninety in 1886.
With three such men, of different gifts, yet of one mind; of strong character, of tenacious purposes and generous ideals, it is not difficult to account for the fine issue of their joint enterprise. The public soon learned that whatever bore the name of Fairbanks had on it the stamp of reliability. Sternest integrity presided over the business, truth guided its affairs, honor entered into every detail of construction-as befitted an industry that was furnishing the world with standards of weight for business accuracy. From the first, every instrument constructed in these works embodied an ideal; it was more than a handy contrivance, it was a symbol of equity in trade; on its delicate pivots were revealed the eternal principles of right, precision, equipoise; qualities for character as well as necessities in traffic. The final touch upon each machine has always been given by the sealer, who, by affixing to it his name and the number, is made responsible for that scale. Rarely has such a thing been known as the return of a scale; the durability as well as accuracy of material and work appears in the continuous use of the scales made in the earlier years. Scale number thirty, for example, portable platform, made about 1833 and subjected to almost daily use ever since, is still in every day service in the store to which it was originally shipped; this is mentioned as an illustrative case, which recently fell under the eye of the writer.
The matter of accuracy was of course a supreme consideration, and from the first has received most scrutinizing attention. Not only must the trip scale for weighing silk be sensitive to the one-hundredth part of an ounce, but the canal scale of hundreds of tons must respond to the fraction of a pound. After the registering of the weight of a boat on the weighlock scale at Albany, 1856, the captain stepped on board, at which the beam indicated an addition of one hundred and seventy-five pounds. Being a portly man, the captain claimed more than this for himself, and immediately went to a smaller platform scale known for its accuracy. To his surprise the beam tipped to a fraction on the figures indicated by the 840,000-pound scale. Of this Albany scale, then the largest in the world, one of the New York dailies remarked: “It is a structure of consummate skill, ingenuity and mechanical truth; continually in use, subjected to most severe tests, doing its work quickly and with scrupulous nicety, settling by its unerring register on the beam all conflicting questions of weight and toll.”
At the time the scale industry was started St. Johnsbury was a small town inconveniently situated for traffic of any sort. All supplies as well as finished products had to be hauled on horse teams to and from Portland or Boston. As the business increased the town began to feel the pulse of new life. Property values advanced, skilled workmen came in; none but sound, intelligent, moral, temperate men were employed; but these were paid generously, and personal interest was taken in them and in their families. A reading-room and library was provided for them, and evening lectures were given, sometimes in the new shops. An academy was built and supported entirely by the firm. Education, good order, religion were cherished in every way. Liberal benefactions began to go out in all directions, and the representatives of benevolent societies soon found the way to this little village up in Vermont. St. Johnsbury finally became the shire town of Caledonia county, railway junction and business and educational centre of Northern Vermont.
From 1842 to 1857 the business doubled in volume every three years. It shared with other industries the financial stress of the latter date; grew with great rapidity during and after the civil war, and with steady advance till 1893. Meantime the original firm was enlarged; in 1843 Horace and in 1856 Franklin, both sons of Erastus, became partners. Horace, from the date of the incorporation in 1874 till his death in 1888 was president, and in
all forty-five years an officer in the business. He was also president of the First National Bank, director in the Tamarack Mining Company, and chief promotor and president of the railroad to Lake Champlain. He was elected Governor of Vermont by a decisive vote for the two years, 1876-7.
The younger brother, Franklin, was fifty years actively in the business, at first chiefly in the mechanical departments, to which he contributed some important patents; later with larger responsibilities as superintendent and president of the corporation. He also filled important positions of trust and honor elsewhere, both in business, political and religious bodies, till his death, in 1895, at the age of sixty-eight years. Another brother, Charles, was partner in the New York house for several years, but after 1858 he resided abroad. William P. Fairbanks, son of Joseph P., was partner for some twenty-five years; a man of superior business capacity; he represented this town in the Legislature of 188486; was first secretary and treasurer of the corporation at St. Johnsbury, and later of the branch house at New York, where he died in 1895. Henry Fairbanks, only son of Thaddeus, is vice president.
The founders and managers of the scale business built dignified and beautiful homes on happily selected sites, adorned with ample landscape gardening, fine architecture and artistic interiors. But this is not all that they built in the town of their love. Nearly all the churches shared largely in their beneficence; one of them, the finest architecturally, in northern New England. The Academy which they had founded and sustained for thirty years came to need larger and superior equipment. Accordingly, in 1872, Thaddeus Fairbanks, whose personal gifts to the institution aggregated some $200,000, erected new and commodious structures of brick, with appointments and curriculum corresponding. St. Johnsbury Academy quickly took rank as the first in the state, and among the best in New England, having thirteen instructors, three hundred pupils, and an endowment from E. & T. Fairbanks & Co., of $100,000. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, the first free public library with endowment in Vermont, was built, equipped and presented to the town in 1871, by Horace Fairbanks; the Museum of Natural Science with its collections was established and endowed by Franklin Fairbanks ; and Music Hall, mainly the gift of these two brothers was conveyed to the Young Men's Christian Association for the public benefit; to which was added the Association rooms section in the Y. M. C. A. block erected by Henry Fairbanks in 1885.
Although the original and all other earlier patents have long since expired, the St. Johnsbury Scale Works still remain the largest and most important in the world. The experience of eighty-two years has not only established the correctness of the principle of multiplied levers here first applied, but has enabled the manufacturers, by new patents devised for hundreds of varieties of scales, to lead all competitors (400 plus) in the magnitude of the annual output, and in the accuracy, durability and fine finish of weighing machines sent out from this town; on which “one may today with absolute accuracy weigh a ship with its cargo, or the lead which wears from the pencil in writing one's name.”
The Fairbanks scales keeping abreast of all industrial progress, are now constructed for every department of trade, manufacture, agriculture, science, transportation, postal and government service; and they have for many years been the standard both in this country and abroad. They are used on nearly all the railroads, adopted in all government departments and public works and in the leading mercantile and manufacturing establishments of the United States. The Postal Service requires a very large number; a single order at one time was filled on short notice for three thousand scales of range from ounces to tons. Travelers find the St. Johnsbury, Vt., weighing machines used in West Indies, South America, Mexico, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Turkey, India, Siam, Australia, Japan, China. They are announced as standard in the Japanese Postal Service, and in the Chinese Imperial Customs. “Till the arrival of the Fairbanks scales,” says a resident in North China, “fifteen per cent of my salary was absorbed in coal; we are now satisfied with the weight."
Fine exhibits have been made of these machines, and highest awards rendered at ten international expositions, including
those of London, Paris, Vienna, Philadelphia, Chicago, Buffalo, and St. Louis. At the Centennial, in 1876, there were one hundred and ninety-four complete scales, with as many more supplementary articles; at the Columbian, in 1893, the exhibit required three thousand square feet on the floor of the Liberal Arts Building. In this collection was seen scale No. 421, made and sold in 1843, owned and used by five successive parties, survivor of a fire in 1849, repurchased by the manufacturers in 1893, and in its then weather-beaten estate able to lift its beam and magnify its office among stylish competitors of latest finish, as finely as fifty years before in the Polk and Clay campaign.
Besides furnishing scales for official use at the Chicago Exposition, the Fairbanks Company displayed sixty-three medals of award, of which eight were gold, thirty-two silver; among them nineteen from foreign countries.
It should be added that after the Vienna Exposition Mr. Thaddeus Fairbanks, as inventor of the scale, was knighted by the Austrian Emperor, who, through Baron von Lichtenfels, forwarded to him the decoration of the Imperial Order of Francis Joseph. He also received from the King of Siam the golden medal and decoration of Puspamala, and from the Bey of Tunis the diploma and decoration of Nishan el Iftikar, Commander. Being an excessively modest man, not fond of titles or display, he had no use for things of this sort; but his men and towns folk would not let him elude the stroke of honor; to the day of his death he was known and affectionately venerated as Sir Thaddeus.
Until recent years the largest weighing machine in the world was the five-hundred-ton Fairbanks weighlock, erected at Albany, N. Y., about 1854. In 1894, the Watervliet Arsenal scale was built at Troy, for weighing guns in the process of manufacture. This had the greatest capacity for the size of its platform of any scale ever made, viz., six hundred thousand pounds on a twelve by fifteen feet platform, i. e., one thousand six hundred and sixty six pounds to the square foot. It was remarked that a paper dollar bill on the end of the scale beam when adjusted, disturbed the equilibrium.
The introduction of steel cars of great capacity and weight, and the requirements of the huge grain elevators, has created a demand for new scales that shall not only be equal to handling the enormous tonnage, but also to do their work with rapidity and exactness. This is greatly facilitated by the Fairbanks type-registering beam now in universal use, which records promptly and with precision the exact weight of whatever is passing over the platform.
In 1912 fourteen automatic grain scales were installed in the elevators of the Montreal Harbor Commissioners. These have a capacity of five to six thousand pounds per dump twice a minute and will readily weigh from eight to ten thousand bushels of grain an hour. The hoppers take five thousand pounds of thirty-pound per-bushel grain, and the construction is such that it is not necessary to change the weights whether operating with light oats or heavy wheat; a new achievement in automatic weighing.
Six railroad track scales have recently been built to meet the requirements of heavy traffic in coal on the Virginia and Pennsylvania railroads. These machines are 68 feet in length and are capable of sustaining 400 tons on a four-section platform 57 feet long. They take the weight while the train moves across the platform, each car carrying fifty tons of coal. These are the largest track scales in the world; they are capable of handling a thousand tons of coal an hour.
These and similar scales manufactured at the St. Johnsbury works, will represent maximum capacities. The minimum is seen in the assayer's scale graduated to one-tenth of a grain. Between these extremes the code numbers cover two thousand varieties, but these in actual manufacture have been further modified to include, under different standards and special orders, not less than ten thousand varieties. Many of these are for foreign markets, graduated variously to kilograms, libras, poods, pfunds, skalpunds, okas, catties, etc., according to the country they are to go to. Patterns aggregating many thousands are stored in the fire-proof warehouse, also photographs, prints, diagrams of all that goes out from the factory.
The original firm which began and had continued for half a century in one family, was in 1874 reorganized into a stock corporation, with a capital of two and a half million dollars in shares of $500 each. The works at St. Johnsbury were during succeeding years enlarged and re-equipped; later auxiliary factories were established at Sherbrooke, P. Q., and Moline, Ill. Between labor and capital at St. Johnsbury 84 years has brought no ripple of disturbance; mutual good will and friendly union have prevailed. The corporation has a record of ownership of 223 patents and trademarks; of these 159 have been mechanical and design inventions by the employees. Valuable prizes have been distributed to the workmen for practical ideas in scale construction. In 1907, this industry held "the United States record for long service men” a good many having been 30 and 40 years in the works, some 50 and 60 years ; Col. Frank Walker was for 64 years in the foundry; a large number own valuable homes in the village.
There are at this writing 1400 men on the pay roll, which distributes about a million dollars annually to citizens of St. Johnsbury. The factory has 40 buildings, with 20 acres floor space; 5 tons of copper and 50 tons of iron are melted daily ; 4,000,000 feet lumber are consumed a year. The annual output of scales is $6,000,000 list.
SUPPLEMENTARY
1843. History of Scale No. 421. This was a platform scale of the sort used in all the country stores for general merchandise. It was bought by Brackett and Bacon, merchants, in Passumpsic village, Feb. 17, 1834. Five years later the scale was sold with the store to The Farmer's Association, Nath'l Bishop, Clerk. In 1849, the establishment, owned at that time by William Lawrence, was burned out, but the scale was saved. It was owned by William Russell of this town in 1862, and in 1893 was purchased by the Fairbanks Corporation and sent to do duty as a patriarch in the scales exhibit of the Columbian Exposition.
1858 During the financial stringency of this year, the men in the scale works presented a paper at the counting room one day in October, expressing gratitude for favors received and proposing a suspension of the monthly payment of wages till such time as would suit the Company's convenience. The proposition, wholly voluntary on the part of the men, and signed by nearly everyone, was accepted with warm appreciation. Early in February following all balances due were paid, and monthly payments resumed. Weekly payments were adopted in 1901.
1865 The unearthly drone that issues from Fairbanks Village, morning, noon and night since July, is the steam gong; it is tremendous. This gong takes the place of the old factory bell.
1871 The new gong at the Scale Works makes a more unearthly noise than the old one did, if that is possible.
1869 At the time of the great flood, 800 scales a week were being shipped, and unfilled orders accumulating. A sixty-foot track scale for the Kansas Pacific Railroad was carried off by the waters, resulting in total loss. A new one was built and shipped within ten days. In 1875, there were manufactured in one week 175 hay scales, an average of one each twenty minutes of working hours; that week 13 carloads of scales were shipped, aggregating 143 tons weight of scales. This was in October.
1874 Revival of business. Some men took a terrier into the old grist mill building at the Fairbanks works the other day. They came out with 110 rats. The scale registered thirty-four pounds of rat. This disproves the recent assertion of the Springfield Republican that business is dull at the St. Johnsbury Scale Factory.
1874 Congress, in December, made a special appropriation for 3000 new style Post Office Scales, ranging from four pounds to a ton capacity, to be delivered within two weeks. This was a difficult proposition; seven parties bid for the contract. It was awarded to the Fairbanks Company, and the bulk of the order was shipped from St. Johnsbury by mail, in time to reach the Post Offices of the country before the first of January, 1875.
1879 On March 26th a number twelve platform scale built for the Marquis of Lorne, Governor General of Canada, was dispatched to Ottawa. This scale has a nickel plate beam and is decorated with the Coat of Arms of both Canada and United States.
1882 There were 55,000 scales manufactured in 1880, and 58,000 in 1881. In the year 1882 the number rose to 80,000, at a valuation of $3,000,000. Of these, 9450 were large track scales, and 1000 were hay scales. Twenty car loads a week were sent out during the month of December.
1886 At the Industrial Exposition of Austria-Hungary held in Czernowitz, the State Prize was awarded to the Fairbanks Scales against four competitors. On them were weighed H. R. H. the Archduke Karl Ludwig, Archduke Rainer, the Duke of Wartenberg and others. Considerable toll came in from these notables, which was delivered in a sealed box to M. Block for the Red Cross Society.
1888 About 130 men drive daily to the scale works from three to eight miles, and from five different towns. Fifteen come from the Center, six from Danville; one has driven from the East Village for twenty years, one from the Center twenty-two years, one from Four Corners nineteen years. Most of these men rise at half past four in the morning, and drive 2000 miles a year in all weathers.
1893 On the ninth day of February a young man was seen taking his weight on a Fairbanks Scale in Vacaville, California. Someone heard him say that he was brought up within four miles of the factory where that scale was made. The next day he died. In appearance he was quiet and pleasing, but nothing was found to indicate his name or address. His remark about the scale factory was the only clue. A dispatch was sent to the Fairbanks office, and after some days he was identified as Robert E. Slater. Meantime—“by strangers honored and by strangers mourned''-the burial service had been rendered him by a man who was brought up within one mile of the same scale factory-Rev. Henry Erastus Jewett, grandson of Gov. Erastus Fairbanks and of Dr. Luther Jewett.
1901 At West Superior, Wisconsin, the Great Northern Railway Company erected the largest elevator in the world, entirely of steel, with capacity of three million bushels of grain. A Pennsylvania Company, underbidding all others, was given the contract for eighteen hopper scales, which were installed early in 1901. On being tested by the state inspector they were condemned and ordered out. The Mechanical Superintendent of the road came promptly to St. Johnsbury and placed an order for eighteen Fairbanks hopper scales at the price of the original bid. Plans were drafted, patterns made, foundry and machine work pushed, and within a week the first scale was ready to be shipped by express. The earliest train out was the air-line north which carries no express beyond Newport. By telephoning the Canadian Pacific office in Montreal, permission was obtained to forward the scale thro by express and to hold the train at St. Johnsbury ten minutes for the purpose of loading it. The scale, which weighed 4331 pounds, was handled by fourteen men who in three minutes time had it on the express car. The expressage on this scale was $600. The other seventeen followed in due time. After installation, the inspector subjected them under standard test weights to the severest tests ever given, to which they responded with entire ease and accuracy up to their full capacity of 120,000 pounds each.
During the month of July following, a Fairbanks track scale at Duluth, in the thirteenth year of constant use, weighed accurately a million tons of ore; a performance probably never before equaled.
At Great Falls, Minn., a forty foot track scale of 100 tons capacity, in constant use eight years without repairs or refittings, recorded 5,467,664,999 lbs. as the aggregate of its operations.
1902 Grocer scale number 536, bought by a merchant in Rushville, Ill., has stood for fifty years on the same spot upon the nail counter, where hundreds of thousands of nails have been thrown upon it. No repairs have been needed, neither file nor oil have been applied to it; a shingle nail or even a bit of paper lifts the beam as promptly as it did half a century ago.
1903 The weekly payment system which went into effect in October was a very agreeable surprise to the men at the scale works; the more so inasmuch as it came unexpectedly only six months after the shortening of the working-day last April.
1904 At the St. Louis Exposition was an ornate scale of polished oak, onyx platform, and registering device that stamped the weights at the rate of 3000 per day. Printed tickets of weight were issued to about 225,000 persons who stood upon it ; the heaviest man was 390 pounds, the lightest was nine pounds. Some 15,000 people chose to test their weight on the seventy year old scale, less ornamental but equally accurate; with this was displayed the original application for a patent, written by Thaddeus Fairbanks in 1831.
1906 Russian cannon converted into scales. Since the war in the east, C. H. Horton has purchased two car loads of gun metal, rapid firing guns, cannon and gun furnishings, recovered from Russian battleships sunk in Port Arthur harbor and the Corean Straits. Russia is the largest foreign purchaser of the Fairbanks scales; at one time before this war 400 cases of scales were shipped to Moscow and 50 cases to St. Petersburg. It is fair to assume that some of this gun metal will find its way back into the Kingdom of the Czar in the more peaceful product of the St. Johnsbury manufactory.
NEW EQUIPMENT The demand for weighing machines of great capacity and accuracy caused by the increasing tonnage of the railroads and by the requirements of the Interstate Commerce Commission have necessitated within recent years important changes in the manufacturing plant.
The old shops have been almost entirely reconstructed, new and larger buildings erected, heavier machinery installed, the entire equipment modernized and perfected. Iron loop work that formerly required a day's work of two men is now done by a machine in sixty minutes; boxes are neatly nailed by a single drop of an iron lever. Automatic hopper scales are set up and operated as in the great elevators; an erecting plant served by an overhead electric crane is used for the assembling and erection of the heavier scales. Among the new types of machines now being constructed are the dial scales which are designed for weighing baggage and freight on the railroads.
Two cities, yea seven, claimed the name of Homer as a son born in their midst. Two languages might claim the word SCALE as born in their vocabulary.
The even balance in which Abraham weighed his silver in the trade with Ephron the Hittite was still in use in its primitive form among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, called by them the balances or scales-"every one hath his scholes with him to market to weigh his silver withal.” The shallow pans suspended at either arm of the balance, from their resemblance to a clam shell, scyll, scele, came to be called sceale, hence in Early English-scales, or a pair of scales. This is the clam-shell origin of the word SCALE or “a pair of scales," as sometimes called for even now at the Fairbanks works.
The Romans modified the old balance of equal arms having its fulcrum in the center, by lengthening one arm and fitting to it a sliding poise. This constituted the steelyard type. The long beam was graduated by means of notches to indicate the number of ounces. These notches, scalae, gave to this instrument the identical name scale derived in England from the Anglo Saxon clamshells.
The SCALE of today is thus doubly certified as of historic origin and name, as well as of a two-fold type of construction multiplied now into thousands of varieties in the leading scale manufactory of the world at St. Johnsbury. |
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1914 E. & T. Fairbanks & Co., Builders of the Scale Industry
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