Vintage Mercantile Howe Platform Scale

Type

Large Grain Scale

This scale came from my grandparents. I used play on it weighing myself and anything else I lift onto it. It's antique cast iron and wood Howe industrial feed/grain scale. Howe scales were manufactured for one hundred five years and were invented and perfected by Frank M. Strong of Vermont. In 1856, Strong added ball bearings to Howe scales and this ingenious invention won him all of the prizes for scale technology in industrial arts at the Paris Exhibition. The company ceased operation in 1982. This feed or grain scale has a single brass arm under which are mounted a weigh beam with an iron weight attached which can be moved for calibration. At the end of the beam is a hook on which hangs a weight holder. The post that holds the beam holds the spring which carries the weigh beam. The platform is cast iron but the weighing platform is wood, suspended on the cast iron. Patented in 1867 & 1870. Great prop in the kitchen or entryway. Wheels work well.