Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-02-05
THE STUMBLING BRASS KETTLE.

1t Won't Bear tho Test and Must Give Way
to the Half Bushel.
The joint legislative COMMITTEES on the
''swindling brass KETTLE" held an interesting
meeting in one of the committee rooms at the
capitol, last evening, at which Senator Rahilly
presided, and Representative Powers acted as
secretary. The committee room was filed to
repletion with members Of the legislature, mil
lers, railroad officials, dealers in wheat, and
others. An invitation was extended to men,
beers of the Millers' association, and all others
possessed Of information upon the subject, to
give the committee tho benefit Of their expert
ence. The invitation was accepted by Senators
Williams, Pillsbury. Mealey, Rahilly, Thacher
and McCrea, Representatives Campbell,
Stacey, Relbe, LARSEN, and others, and by r.
Barden, Esq, D1r. Valentine, Mr.. Boyden, E..
T. Drake and Gen. Bishop, and the methods of
testing and grading wheat were fully discussed
from the standpoints Of parties representing
the various interests in Minnesota's staple pro-
duct. The railroad men, it was evident, cared
bnt little what device was used, so they, who
are in a measure compelled to receive for stor-
age as well as for transportation. were enabled
to work off wheat upon the same terms as they
received it, but they had a slight leaning to-
ward the brass kettle. The wheat buyers and
millers were unanimously in favor of the
swindling little joker, aud reiterated the state
ment that the ''swindling brass KETTLE was N
absolutely accurate instrument in the
ceded that there was something in
the charge that It is susceptible of being used
dishonesty, while the farmers were thoroughly
convinced that it was an arrant little thief and
wanted nothing to do with it. The agent of
Fairbanks depot of weights and measures was
present with several brass testers, a sealed
II Lo1E ,Lo1 ox,l .L,lG e.
their accuracy. Representative Stacey was on
hand with two kinds of hopper testers Of his
own invention, and hopper to be attached to
tho metal half bushel. which he claimed would
fill the measures exactly alike every time. Ex-
periments were tried with the various divices
with the following results:
Messrs. Barden and Valentine tested with the
brass kettle as usually tested by them and the
wheat weighed 571I pounds.
Mr.. Stacy made three tests to show the diff
ferent results that could be reached by the
brass kettle, as follows First test, 56119 lbs.
second test, 81 lbs. and little over; third
test, 81 lbs.
With Stacey's hopper: First test, 57115 lbs;
second test, 57111 lbs; third test {by another
man), 5715 lbs.
Mr.. Stacey's other hopper device: First test
5711a lbs; second test. 57115 lbs.
Mr.. Stacey next filed the sealed half bushel
with his hopper attachment, and three trials
suoWcu Guh1 Gue WucdV WcASueu O(12 1US. cdcl
| time Attention was called to the fact that the
measure did not appear to be as full as it ought
to be-. He next filled the sealed metal half.
bushel by pouring wheat from sack, and ii
twice gave the same result, So pounds to the
bushel.
Mr.. Lsrssen then filled the measure, and il
weighed So pounds.
Experiments were again tried with the half
bushel to see how great range of results could
be obtained. Put in lightly as could be done
with grocer's scoop, So pounds; packed in, 81
pounds; lightly again, So pounds; canted w
at an angle of about thirty degrees from per.
pendicular and jockeying the thing as much az
possible, 5716 pounds. But the farmers claimed
| that there was an untitled space on the upper
side of tho measure, which would account fol
the loss of half a pound. The straight-edg,
used to strike the measure was a carpenter
level.
The farmers were delighted with the result
of the experiments, and expressed their salts
faction enthusiastically. Adjourned.