The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1903-08-12
TWIN CITY LETTER
The Scales Used by the State Weighing
Departm ent-HOw they are Kept In Or
der-The State Expert-Pilfering Of
Grain by Car Sweepers.
ESPECIAL CoRREsPoNDENcE.I

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grain weighing two things are nee
iessary: one is skill and caution on
the part of the weigher and the
other is a scale which works per-
fectly. In order that the scales
may be in good working order a
man who is a scale expert is con-
stantly employed to watch them
and to adjust them when they are
too "quick" or too "slow." This
man is very important official and
his position is one of great respon-
sibility, He represents the state
in everything he does, and when he
condemns a scale the state will
neither use it nor recognize it's re-
suits until it has been adjusted.
When terminal elevator is built,
at which the services Of a state
Eweigher are required, the expert
tests the scale with ton or two
tons of U. S. test weighs before a
pound Of grain is weighed upon
them by state weigher. In most
cases the contract between the ele-
vator company and the scale com
pany provides that the new scale
shall be tested and pronounced per
feet by the state expert before the
elevator company will accept it.
The extent and Importance of the
scale experts duties when it is
known that there are at the terminals
of Minneapolis, Duluth, St. Cloud
and New Prague 489 scales, all un-
der his constant supervision.
1t is not always necessary to test
scale in terminal elevator or mill
to find if it is working properly!
Where cars Of grain are being
shifted about from one house to an
other the result of a scale can be
told by comparison. For instance,
should several cars of grain, weighed
out of certain elevator and weighed
into different elevators or mills, all
hold out in weight, it would show
that the scales in all these houses
were working accurately. If they
all agree they must be either all
right or all wrong. If the weight
of these cars held out at every mill
except one it would show the scale
at that mill to be 'off. % If, on the
other hand, the cars out of certain
elevator should fall short or over
run at every mill or elevator where
they were unloaded it would show
the scale at that elevator to be ''off'
and all the rest right.
A good illustration might be made
by taking one hundred clocks, plac-
ing them in row and starting them
to running. If ninety-nine ran
alike while the other one gained or
lost it would show by the weight of
evidence that the ninety mine were
right and the other one wrong.
This principal is applied constantly
to the scale in use by the state. The
results of each day S work are com
pared,every morning and if it is found
that any scale is in the minority by
itself the expert gets right after it.
Everything which the ingenuity of
man can devise to insure accuracy,
or reveal error if one is made, is
employed in our state system, and
there is no weighing system in the
world which excels it in any par
ticular.
During the year 1901 the number
of cars weighed by the state at it's
five terminal points was 345, 1854.
Multiply this number by $50 and
you will have the numberof bushels
handled. Twenty five years ago
400 bushels was an average car
load. To-day the average is more
than twice that. The cars now
building carry from 1000 to 1900,
and one was received at Minneapo-
lis lately which contained 1900
bushels of wheat.
From the beginning of the de-
partment's existence one of the
most perplexing sources Of difficulty
has been the custom of elevators
and mills to allow people, mostly
peasant women and boys, to sweep
the empty cars. The trouble was
not in the sweeping itself but what
the custom led to. There were GER