Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1904-10-07
FAIRBANKS SCALE WORKS
VERMONT EDITORS vislT YER.
MONT INDUSTRY.
Where Best Scales In the World Are
Made-Immense Output Of High
grade Artiele-lnterestins Details OF
Business that Employs 1000 Men.

grade Article-lnterest'ng DETAILS OF
Business that Employs 1000 Men.
The quarterly meeting of the Ver-
mont Press association at st. Johns
bury on Friday last week was made
notable by the introduction of a new
idea, a visit to whatever industries
may exist In the town where the
meetings are held. The celebrated
scale works, which have practically
created and which to-day constitute
the towns chief business, were visited
by the editors In body, and the va
rious departments were shown in ac-
tive operation.
The newspaper men were met by
Superintendent Turner in his private
Office, and after being presented to
various members of his staff, were
made up in parties of four and the
tour was commenced. The general Of
flee and drafting-roo each EN-
blowing a large staff, show a thor
oughly organized and modern system,
card systems. typewriters, adding
machine, addressograph, filing cabi-
nets, etc, caring for the designing
and accounting in simple but eff
fective manner.
! 1t would be impossible to give, in a
single article, any detailed description
of this immense industry, but certain
prominent facts stick in the mind.
First of all, there are 1000 employees.
The freight, inward and outward,
amounts to 10000 tons per year. Ev-
cry day, 40 tons of iron castings are
made The Fairbanks scales go to
every known country in the world. In
the freight depot, boxes addressed to
Russia, France British India, Japan,
South America, etc, give visible evil
dence of the wide extent of Fairbanks
trade, while, in the testing depart
ment, weights of every known stan
dard that can be reduced to figures
were shown. In the brass foundry,
valves for steam fittings are made in
large quantities. The fumes do not
seem to affect the men, who are fine
specimens of manhood. This product
requires special finishing machinery,
in which a long line of operators, each
of whom has a certain small part to
turn, bore or thread, work with prac-
tically automatic HldcENnes.
This is also true of the scalebars
and other brass parts of the standard
output the graduations on the former
being engraved, long and short marks
simultaneously, with a marvelously
ingenious machine that works almost
as fast as one could count The fig
ures are stamped on the bars, partly
by hand and partly by movable type.
This is distinct advance over mark
ing the bars with a cold chisel and
hammer.
In the iron foundry, the scale
beams, frames, connections and other
parts are made. The patterns in
wood. are stored separately and have
tied up tremendous sum of money as
pattern making is an expensive trade.
The iron parts are japanned in an
other department quick dip and
hot bake in the ovens for the COM
mon sort of work the better kind TAX
ing more care and time in both places.
Boring out and putting in lead
plugs for the government seals, test
ing weights and balance, finishing and
assembling are all nice jobs and take
careful, sober men, who earn good
wages. So also does the workman
80 years in Fairbanks service, who
tempers, with a carefully watched
fire of cherry-red Goals, the knife
edge bearings.
The product runs from a massive
track scale, bedded in masonry, that
weighs cars and locomotives, to the
tiny postal scale, but all bear the
trademark and all have the Fairbanks
quality One of the most modern
scales is the self registering kind that
stamps automatically the gross
weight and tare, leaving the net
weights a matter of n few moments
computation on the card. A bath
room scale with height recorder is
another novelty.
The power is steam and electricity,
the former a matter of 500 horse
power. the latter 40. The huge fly
wheel, thirty feet in diameter, and
the big machines with their polished
piston-rods, cranks, valve stems and
cylinder heads. constitute one of the
show places of the establishment.
After the inspection the editors
gathered in the Casino, a sort of
club-room for the employees, the up
per story utilized by those whose
dinners are carried and the lower
sort of reading and board-room,
where once a year the heads of all
the departments meet, compare notes
and plan business. Here they were
cordially welcomed by Mr.. Turner,
and, after few brief remarks, light
lunch, followed by some excellent
cigars, put all at ease.
Mr. Turner explained the company's
methods of doing business, its cordial
relations with it's employees, its in
stitution of weekly payments and
threw some light on the widespread
character of the company's trade. The
talk showed that, in spite of the
heavy handicap of being a long way
from coal and iron supplies, the con-
Germ was still doing business, not by
getting out cheap scale but good
one.
Some more informal talk was in
Obliged in. President Parker thanking
the management on behalf of the
press, and, after many injunctions to
come again and stay longer. the edi-
tors babe their genial hosts goodbye