The Ordway new era., 1912-10-18


der o defined depart
ment Of state government.
There are numerous ways OF cheat
ing In the use of scales. regardless OF
the size or make. The art OF scale
building has advanced rapidly In the
last quarter century. but investigation
by various departments Of weights
and measures. both national and state.
has disclosed the fact that tho inven.
tive minds Of those whose unfortunate
mental arrangement leads them to de-
fraud their fellow men. has kept pace
with this advance.
The most astounding fraud ever
perpetrated was that OF the famous
sugar trust fraud. In which the United
States government was robbed Of
many millions in import tax duty. by
the use Of a small piece Of umbrella
steel to throw the scales out OF bal.
ancc. But with most cases Of decep-
tion. the perpetrator becomes over
confident. and through carelessness
leaves slight clue. which eventually
leads to discovery.
Rubber bands have been employed
to throw scales on correct balance.
but us these are hard to apply they
are not SO commonly used.
A common method Of cheating Is to
overload the scale counter weights
with lead and throw the balance to the
credit Of the scale owner.
But the most pernicious and In.
genious Of these is device recently
discovered by the department Of
weights and measures which is under
the Jurisdiction OF the railroad and
warehouse commission Of Minnesota.
This is small piece of tempered
steel weighing 1872 of an ounce. and is
used in scales for the purpose Of add.
ing to or shrinking the weight of an
article. II can be carried in the vest
pocket and placed In position on the
scale In a few seconds. 1t has the
advantage to the user of being re-
versible. that 10 to say. he can take
more in buying or give less in selling.
than the just and proper weight. The
device is In the nature Of a false
knife-edge or pivot It has small pro.
piled to scale with the projec.
tion towards the back end of the
scale beam the effect will be to make
n load weigh less than correct. and the
reverse is true when applied with the
projection toward the front end OF the
scale beam.
These devices are made 30 that the
use Of them on q scale docs not at.
feet the beam action whereby an OBJ
server could tell that the scale was
not weighing correctly. as they allow
the beam free action.
The percentage Of error in the use
OF this device would differ. depending
upon the make of scale and the null
tiplying power of the scale beam. All
scale beams have not the same meas
urements. and on one scale the effect
was 2h per cent either in excess or
deficiency. depending upon how the
device was placed. and on another
scale the effect was s per cent either
way. On some of the new type stock
scales with full capacity beams. hav-
ing no CONFERENCE.-The. the effect
would easily be 10 per cent of the
load.
These figures are based upon the
put into perfect balance after the de-
vice was inserted. but IL by neglect or
desire the scale should not be bal.
anced after the device was put under
the fulcrum pivot of the beam. the
effect would be to give false weight
of about 200 pounds on any size load
in addition to the 21a, s, or 10 per cent
as the case might be.
II one of these devices were used
on scale beam for fraudulent pur
poses, it would undoubtedly be insert
ed in the loop from the rear of the
beam, and thus could not be seen from
the position in which one stands tc
do the weighing, hence the necessity
of looking into the beam loops from
the rear of the beam to prove that
such device is not being used.
At large stock shipping point ir
Minnesota many complaints had beer
received relative to the weights ovel
q certain stock scale. On investiga
tion Of the scale it was discovered that
one of these ''shrinkers" was in use
The commission Immediately started
its special agent out to trace It up
The remarkable part of the investi
cation is that in the endeavor to fint
the origin of this device, the trail lee
through the states of Minnesota
Iowa, Illinois, South Dakota and Wis
consin, and going on the old theory
"where there Is much smoke there