CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PLATFORM WEIGHING MACHINES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James McConnell, of Westhoughton, in the County
of Lancaster, Colour Mixer, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN PLATFORM WEIGHING MACHINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James McConnell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
March 1865.
I, JAMES MCCONNELL, of Westhoughton, in the County of Lancaster,
Colour Mixer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN PLATFORM WEIGHING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
The Invention relates to such weighing machines wherein the body to
be weighed is placed on a table or platform which is connected to one end
of a lever commonly called a "steelyard," along which a weight is moved
until the body on the platform is balanced.
These improvements are designed to render the travelling weight on the
lever self-adjusting by the pressure of a body or material on the platform,
so as to form a self-acting weighing machine, and also to indicate the
weight, and, if required, to imprint or impress it on a ticket.
The improvements consist in the employment and use of a catch or pawl
at the end of the "steelyard" or lever which is furthest from its fulcrum,
which catch takes into ratchet teeth on a disc or wheel secured on a shaft,
each tooth representing a pound or other weight; for example, fourteen teeth
Price 8d L

page_text: would be required to weigh in "stones," each tooth representing a pound,
aud one revolution of the disc a "stone" of fourteen pounds.
The sliding weights on the steelyard is attached by a wire or cord passing
round the disc shaft to a hanging weight. When a body is placed on the
platform the short end of the lever is depressed and the long one raised, and
the catch is lifted from the teeth of the disc; the hanging weight is thus
released, and draws the sliding weight along the steelyard further from the
fulcrum, and also turns the disc a certain number of teeth; but when the
body on the platform becomes balanced by the position of the sliding weight
on the steelyard the catch falls into a tooth of the disc, and so ascertains
the weight of the body, which may be indicated on a dial by a finger.
If the disc revolve once round its axis a stud thereon enters a rack, and so
moves a second disc one tooth to indicate the weight corresponding to such
one revolution (say, for example, one stone). By the use of a numeral disc on
the said shaft as the toothed ratchet, the figures corresponding with the teeth,
the number of pounds, "stones," hundredweights, and other weights may be
printed on tickets by inking the figure type and pressing tickets thereupon.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James M°Connell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
18th September 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
McCONNELL, of Westhoughton, in the County of Lancaster, Color Mixer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James McConnell, Her special license that I, the said James McConnell, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
McConnell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
PLATFORM WEIGHING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said James McConnell, my executors or administrators, by an instrument

page_text: in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James McConnell, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manuer the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
The Invention relates to such weighing machines wherein the body to be
weighed is placed on a table or platform which is connected to one end of
a lever commonly called a "steelyard," along which a weight is moved until
the body on the platform is balanced.
These improvements are designed to render the travelling weights on the
lever self-adjusting by the presence of a body or material on the platform
so as to form a self-acting weighing machine, and also to indicate the weight,
and, if required, to imprint or impress it on a ticket.
The improvements consist in the employment and use of a catch or pawl
at the end of the "steelyard" or lever which is furthest from its fulcrum, which
catch takes into the teeth of a ratchet wheel secured on a shaft, each tooth
representing a pound or other weight; for example, fourteen teeth would be
required to weigh in "stones," each tooth representing a pound, and one
revolution of the wheel a "stone" of fourteen pounds.
The sliding weight on the "steelyard" is attached by a wire or cord passing
round the ratchet wheel shaft to a hanging weight. When a body is placed
on the platform the short end of the lever is depressed and the long one
raised, and the catch is lifted from the teeth of the ratchet wheel; the hanging
weight is thus released, and draws the sliding weight along the steelyard
further from the fulcrum, and also turus the wheel a certain number of teetli,
but when the body on the platform becomes balanced by the position of the
sliding weight on the steelyard the catch falls into a tooth of the wheel, and
so ascertains the weight of the body, which may be indicated on a dial by a
finger. If the wheel revolve once round its axis a stud thereon enters a rack,
and so moves it one tooth to indicate the weight corresponding to such one
revolution (say, for example, one stone). By the use of a numeral disc on
the same shaft as the teethed ratchet, the figures corresponding with the teeth,
the number of pounds, "stones," hundredweights, &c., may be printed on
tickets by inking the figure type and pressing tickets thereupon.
In order that the Invention may be better understood and explained in

page_text: detail, I have hereunto attached a Sheet of Drawings made upon a scale of
about six inches to the foot, similar letters of reference being marked upon
corresponding parts on all the Figures.
Fig. 1 represents a front elevation of the self-acting mechanism in con-
nection with the balance lever or "steelyard," the indicating apparatus being
removed in order more clearly to illustrate the same; Fig. 2 represents a
detached view shewn in elevation of the apparatus for indicating the weight
of bodies placed upon the weighing platform; Fig. 3 represents in elevation
an outside view of the dials and finger for shewing the weight; this view also
shews the slot or aperture in which small slips of paper are inserted upon
which the weight is to be printed; Fig. 4 represents a general plan view
shewing more particularly the arrangement of numbers and their position
when the weight of the goods is to be printed.
In Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, a, a, is the outer box or covering containing the
apparatus for weighing and indicating; 6 is the steelyard or balance lever
constructed in the form of parallel bars; c is the fulcrum; d, the connecting
rod by which the lever b is connected to the platform upon which the goods
are placed in order to ascertain their weight; e is a travelling weight or car-
riage having a cord, wire, or chain attached, and which extends from it on
one side, and passes over and takes into teeth or projections on the axle or
shaft g, the suspended end of which has a weight h attached thereto, which is
a little heavier than the weight e, to cause the travelling carriage to move
along the steelyard. From the other or opposite side of the travelling car-
riage another chain or wire is attached, which passes over the carrier pulley i
behind the fulcrum; from this pulley the wire extends along and is attached
to the pulley; from the axle of this pulley k the greater weight is sus-
pended. To that end of the "steelyard" which is farthest from the fulcrum a
bent rod or lever m is attached, and is supplied with a pawl or catch n,
which prevents the revolution of the ratchet wheel o. When the weight upon
the platform is ascertained this ratchet wheel o is caused to revolve by being
secured on the axle g, from the opposite end of which a tooth or finger p
projects, which with every revolution of the said axis or shaft g takes into the
tooth of the sliding rack q, giving it an intermittent sliding motion so long as
the ratchet o revolves; the upper surface of this is supplied with numbers
indicating stones, the disc or wheel r, supplied with numbers upon its periphery
representing pounds, is also secured upon the shaft g.
The action of the machine will readily be understood on reference to the
Drawings and the following description:-When a body or weight is placed
upon the platform the resistance of such weight is communicated to the

page_text: 'steelyard” 6 through the rod d, which has the effect of slightly elevating
or raising the bent lever m and catch n, thus relieving the ratchet wheel o.
The weight may now be ascertained by releasing the axle of the pulley k
of the weight 1; immediately this is done the suspended weight h descends
the suspending chain f, gives motion to the ratchet wheel o and travelling
weight e, the travelling weight at this time being drawn along the "steelyard"
from the fulcrum, but so soon as such weight arrives at a point upon the
"steelyard" counterbalancing or equalizing the weight upon the platform, the
steelyard drops and causes the catch n to come in contact with one of the
ratchet teeth, which instantly prevents the revolution of the ratchet wheel o.
The printing and indicating of the weight is accomplished in the following
manner-The ratchet wheel o is supplied with fourteen teeth, each tooth
representing one pound; the disc is similarly divided, and supplied on its
periphery at each division with a number commencing with a cypher and
ending with thirteen. The weight in stones is indicated by the numbers on
the surface of the rack q in the following manuer:-The rack is divided into
twenty equal parts, and is supplied with the same number of teeth, which are
acted upon by the finger or tooth p secured to the axle g; thus with every
complete revolution of the ratchet o the sliding rack is propelled forward a
distance equal to one division, therefore if the weight upon the platform be
ten stone seven pounds the ratchet wheel would have revolved ten and a half
times before being stopped by the catch n, and the rack would during the
same time have been propelled forward ten teeth or divisions, so that a slip of
paper placed over the number and pressed upon them would receive in
numbers the weight of the article desired. The weight is also indicated
outside on the dials shewn in Fig. 3, the dials being divided into fourteen
parts representing pounds, the indicating finger of which is fixed on and
revolves with the ratchet shaft g; the finger of the dialt indicating stones
is secured on the end of a shaft and actuated by the wheel u driven by the
rack 9.
When the operation of weighing is complete the weight is
relieved and once more suspended from the axle of the pulley k, the effect
of which is to draw the weighted carriage e back to its original position
near the fulcrum of the steelyard, the whole apparatus at this time being
ready to weigh and indicate any weight or body placed upon the platform.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, together with the
method of carrying the same into practical effect, I wish it to be distinctly
understood that I claim the arrangement, construction, and combination of
mechanism for the purpose of ascertaining, indicating, and registering bodies

page_text: or weights by self-acting means, as herein-before described, set forth, and
fully illustrated in the Drawings attached.
And, secondly, I claim the application to self-acting weighing machines of
apparatus for regulating and printing the weights or bodies on the platform
by self-acting means.
In witness whereof, I, the said James McConnell, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JAMES MCCONNELL. (L.S.)