AN IMPROVED WEIGHING CART OR CARRIAGE FOR ASCERTAINING THE WEIGHT OF COAL, WOOD, OR OTHER WARES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Clovis Jean at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
March 1870.
I, CLOVIS JEAN, of Paris, Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23, Merchant,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
WEIGHING CART OR CARRIAGE FOR ASCERTAINING THE WEIGHT OF COAL, WOOD, OR
OTHER WARES," to be as follows:--
The object of my Invention is a special arrangement of cart, dray, or
carriage of any description with a steelyard in order to measure or
ascertain the weight of the coal, wood, or other merchandise which may
be carried therein or thereon. A characteristic of this system is that it
is not necessary to ascertain at one operation only the total weight of
the load, but it is open to me on the contrary to verify the weight of
goods varying from two to four hundredweights for example or a greater
or less quantity contained in sacks, boxes, or other receptacles at the
residence of the purchaser. It will be seen that in the sale of coal,
charcoal, wood, ice, sand, and other such necessaries from door to door,
this arrangement of cart will present great advantages, since it will at

page_text: once prove a guarantee to the merchant and a safeguard to the
purchaser against short weight.
The system is based upon the division of the total load into equal
parts either in bags, cases, or other receptacles, and upon the employment
of a steelyard with or without a weighing pan to which when unloading
the carter will hook cach package or case. The cases enclosing the
merchandise may be either made open like wickerwork or full in the
ordinary way; they roll along the cart very casily upon rollers or wheels
placed along the floor of the carriage; the carter can therefore readily
draw each case near to the steelyard at the rear of the vehicle in order
to weigh and submit them to the scrutiny of purchaser before delivering
the merchandise.
I now proceed to describe the cart in detail:-The platform or floor
of the cart carries at the rear two vertical panels on the top of which a
solid cross piece is fitted. At the middle of this cross picce a threaded
socket is mounted, into which a screw engages which may be rapidly
turned in one direction or the other by the cross piece. Beneath this
screw the steelyard is fixed to which the packages, bags, or cases
containing merchandise (such as coal, wood, coke, ice, or provisions of
all kinds) should be hung one after another while being weighed. A
transverse suspension rod with hooks at each end is for this purpose
hung to the short lever of the steelyard. The screw may sometimes
be mounted upon the platform or floor of the cart and act exactly in
the same manner. At the moment when the weighing takes place each
case to be delivered (which it should be mentioned may be of any form
and dimension) is pushed along the rollers to underneath the steelyard
to which it is then hung; the steelyard is then slightly raised by means
of the screw in order to permit the free suspension of the case, and the
weight to be ascertained. The weighing may be accomplished either in
cases or upon a platform, and as before stated the packages may be
rolled forward upon rollers or wheels. The unloading of the cart is
effected by each case or package being passed one by one upon the
platform or underneath the steelyard.