IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WEIGHING AND REGISTERING
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alphonse Lafargue, of No. 10, Park Road,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR WEIGHING AND REGISTERING."
Sealed the 7th December 1869, and dated the 12th June 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alphonse Lafargue
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 12th June 1869.
I, ALPHONSE LAFARGUE, of No. 10, Park Road, Newcastle-on-Tyne,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WEIGHING AND REGISTERING," to be as
follows:-
The object of the Invention is simplicity of construction and certainty
in the indications made under varying pressures. For this purpose two
levers are employed suspended vertically on their axes, or nearly so,
working on knife edges simultaneously, and which derive their motion
from a tension rod which has one end fixed to a transfer lever (also with
a knife edge) or other mechanism of the weighing machines, and the

page_text: other connected to a cross head or bar, which same cross head or bar is
provided with two friction rollers which work or roll in slots or openings
provided at one extremity of the main or weighted levers, and causes the
levers with weighted extremities to swerve in opposite directions from a
perpendicular line to an angle below 50 degrees, and one of their axes
having a rack or other suitable appliances actuates a pointer travelling
over a graduated dial.
When an article or matter to be weighed is placed on the weigh bridge
or platform, its transfer lever or other mechanism immediately pulls the
tension rod, which causes the weighted levers or arms to swerve in
opposite directions from their perpendicular position to an angle below
50 degrees, and by the arrangements in connection therewith act on the
pointer which indicates the weight on the dial.
I do not find it essential that the two pendulous weighted levers
should oscillate on separate axes working on knife edges, as they may
both be made to work simultaneously from one axis or centre provided
with knife edges by the pulling of the tension rod connected at one end
with the transfer lever or other mechanism, and at the other with a cross
head or bar, which cross head or bar is provided with two friction rollers
which work in slotted weighted levers, and thereby caused the pendulous
weighted levers to swerve in opposite directions from their perpendicular
to an angle below 50 degrees, and during the rotation of the axis, which
is provided with a pinion or rack or otherwise, actuates a pointer on the
dial plate, thereby marking or indicating the weight.
The machine may be provided with an extra or dead pointer to move
in concert with the former pointer or remain stationary to show the
weight of the article or goods correctly, and which, being influenced by
a spring to be pressed by the finger, returns instantly to the starting
point or zero when the weight has been booked; this pointer would be
chiefly used for weighing goods during transit.
I would have it understood that my object in using two weighted
levers swerving in opposite directions simultaneously is that the one
lever should counterbalance the other if the machine should be out of
a perpendicular or plumb line, thereby overcoming the irregularities
of the single or balance levered machines now in use.
My improvements may also be worked by hydraulic machines, that is,
the tension rod may be supplied with a piston at one end instead of
being fastened to the transfer lever, and the piston or ram of the tension

page_text: rod be made to work in a cylinder having an open end communication
supplied with a water pipe which leads to hydraulic cylinders under the
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alphonse Lafargue in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th December 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALPHONSE
LAFARGUE, of No. 10, Park Road, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters. Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-second
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Alphonse Lafargue, Her special licence
that I, the said Alphonse Lafargue, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alphonse Lafargue, 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 "In-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WEIGHING AND REGISTERING," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Alphonse Lafargue; my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alphonse Lafargue, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
The object of the Invention is simplicity of construction and certainty
in the indications made under varying pressures. For this purpose two

page_text: levers are employed suspended vertically on their axes, or nearly so,
working on knife edges simultaneously, and which derive their motion
from a tension rod which has one end fixed to a transfer lever (also with
a knife edge) or other mechanism of the weighing machines, and the
other connected to a cross head or bar, which same cross head or bar is
provided with two friction rollers which work or roll in slots or openings
provided at one extremity of the main or weighted levers, and causes
the levers with weighted extremities to swerve in opposite directions.
from a perpendicular line to an angle below 50 degrees; and one of
their axes has a rack or other suitable appliances actuating a pointer
travelling over a graduated dial.
The article or matter to be weighed is to be placed on the weigh
bridge or platform, when the transfer lever or other mechanism thereof
immediately pulls the tension rod, which causes the weighted levers or
arms to swerve in opposite directions from their perpendicular position
to an angle below 50 degrees, and by the arrangements in connection
therewith act on the pointer which indicates the weight on the dial.
I do not find it essential that the two pendulous weighted levers.
should oscillate on separate axes working on knife edges, as they may
both be made to work simultaneously from one axis or centre provided
with knife edges by the pulling of the tension rod connected at one end
with the transfer lever or other mechanism, and at the other with a
cross head or bar, which cross. head or bar is provided with. two friction
rollers which work in slotted weighted levers, thereby causing the
pendulous weighted levers to swerve in opposite directions from their
perpendicular to an angle below 50 degrees, so as during the rotation of
the axis, which is provided with a pinion, or rack, or otherwise, to actuate
pointer on the dial plate, thereby marking, or indicating the weight.
a
The machine may be provided with an extra or dead pointer to move
in concert with the former pointer or remain stationary to show the
weight of the article or goods correctly, and which, being influenced by
a spring to be pressed by the finger, returns instantly to the starting
point or zero when the weight has been booked. This pointer would be
chiefly used for weighing goods during transit.
I would have it understood that my object in using two weighted
levers swerving in opposite directions simultaneously is, that the one
lever should counterbalance the other if the machine should be out of

page_text: Figure 1 shows a general arrangement of a weighing machine (supposed
to be in perspective); Figure 2 shows an internal front view; Figure 3,
a transverse section. In each of the Figures the same letters indicate
corresponding parts wherever they occur. a is the tension rod, which
is pulled by the transfer lever b, as shown in Figure 1. The tension rod a
is formed with arms d, d, with pins or studs and pulleys e, e, which act
in the slots f, f, formed in the lever arms f,f, which are supported each
at one end to turn with the axis or knife edge motion f' on suitable
bearings k, and at their other ends carry the weights f³, f³, which as
pressure is exerted on the tension rod a (with a tendency to pull it
downwards by the transfer lever b, as shown in Figure 1, which is pro-
vided with a suitable knife edge) at the same time they tend by their
weight to keep it up. As the pressure on the tension rod a increases the
weighted ends fs of the lever arms f.f, are raised until they arrive at
an angle below 50 degrees, or nearly so, as indicated by the dotted lines
in Figure 2. The axis of one of the arms fis formed with a segment or
rack, the teeth of which take into the teeth of a pinion i fixed to an
axis or spindle g, which is supported and turns in suitable stationary
bearings j, and upon which axis (g) is also fixed the pointer h for indi-
cating on the dial the weight for the time being exerted. c, c, are guides
for the tension rod a to work in.
Figures 4 and 5 are other arrangements where the friction rollers and
slots in the main levers are not used, but suitable links provided with
knife edges to give a similar motion, as follows:-The tension rod a is

page_text: formed with arms d, d, with suitable knife edges e, e, to which are fixed
the links d', d', provided at the other end also with suitable knife
edges e, e, which take into the extremities of the main levers ff, which
turn on their axes f", f, and at their other ends carry the weights f³, ƒ³,
which as pressure is exerted on the tension rod a (with a tendency to
pull it downwards by the transfer lever b, as shown in Figure 1, which
is provided with a suitable knife edge or other mechanism) tend at the
same time by their weight to keep it up. As the pressure on the tension
rod a increases the weighted ends f³ of the lever arms f,f, are raised
until they arrive at an angle below 30 degrees, or nearly so, as indicated
by dotted lines in Figure 2, the arms d, d, being provided with the
rack 4, the teeth of which take into the teeth of a pinion i fixed on an
axis or spindle g, which is supported to turn in suitable stationary
bearings j, and upon which axis (g) is also fixed the pointer h for indi-
cating on the dial the weight for the time being exerted. c is a guide
for the tension rod a to work in. The ordinary relieving apparatus can
be applied if necessary.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same may be performed or
carried out in practise, I hereby declare that I claim, the "Improvements
in Apparatus for Weighing and Registering" in which the use of the two
levers working simultaneously in opposite directions, thereby counter-
balancing each other, is a principal and important constituent; but I
do not confine myself to the precise details shown in the Drawings and
described by reference thereto, nor do I claim such details per se and
apart from the purposes of my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alphonse Lafargue, have hereunto,
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.