IMPROVEMENTS IN WEIGHING MACHINES
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Bolton at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st June
1875.
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I, FREDERICK BOLTON, of Weaste, in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
WEIGHING MACHINES,” to be as follows :—
My Invention consists in constructing a steelyard or beam or a spring
balance in a special manner for weighing treacle and other similar
articles which have to be put in a vessel brought by the purchaser, which
vessel has itself to be first weighed or balanced before the article to be
sold can be put in it and weighed. At present the process of weighing
tracle is a troublesome one. The vessel brought by the purchaser for the
conveyance of the treacle has to be balaged on an ordinary scale at the
expense of an inconvenient amount of me and trouble to balance it
accurately, and the vessel has then to
treacle is stored and brought back to
backwards and forwards several time to have more put in or some taken
out, and generally ending in overweight and consequent loss to the
ken to the can in which the
scales, often having to be taken

page_text: I will now describe one or two ways in which I propose to simplify
the process of weighing treacle and other articles, and will suppose I am
dealing with treacle only.
In one arrangement an ordinary spring balance or counterpoise balance
may be used, with an alteration in the index and other modifications as 5
herein-after described, but the top part I make in the form of a bracket
or rod with holes in it, so that it can be readily attached to a shelf, or
the bracket or rod may be soldered or otherwise fastened to the treacle
can itself.
The bracket may be separate from the balance, with a dovetail or other 1
suitable groove in it, and a lug on the top of balance to fit in the groove,
so that with two brackets one balance may be used for two cans; or the
top of the balance may have an ordinary ring or hook, so that it can be
suspended from the tap of the treacle can, in which case the bracket or
rod would not be needed.
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The balance may be connected to the bracket or rod by a hinge or by
a spring hinge, so that it will be held sufficiently firm in a vertical
position when in use, and may be turned up out of the way when not in
use, as it is not necessary to know the weight of the jar or other vessel
in which the treacle is to be weighed, but only that it shall be correctly 2
balanced. I make the index to slide so that its zero end can be moved
up to the point of the finger of index when the latter has been moved
forward by the action of balancing the empty vessel. To the bottom of
the balance is attached a suitable weighing pan or plate, which may
either be fixed rigidly to the stem of the balance or attached to it by a
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spring hinge, so that it can be turned down out of the way when not
in use.
Now let us suppose an empty jar to be placed on the weighing pan or
plate for the purpose of having say one pound weight of treacle put
into it. The finger of the index will move forward until the jar is 8
balanced. When the finger is at rest the zero end of the slide scale is
moved up to the point of the finger. The treacle tap can then be
opened (the weighing pan or plate, and consequently the jar, being
directly under it), and the finger will gradually approach the mark of
1lb. on the scale, the tap being closed when the finger is at the right 8
mark, thus admitting of great accuracy with the least possible expen-
diture of time and trouble.

page_text: In another arrangement a steelyard or beam may be used working on
a centre in the usual way with bracket or rod, as mentioned in the
previous method, for attaching it to the shelf or can, and which bracket
or rod may in this cace form the fulcrum of the steelyard or beam. One
end of the steelyard or beam is fitted with a suitable weighing pan or
plate, and the other portion of the steelyard or beam has two slide
weights, one for balancing the jar or other vessel and the other for
weighing the amount of treacle required, the latter working over a scale
marked on that portion of the steelyard or beam allotted to it. This end
of the beam will therefore have a collar or pin at about the half way,
which will be the stopping point of the balance weight and the starting
point of the other weight. A suitable spring or springs may be attached
to each weight, so bearing on the steelyard or beam that the weights
will not readily move except when forced.
Supposing now that a jar or other suitable vessel is placed on the
weighing pan or plate, the balancing weight is moved forward until it
balances the empty vessel, and the other vessel is moved forward
according to the amount of treacle required.
Instead of the sliding weight for weighing the treacle I may have
only one sliding weight to balance the jar and the end of the beam to
have a plate, so that the ordinary weights can be placed upon it.