IM- PROVEMENTS IN BALANCES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Dicas Artingstall, of the City of Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, Balance Maker, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN BALANCES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Dicas Artingstall
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th September 1862.
I, FREDERICK DICAS ARTINGSTALL, of the City of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Balance Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BALANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to weighing machines and other balances, and instead
of the knife-edged centres now generally used in the levers of balances, I fix
thin plates of steel or other suitable metal, which plates bear the weight to be
weighed, and being flexible allow the arms of the balance to move, but as that
movement is only slight through a very small space and difficult to perceive, I
fix on the arm of the balance a spirit level, which indicates the slightest
movement. Or I employ one or more levers so as to multiply the motion of
the arm of the balance.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Dicas Artingstall in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 6th March 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
DICAS ARTINGSTALL, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Balance Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Frederick Dicas Artingstall, Her special license that I,
the said Frederick Dicas Artingstall, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as 1, the said Frederick Dicas Artingstall,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agreo 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BALANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick
Dicas Artingstall, my executors or administrators, by an instrument 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 Frederick Dicas Artingstall, 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, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to weighing machines and other balances, and consists
in employing thin plates of steel or other suitable metal instead of the knife-
edged centres now generally used. The said plates bear the weight to be
weighed either by being suspended to them by tension, or by the force of the
weight above them by thrusting, and as the plates are flexible they allow
motion to the levers or arms of the balance or steelyard, but as that motion is
only delicate through a small space or angle, which is difficult to perceive, I
make it more clearly perceptible by fixing to the arm of the steelyard or
balance a spirit level which indicates a very small disturbance of the level or
ง

page_text: equilibrium. Or I employ a multiplying lever to multiply the motion of
the balance by making the head of the balance high and beavy.
The nature of my improvements will be clearly understood by referring to
the figures and letters on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which Fig. 1
represents an elevation, with part removed, of a steelyard weighing machine,
having steel plates acting by tension instead of knife-edged centres, and also
my improved multiplying lever. Figs. 2 and 3 are views of the plates detached,
and Figs. 4 and 5 are views of a steelyard in which one of the flexible plates
acts by thrusting instead of tension, and having a spirit level applied to the
arm.
In Fig. 1, the plates employed as substitutes for the knife-edged centres aro
shewn at a, b, and also detached in Figs. 2 and 3; the plate a supports the steel-
yard c, and the plate b is connected by the rod d with the well-known levers in
the box e. The said plates a, b, are firmly fixed to the steelyard c, and as they
are flexible they allow the yard to vibrate and be balanced as though upon
centres, but without their defects. In order to make the movement of the
arm perceptible, I form it with a high centre of gravity, to which I have given
the name of a multiplying lever. I make the head f of the steelyard high
and heavy, which head is weighted, and is shifted as required by the screw g to
balance the steelyard correctly. As the centres h, i, k, are nearly in a straight
iine, the weighted head f above them causes the steelyard c when disturbed
from its equilibrium by a small drawing weight to move through a greater
space or angle than it otherwise would do if the centre of motion and the
centre of gravity were coincident, as it overcomes the elasticity of the metal
plates. The said plates always resist the movement of the steelyard, more or
less according to their thickness or strength, and therefore the height and
weight of the steelyard head must be in proportion to the strength of the plates
forming the centres of the steelyard or weighing machine. I attach tho
aforesaid multiplying lever or steelyard to a platform weighing machine, as
shewn in the Figure, instead of the ordinary steelyard, and employ a moveablo
weight and graduate the yard in the usual manner.
In Figs. 4 and 5, 1 shew the application of the thrusting system instead of
tension. To the steelyard c is attached the tension plates 4, by which it is
supported, and at the short end of the lever, where the weight is applied, I fix
a short plate in carrying at the top a rigid cross bead n, having at the bottom
the book o for connecting it to the levers under the platform or weight to be
weighed. When the weight is applied, the cross head n thrusts upon the
plate m, which being thin and flexible performs the office of a centre.
The levers under the platform or scale plate, are of the ordinary size and

page_text: kind, but have fixed in them the aforesaid plates instead of knife-edged centres,
which plates are secured firmly to the lovers by screws, or in any other desired
manner.
By the foregoing arrangements, a very slight motion of the levers or balances
under the platform is indicated by the multiplying lever or steel yard with a
proper motion for all weights, either beavy or light, that the machine is
intended to weigh, and without friction or wear of centres or moving parts.
In the Drawing I have represented a small platform weighing machine, but
it is evident that my improved system of flexible plates instead of knife-edged
centres may be applied to a great variety of weighing machines and other
balances.
Having now described the nature and particulars of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be understood
that I claim the improvements in weighing machines and other balances, as
herein described and illustrated in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Dicas Artingstall, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Fifth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named Frederick Dicas
Artingstall, in the presence of
E. J. HUGHES,
F. D. ARTINGSTALL. (L.S.)
Patent Agent,
Manchester.