AN IMPROVED MACHINE OR APPARATUS FOR WEIGHING VARIOUS KINDS OF ARTICLES OR GOODS, WHICH INVENTION I INTEND TO DENOMINATE VESHNAKOFF'S ECONOMICAL SCALE
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Nineteenth day of September, in the third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Newton, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Newton, my executors, administrators,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to tinic
and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plan-
tations abroad, an Invention of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE OR APPARATUS FOR
WEIGHING VARIOUS KINDS OF ARTICLES OR GOODS, WHICH INVENTION I INTEND TO
DENOMINATE VESHNAKOFF'S ECONOMICAL SCALE," being a communication from
André Veshnakoff, Major of Engineers in the Russian service, a foreigner
residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said William Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to
be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Newton, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
DESCRIPTION AND DETAILED ILLUSTRATION OF THE NEWLY INVENTED
ECONOMICAL BALANCE.
This Invention of a machine or apparatus for weighing various kinds of
articles or goods was communicated to me by the Inventor Andrew Peter's son
Veshnakoff, Knight, a retired Major of the Engineers (Royal of Russia),
Member of the Imperial Privileged Economical Society, &c., &c., the con-
struction of which apparatus is shewn in the Drawing accompanying this my
Specification of the said Invention, to be inrolled in the High Court of
Chancery in England, according to the proviso contained in the above in part
recited Letters Patent; and accompanying the said communication, the
following remarks were made by the Inventor, which I consider it desirable to
recite here for the purpose of making known the inventor's views and opinions
in reference to the said Invention.
First, examining with attention and mechanical precision all heretofore in-
vented balances made use of in all countries, and finding that in their construc-
tion, the principal acting mechanism was either a common straight or articulated
beam, or a straight or spiral or curvilineal spring or mechanical wheelwork,
and as it is now generally known that all the invented balances of such
construction for weighing burdens, not excluding even the best and newest
English and French balances, consisting of a beam or of any articulated rod
with scales, and with or without a certain number of weights pertaining to
them, bave not only many deficiencies and inconveniences, but in usual
practice they easily lose their durability and accuracy, I could not avoid
wondering and regretting that in our enlightened age, in the age of great
mechanical discoveries approaching to perfection in all branches of industry,
the heretofore invented balances, with such imperfection, remained in their
infancy, and especially that the commonly used balances with weights, so
unhandy by this requisite of weights, and besides so expensive, and on weighing
burdens, so easily losing their accuracy, and therefore suggesting opportunities

page_text: for committing all sorts of frauds, nevertheless remained in general use in all
countries; such, therefore, is the reasons which induced me to turn my
attention and my mechanical occupations to this most important object for
industry and for the benefit of all countries. The difficulty consisted in
inventing for weighing burdens such a mechanical construction as should not
bubject to variations in weighing; that one and the same mechanism could
be constructed for weighing as well the smallest as the largest burdens,--that
it could be durable in use, that this construction on all occasions should be
more convenient for general use than any other, and, lastly, that its con-
struction should be cheaper than that of the most common balance with weights
heretofore in use. This was the problem to be solved, and which I could not
do but by inventing some new and simple mechanism, that on all occasions,
and in long use, could determine with greatest accuracy the measure of weight
in weighing any things or burdens. At last, after many years experiments on
this subject, and after many discoveries which were very expensive to me, to
my wish, all my researches and experiments were crowned by the discovery
and invention of a quite new and simple mechanical construction, entirely
different from any other mechanism of the heretofore invented balances. This
new mechanical construction, or the essential part in the mechanisin of the
economical balance, consists in the newly by me invented weights, which I
have called pendulum-pulley, composed of a pulley block, a pendulum rod, a
flat weight like that of a pendulum, all connected with one another in
reciprocal proportions. This newly by me invented pendulum pulley in the
economical balance is constructed in such a nanner that alone on all occasions
of weighing burdens on this balance, it stands for any usual weights from the
smallest to the largest. All the parts constituting the pendulum pulley are
connected with one another in reciprocal, mathematical, and mechanical pro-
portion (that is to say), the size of the block, the length of the rod, and the
poise of the weight permanently fixed to the rod, are with one another in
reciprocal mechanical proportion conformably to the size of the balance itself
containing the pendulum pulley. On this reciprocal and constant proportion
of the parts composing the pendulum pulley, and on the permanent fixedness
of the weight fastened to the said rod connected with the central part of the
pulley block solely depends the invariable and extraordinary accuracy of the
dial land or index pointing on the dial plate of the balance. All the divisions
on the dial plate of the economical balance cannot be equal to one another, on
account of the peculiar motion of the pendulum weight, together with the
index dial hand; but all those divisions from the beginning of the dial plate to
its end increase gradually and proportionally according to the rising of the

page_text: pendulum pulley, from the lowest point of the pendulum weight to its horizontal
position. Thus the Invention of the new economical balance cannot be con-
sidered either in the mechanics or in any other point of view as an improve-
ment or amelioration of any heretofore known or discovered balance existing
in Europe, because in its general construction it has nothing common with
any other balances, but merely the external parts, such as a dial plate (except
the division) a dial hand or index, and a scale with ropes or chains; but the
essential part or the mechanism of the economical balance, determining on all
occasions the poise of the burthen weighed on this balance is not any improve-
ment nor amelioration, but its mechanical construction is quite new, unknown
as yet to any body, and which is not to be found in any balance whatever. As
the economical balance can be made use of on all occasions, as manual, portable,
or permanently fixed, its invention evidently affords to all countries most im
portant advantages, viz, general, national, and practical use on all occasions,
because by this new balance, and especially by its newly by me invented
pendulum pulley, all sorts of heretofore known balances have been reduced to
the simplest general form as well the smallest for weighing precious things,
and in chemistry and by apothecaries, as the largest ones for weighing the
greatest burdens, as for instance, 20,000 English pounds, not excluding even
the manual steel-yard itself, the use of which can no more be allowed as
suggesting means for greatest defraudations. The economical balance is
constructed in such a manner (as it has been evidently demonstrated) that it is
impossible to do in it any things for the purpose of deceit in weighing things,
because at the first glance at the index or dial hand of this balance, every
person can easily perceive whether the pointings of the index or dial hand be
false or not, and therefore, in the practical use of this balance, most surely
every sort of fraud is prevented, which it was impossible to obtain by any
beretofore invented balances and instruments for weighing burthens.
Lastly, the most important merit of the economical balance, and especially
of its newly by me invented principle of mechanism, videlicet, of the pendulum
pulley, is unquestionably its evident simplicity, durability, and the cheapness of
its construction, especially in a balance of a large size, when compared to
common balances of the description to which on weighing burthens a large
quantity of weights is required, therefore the Invention of the economical
balance, or rather of its principal mechanism, that is to say, of the pendulum
pulley, is evidently most important in its object, as well on account of its
excelling convenience before any heretofore known and invented balances, as
of the great advantage which this Invention can afford to commerce and
industry, therefore it ought to be valued more than any other heretofore

page_text: invented balances and their mechanism. In the accompanying Drawing,
Fig. 1 is a front view of the balance complete; and Fig. 2 is a side view of
the same.
a is a pulley, the axle of which being formed with knife edges at
its ends, hangs in two pendant bearings b, b, made fast to a block c above;
the knife edges of the axle are exactly in the axis of the pulley, and act
upon the centers of obtuse angled steel pieces let into the bearings b, b, for the
purpose of reducing the friction as the pulley vibrates; an arm & inserted into
the periphery of the pulley and standing in a radial direction from its axle
carries a cylindrical or other suitable weight e, which with its arm vibrates
as a pendulum on the axle of the pulley. A rope or chain f attached at one
end to the pulley passes partly round or over the periphery of the pulley, and a
scale g, appended to the reverse end of the rope, is designed to receive the
goods or articles to be weighed. It will now be perceived that on introducing
any weighty materials into the scale g, the rope f will draw the pulley a
partially round upon its axis, and in so doing raise the arm d and weight e,
which operate as a counterpoise to the contents of the scale. A stationary
quadrant h, h, is firmly attached to the block c, and has a graduated arc i, i,
marked on the face of it, and an index j fixed to the axle of the pulley a,
moves upon the face of the graduated arc as the pulley with the weighted arm
vibrates. In order to ascertain the weight of any article placed in the scale,
the graduated are must be marked with divisions corresponding to ounces,
pounds, or hundreds, or any other required weights which the apparatus may
be calculated to weigh. The draft of the rope or chain f, will cause the
pulley to turn more or less on its axis according to the weight of the goods in
the scale which will be opposed by the weight of the arm and counterpoise d, e,
and when the balance between the two is attained, that is, on the vibrating
parts becoming quiescent, the index j will be stationary, and point to the
division on the graduated are i, i, which indicates the amount of weight in the
scale. The Drawing exhibits an empty scale, under which circumstance
the index will point to upon the graduated arc, and the weighted arm hang
nearly perpendicular, but the moment that any weight is placed in the scale, its
preponderance will draw the pulley round, and raise the weighted arm and
also the index, and thereby indicate the amount of weight as said. The
construction of the apparatus naturally limits the vibratory action of the
weighted arm within the arc of a quadrant, from the perpendicular pendant
position which is that of rest, and the horizontal position that of the greatest
leverage or counterpoising power. It will also be perceived that the cord or
chain by which the scale is suspended, always acting on the periphery of the
pulley, and at the same distance from its centre, the leverage there will be at

page_text: all times the same, so that if the machine is correctly made and in order, the
weight e being adjusted to the graduated are, and fixed upon its rod d, which
must be done with great accuracy, the operation of the weighing machine
and the movements of its index cannot under any circumstance do otherwise
than indicate the true weight of the goods or articles placed in the scale, the
friction being reduced to the lowest possible amount, there being no toothed
gear, and the only rubbing parts the ends of the axle which are contracted to
knife edges.
In witness whereof, T, the said William Newton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty.