Salter scales

[treefrog]

Anyone know who made the below scales which I acquired recently. Had a nice enamel sign on top, which may not have been a factory option, but is a nice touch.

I found one used to be on the Southport pier that had been modified and advertised the old pier arcade that was there, which may have belonged to Clive I guess. Also one sold at the Elephant a while back and now is for sale at Junktion Antiques.

The Southport one had painted on and not part of the casting Salters 1902, I can find no maker on mine

Not normally into scales, but this are very slimline and certainly have some age... also has original reset handle and post missing from the others.

[gameswat]

Tree, ummmm.....did you not think to look up the Patents clearly marked on the front? By an American inventor named Edgar Herbert Cook but nothing about a specific maker? He also had a few Patents on vending machines. There could be some more info if you check every Patent top to bottom and might find something? I guess the only probable link to Salter was that these could have been cast locally in the UK and if so then most likely by the Salter foundry?
Patent GB190211426, 1902

List of Patents by Cook

[arrgee]

I guess the only probable link to Salter was that these could have been cast locally in the UK and if so then most likely by the Salter foundry?

Interesting company Salters, started in 1760 at Bilston and later (1820s) set up manufacturing in West Bromwich, during their time made quite an array of items; irons, mincers, potato chippers, coin-op machines, pressure gauges, roller bearings, industrial springs, valve springs, spring balances, scales, and were the first in UK to make typewriters!
I believe they are now owned by the US HoMedics Group and still producing scales. Quite an elaborate weighing scale shown in pic.

Note the chocolate vending machine in their flier, I have wondered whether they cast the chocolate vendors for BAC who were the major players in vending.

[treefrog]

Thanks Gameswat for some reason I was not looking on the right sites.....the only reason Salter up was the link to Clive's machine and I asked him the other day what the link was. So it is not conclusive and odd no make name was stamped. At some point I will do detailed examination including inside and under. Still nice little machine.

The larger Salter machine shown I believe is the Australian version and is in that Museum in Sydney,

They are huge I guess and need six people to move. Would go straight through the floor of my house. Another below

The BAC link is interesting, maybe BAC just requested these castings to be produced

[gameswat]

From what I've been told Salter had the largest foundry in the UK for this kind of work. They made the Mathewson castings amongst others and I'm sure also the BAC castings too. The first version Salter in the Sydney museum is not a special export model, many can be seen gracing UK piers in old postcards, along with the matching junior version. At least 1000 if not more were shipped to Aust in the 1890's along with the junior version and many many hundreds survive with most still on location! A world record I'm sure for non stop operation in a business sense. I think only one of the earlier models has survived in the UK because of recycling in both world wars, which didn't happen in Aust. I don't know of any of the later 1906 model #500 in Aust (the red example), I guess there were enough here already.

Tree I don't remember ever seeing your Edgar Herbert Cook scale in any US collections or publications, which is what leads me to believe it was probably manufactured in the UK since at least three have turned up there.

[ddstoys]

New phone so do t have a photo of the scales but here is the original glass for my mini scales

[bob]

Treefrog writes: "The larger Salter machine shown I believe is the Australian version and is in that Museum in Sydney,

They are huge I guess and need six people to move. Would go straight through the floor of my house."

Treefrog guesses that these scales need six people to move. They may need six people to lift them but if you know what you are doing one person can do the job of moving them. The man who operates them in Australia, who is a friend of mine, does this singlehandedly. He places them on location on his own with the aid of just a small utility truck and a lot of experience in handling these machines.

[ddstoys]

Bob is spot on as usual one man can move them
With the right balance but lifting them holy crap mines only the small version and lifting it out of the van almost kills the two of us and that was just down