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Stimpson Scale Companies

Walter F. Stimpson Scale Companies

Walter Franklin Stimpson (born Sept. 20, 1870; died Aug. 17, 1942) was raised on a farm in southern Michigan near the town of Milan. In that same area, he became a mathematics teacher in a country school.

In 1893, he saw a special, new scale being proudly demonstrated in a local grocery store―a price computing scale. However, a few weeks later it was gone. The shopkeeper “had sent the scale back because of the four operations necessary in arriving at the weight and money value.”1

Could Stimpson make something easier to use? That mission sparked one of the most significant patents in price computing scale development. Issued July 23, 1895, it used a single, flat poise that had a list of prices, and the poise would slide across a “beam” that was a table of total values. In other words, there was only one operation.

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Walter Stimpson’s standard method of operation was to form a company, license his patents and his name, serve as the vice president, and move on to something else. So, in addition to his string of computing scale companies, he had others that did not make computing scales, was director of a brick-making company (in exchange for using his brick-making patent), and even licensed patents to Fairbanks who produced a “Stimpson” computing scale in the pre-World War I era.

Price Computing Scales:

1894

Stimpson Computing Scale Co. Ltd
Milan, Michigan

1895-1896

Stimpson Computing Scale Co.
Tecumseh, Mich.

1896-1904

Stimpson Computing Scale Co.
Elkhart, Indiana

1899

Stimpson WF & Co., Detroit, Mich.

1900-1914

WF Stimpson Co., Detroit
Brand 1900-1902, Mfr. 1903-1914

1904-1912

Stimpson Computing Scale Co., Detroit

1912-1921

Detroit Automatic Scale Co., Detroit

1919-1947

Stimpson Computing Scale Co.
Louisville, Kentucky

1947-1987

Part of Globe-Stimpson brand

Non-Computing Scales:

1902-1904

Stimpson Standard Scale Co., Milan, Mich.

1905-1906

Stimpson Scale & Manufacturing Co., Milan

1906-1911

Stimpson Scale & Manufacturing Co.
Northville, Mich.

1911-1926

Stimpson Scale & Electric Co., Northville

The overlapping dates of computing scale companies in Elkhart, Indiana, and Detroit were caused by the cancellation of licenses, lawsuits over patent infringement and use of Stimpson’s name, and the formation of a trust, Computing Scale Company of America. This trust became part of C-T-R in 1911, and C-T-R was renamed International Business Machines in 1924, today known as IBM.

To better understand these various companies, see the article in Equilibrium referenced below, with a link to the article.2

References:
1“Stimpson Computing Scale Company’s Growth,” The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky; June 17, 1924, p 28.
2Greg Moss, “What Happened to Walter?” Equilibrium, 2007, Issue No. 2, pp 3246-3251. (CLICK HERE to read this article posted by the Newman Numismatic Portal on the Internet Archive website. It opens in a new window.)

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