Computing Scale Company, Dayton  Beams

This price computing scale is made by The Computing Scale Company of Dayton, Ohio―commonly referred to as “Dayton” scale. It is much the same as original Dayton scales, which go back to 1891, creating the first commercially successful price computing scales.

In The Encyclopedia American, 1903–1905, it was “classified as follows: Platform scales with change of leverage.”¹ The price beam and money-value beam are mounted in a frame that slides left and right to change the leverage (lift the small handle on the left and slide the frame). This is how the price per pound is set. No competitors ever used a change-of-leverage mechanism, and within 10 years, it was surpassed by other technologies.

The total capacity is 100 pounds (45 kg), which was a huge market advantage because other price computing scales only went up to 10 pounds at the most.

The price beam and the additional weights have two graduations for prices, and the money-value beam also has two graduations―in all cases, one being four times the other (for example, see the photo of the weights). The grocer either used the lower amounts on both the beams and the weights, or the grocer used the upper amounts for all readings to make it work.

Based on the listed patents, this example was likely manufactured between the mid-1890s and 1902 (17 years after the first patent). It has Serial Number 13333.

The change-of-leverage scale was first patented by Tilly and Warren Flint in 1849, but it did not have commercial success. The Dayton scale is based on patents by Julius Pitrat and later by O. O. Ozias. Pitrat had his own company in Gallipolis, Ohio, and he sold it to the Detroit Computing Scale Company. The Detroit company soon closed, and Ozias and Edward Camby bought the patents and created The Computing Scale Company. The company entered a trust with the Stimpson Computing Scale Company and others in 1902, and that trust became one of the foundations of International Business Machines (IBM).

References:
¹Henry Theobald, “Computing Scale,” The Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. 4, 1903–1905.
Also see Exhibits > Price Computing Scales

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