Erastus and Thaddeus Fairbanks, both of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, obtained two U.S. patents on June 13, 1831, both describing “an Improvement in the Machine for Weighing Heavy Bodies, usually called the ‘Platform-Scale’.” These patents were canceled because of defective specifications, and new ones granted, on March 6, 1834. These patents, in turn, were canceled because of defective specifications, and newer ones (#118 and #119) were granted on February 10, 1837. The model shown here pertains to one of these later patents.
Platform scales made by the Fairbanks brothers were on the market by 1833. And they contributed to the silver medal that the Fairbanks won at the 1837 exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association.
Ref: Erastus Fairbanks and Thaddeus Fairbanks, “Improvement in the Machine for Weighing Heavy Bodies,” U.S. Patent 118 (February 10, 1837).
Erastus Fairbanks and Thaddeus Fairbanks, “Improvement in the Machine for Weighing Heavy Bodies,” U.S. Patent 119 (February 10, 1837).
This oil-wick cap lamp is a patent model constructed by William Pratt of Baltimore, Maryland that received patent number 18704 on November 24, 1857. The oil-wick cap lamp was first invented in Scotland in 1850 and in use until the 1920’s. The font contained a mix of fat and oil for fuel, and a wick was inserted into the spout. The resulting flame was much brighter and more efficient than the candles it replaced. This lamp has a handle rather than a hook, indicating it was meant to be held rather than worn on a cap.
This oil-wick lamp is a patent model constructed by John B. Deeds and William Mack of Terre Haute, Indiana that received patent number 281,846 on July 24, 1883. Deeds and Mack developed a lamp with an “oil tight lid.” The invention is described as “having its top or opening made slightly flaring, in combination with the hinged lid and the supplemental lid or disk with a packing of cork between them, and having holes therein opposite to each other, which communicate with a corresponding opening in the cork for the purpose of ventilation.”
Patent model for George H. Chatillon, “Improvement in Spring-Scales,” U.S. Patent 171,993 (Jan. 11, 1876), assignor to John Chatillon & Sons. George H. Chatillon (1848-1905) was a partner in, and later sole proprietor of, John Chatillon & Sons, a New York firm that made a variety of spring scales.