52 "WISCONSIN AGRICULTUEE. 



quired the weighing of a substance that was very light and verv 

 bulky. The largest possible draft of it that could be made by 

 any weighing apparatus then in use, was but a few pounds, and 

 in receiving or discharging large quantities, the labor of weigh- 

 ing was almost interminable. This suggested the desirableness 

 of a scale upon which the article could be weighed by wagon 

 loads, and the result was a platform scale. Different modifica- 

 tions have been made from time to time, to meet the various 

 demands of the commercial and manufacturing world ; and now 

 they make more than fifty kinds of scales, from the Druggist's 

 scale, weighing an eighth of an ounce, ap to the ponderous 

 weigh-locks, capable of determining a weight of five hundred 

 tons. All these scales are made, however, upon the same prin- 

 ciple, and are of equal and unvarying accuracy. 



From a small beginning, and from sales amounting to only a 

 few hundred, or at most, a few thousand dollars annually, the 

 Messrs. Fairbanks have carried their business steadily forward, 

 till by their energy, skill and honorable dealing, they have gain- 

 ed a world-wide reputation as manufacturers, and increased their 

 sales till they are reckoned by hundreds of thousands of dollars 

 per year. Since the great multiplication of railroads, the de- 

 mand for Scales are proportionately increased. Nearly a hund- 

 red and thirty railroads, among which are the longest and most 

 important lines in the United States, are supplied exclusively or 

 nearly so with Fairbank's Scales. The same is true of nearly 

 all the great lines in England, their scales being made in that 

 country by a Liverpool house. The Railroads in Cuba and 

 South America are also supplied with their scales, graduated to 

 the Spanish standard. Among the great American roads that 

 use Fairbanks' Scales, may be mentioned the New York & Erie, 

 the New York Central, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Grand Trunk, 

 and the Great Western, (in Canada,) the Michigan Central, 

 Michigan Southern, and Illinois Central. Nearly, if not quite 

 all the roads which concentrate at Chicago are supplied with 

 them, and most of those which now, or prospectively, terminate 

 at Milwaukee, have made arrangements for being furnished with 

 them. From a multitude of testimonials submitted to our in- 



