Milk Scales Provided Proven Results

Subsequent literature does not mention a patent. The No. 24 catalog, ca.1915, notes that “The Meloney Automatic Milk scale is an outcome of some 15 years’ studying and experimenting, not only here in our shop, but with the aid of some of the best dairymen in the country. While it is not perfection, it is a long way in advance of anything else in line.”

The price started ca. 1889 at $10 for a scale ($238 today), one pail and 31 record sheets. With increasing sales, the company was able to hold the price for the same contents, as we see in the Bestov catalog in about 1900, but now the scale was mounted in a wood cabinet. This edition also depicts “Straight Spring Balances with the company name,” sold by the dozen for various weight ranges, and for larger amounts of dairy product there was the “Bestov Platform Scale.”

Meloney Double Deck

In about 1914, a major improvement was announced. “At the request of one of our largest western ranches, we have perfected the Double Deck Automatic Scale,” read an announcement in a Meloney catalog. “This is identically the same as two single scales mounted tandem, except that both dial arms are mounted to the same spring, so that the pail on the hook will register on any of the 40 buttons at one time. Cards may be ordered, numbered from 1 to 10, 11 to 20, etc., as high as 81 to 90, or unnumbered cards will be sent if required.”

Collector friends, here is our new challenge: Let’s not rest until we have at least a picture of the Double Deck. FC 

Utz Schmidt became interested in scales and balances more than 35 years ago while living in Germany. He is a founding member of the International Society of Antique Scale Collectors. While building a broad-based collection, he fell in love with a white scale with four receptacles. It turned out to be a scale for butterfat testing; he’s been collecting dairy scales ever since. Contact him at (810) 376-4438; e-mail: utz.schmidt1985@gmail.com. 

The full-length version of this article originally appeared in Equilibrium, the journal of the International Society of Antique Scale Collectors, 2008, Issue 2, pages 3,359-3,366 (www.isasc.org). Reprinted here by permission.