Triner postal scale

A spring stretched when a parcel hung from the hook, and the pointer on the dial showed its weight in pounds.

Date: 1912-1926
Maker: Triner Scales and Manufacturing Company
Place: California
Materials: metal; glass
Dimensions: Height x Width x Depth: 12 x 6 1/4 x 2 in. (30.48 x 15.88 x 5.08 cm)
Others named in the record: Post Office Department, (1792-1971) (User)
Museum: National Postal Museum

Postal clerks used this spring-balance hanging scale to weigh parcels up to twenty pounds. The packages were attached to the hook at the bottom of the chrome-rimmed circular dial. Although there is no information to indicate the specific date of manufacture of this scale, the Post Office Department ordered at least 20,000 of this style of circular spring scales from Triner in 1912.

Triner Scales and Manufacturing Company was founded in 1897 in Chicago, Illinois. Today they are located in Memphis, Tennessee. Triner was one of the earliest and most prolific suppliers of scales to the U.S. Post Office.

This scale has two seals applied to the back indicating the device was tested and approved by Marin County, California’s Department of Weights and Measures in 1917 and 1926. Museum records show this scale came from San Geronimo, California.

Reference:

Order No. 6593, awards for parcel post scales, Post Office Department, October 11, 1912, USPS Historian’s Office (M. Ausman’s “Scales” file).

Bill and Jan Berning, Scales: "A Collector’s Guide" (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 1999), p. 31.

The museum's own record (Smithsonian, National Postal Museum)