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Show ! How Scales Are Made to Cheat ! i 1 i : ' 7 MAGAZINES and newspapers news-papers have given much space in late 7 -B- T- j years to the ques-l ques-l ' j"" t'on ' we'Sbts aQd pru""p, measures, which has resulted in the pas- fp sage of legislation in many states putting '15P the supervision of " tP'l"" tlli8 Particular 5' branch of work un der a defined department depart-ment of state government. There are numerous ways of cheating cheat-ing in tlje use of scales, regardless of the size or make. The art of scale building has advanced rapidly in the last quarter century, but investigation by various departments of weights and measures, both national and state, has disclosed the fact that the inventive inven-tive minds of those whose unfortunate mental arrangement leads them to defraud de-fraud their fellow men, has kept pace with this advance. The most astounding fraud ever perpetrated was that of the famous sugar trust fraud, in which the United States government was 'robbed of many millions in import tax duty, by the use of a small piece of umbrella steel to throw the scales out of balance. bal-ance. But with most cases of deception, decep-tion, the perpetrator becomes over confident, and through . carelessness leaves a slight clue, which eventually leads to discovery. Rubber bands have been employed to throw scales off correct balance, but as these are hard to apply they are not so commonly used. A common method of cheating is to overload the scale counter weights with lead and throw the balanci to the credit of the scale owner. But the most pernicious and ingenious in-genious of these is a device recently discovered by the department of weights and measures which is under the jurisdiction of the railroad and warehouse commission of Minnesota. This is a small piece of tempered steel weighing 1-32 of an ounce, and is used in scales for the purpose &; s-Od-ing to or shrinking the weight of an article. It can be carried In the vest pocket and placed in poskkm on the scale In a few seconds. It has the advantage to the user of being reversible, re-versible, that Ib to say, he can take more in buying or give less In selling, than the just and proper weight. The device Is in the nature of a false knife-edge or pivot. It has a small projection pro-jection on one side, which when applied ap-plied to a scale with the projection projec-tion towards the back end of the scale beam the effect will be to make a load weigh less than correct, and the reverse is true when applied with the projection toward the front end of the Bcale beam. These devices are made so that the use of them on a scale, dor not affect af-fect the beam action whereby an observer ob-server could tell that the scale was not weighing correctly, as they allow the beam free action. The percentage of error. In the use of this device would differ, depending upon the make of scale and the multiplying mul-tiplying power, of the scale beam. All scale beams have not the same measurements, meas-urements, and on one scale the effect was 2 V4 per cent either in excess or deficiency, depending upon how the device was placed, and on another scale the effect was 5 per cent either way. On some of the new type stock scales with full capacity beams, having hav-ing no counterweights, the effect would easily be 10 per cent of the load. These figures are based upon the , assumption that the scale would be put into perfect balance after the device de-vice was inserted, but if by neglect or desire the scale should not be balanced bal-anced after the device was put under the fulcrum pivot of the beam, the effect would be to give a false weight of about 200 pounds on any size load In addition to the 2, 5, or 10 per cent as the case might be. If one of these devices were used on a scale beam for fraudulent purposes, pur-poses, it would undoubtedly be Inserted Insert-ed in the loop from the rear of the beam, and thus could not be seen from the position In which one stands to do .the weighing, hence the necessity of looking into the beam loops from the rear of the beam to prove that such a device is not being used. At a large stock shipping point in Minnesota many complaints had been received relative to the weights over a certain stock scale. On investigation investiga-tion of the scale it was discovered that one of these "shrlnkers" was In use. The commission immediately started Its special agent out to trace it up. The remarkable part of the Investigation Investi-gation is that in the endeavor to find the origin of this device, the trail led through the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, South Dakota and Wisconsin, Wis-consin, and going on the old theory, "where there Is much smoke there g-Q- pl B- ro - sr.- - .A. Loop in yrhich Dericc s paccf JB fulcrum Fi rot under yvhtch Derce s pcecf loop Enlarged ft it B-FuLCFVu.vox JiyiSr-L00P Tn'oJMPi.Es of me fSfey 'JJ flut-Size. must be some fire," it is safe to assume as-sume that when continual rumors of "shrinkers" ' were prevalent, the shrinker device must have been domg some shrinking, and in the case of this particular form of1 shrinker, which could be used on Ireavy scales, such as stock scales and grain scales, it has been the farmer and producer who were the victims. The evidence obtained by the agent of the Minnesota commission disclosed dis-closed the fact that the man who had made these devices had procured from $8 to $75 each for them. The following precautions will be ol assistance in helping to detect these or similar fraudulent devices and prevent pre-vent the seller of any commodity which may be weighed over a scale from being victimized; 1. See that a scale is in perfect balance bal-ance before any weighing is done. . 2. See that scale beam swings freely, free-ly, that is, without a stiff jerking motion. mo-tion. 3. See that there is ample clearance about the scale platform, if it is a wagon, stock or dump scale. |