USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > St Johnsbury > 150th anniversary of the founding of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, 1937 > Part 3
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Today the plant manufactures handles exclusively. It uses an average of 2,000,000 feet of ash logs annually in the work, turning out thousands of handles for agricultural tools. Formerly the whole tool was made here but the handles are shipped mostly to the company's own finishing plants in the United States and Canada. Ash is used exclusively, and the logs are pur- chased locally and throughout Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
The American Fork & Hoe Co. does a world wide business and has agencies in far off lands where go handles of many sizes and shapes to do their share in tilling the soil of old Mother Earth the world over. The prin- cipal offices are in Cleveland, Ohio.
When the Fairbanks brothers established the factory there it was not on the exact location of the present plant, but was a few hundred feet up- stream and nearer the Moose River than the present modern mill. In those days the entire tool was made, when such articles were hammered out by hand on the anvil and the wooden handles added afterwards. Then in later years, under the management of George W. Ely, these crude methods were laid aside and the finished product brought about by more modern means of trip-hammering, rolling, plating, tempering, grinding, polishing and mount- ing.
C. A. Calderwood, Inc.
Although not exactly classified with St. Johnsbury industries, C. A. Calderwood, Inc., has been closely associated with the growth of the town in a commercial way for close to three-quarters of a century and is one of the
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oldest business houses in the town. Throughout its history it has given its entire efforts to the field in which it was originally established by Charles A. Calderwood, furniture and undertaking.
It originally was located in the Odd Fellows block on Railroad street and before it was taken over by Mr. Calderwood it bore the firm name of Tisdale & Burnham. By 1914 the business had so substantially increased that it outgrew the Railroad street location and Mr. Calderwood bought the lot at the corner of Eastern avenue and Pearl street whereon he constructed the modern business block which the company he founded thereafter occupied. Mr. Calderwood passed on only about a year after the company moved into its new building.
The family, following the methods always followed by Mr. Calderwood and the strict integrity at all times in the conduct of the business that had won the confidence and admiration of all who knew him, continued to main- tain the high standing of the firm along the lines so strenuously maintained through all the years.
Since Mr. Calderwood's death the business has been managed by his two sons, C. Roy Calderwood and Alvi P. Calderwood. Wesley Calderwood. son of C. Roy Calderwood, has recently entered the business.
The Calderwood enterprise is still enjoying business growth and ex- pansion. Its funeral service has just recently established a branch at Lyndon- ville with full time service available. Its St. Johnsbury funeral service has recently been moved to the historic "Octagon House" estate on Eastern avenue. Here, in a separate building, will be the Funeral Chapel and all of the necessary appurtenances have been added to give a dignified and complete service to the public. The family of C. Roy Calderwood occupies the brick Octagon homestead.
Fred W. Barrows, Furniture
A brand new industry in St. Johnsbury, scarcely one year old. is the plant of Fred W. Barrows on Portland street which since coming here in the spring of 1936, has been manufacturing chairs exclusively. The work it does includes making the chairs every step from cutting the trees in the forest to delivering the finished product.
Most of these chairs are shipped out in car load lots to wholesalers and furniture dealers who finish the product in any color to complete kitchen sets. Although the Barrows company is an old one in the state, a mill has been in operation here only a year. It took over a small but very excellent factory formerly occupied by the Manton-Gaulin Co., and in addition to the buildings already on the ground the Barrows interests constructed a dam on the Moose River, a saw mill, a dry kiln and is planning the construction of still another.
The company owns valuable timber lands in the western part of the state and cuts and has shipped here many thousands of feet of beech, birch and maple which it uses exclusively in its manufacturing. It is constantly increasing the scope of its business as fast as its construction program will permit. It has 33 men employed at the present time. This number is far below what it expects to employ when the construction program is complete and the mill is running at its intended capacity.
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TWENTY-FIVE
Fairbanks
F AIRBANKS is a name synonymous with scales and the history of St. Johnsbury. In 1831 Thaddeus Fairbanks took out his first patent on the platform scale, making the trip to Washington on horseback. From that time St. Johnsbury dates her material growth and importance, for by nature she seems to have been designed for a manufacturing center, being at the confluence of three rivers, the Moose, Passumpsic and Sleeper's.
From a little shop no bigger than a garage for two modern automobiles, the Fairbanks scale industry has grown in the 106 years since its founding to a gigantic enterprise with 580,000 square feet of floor space. The one little building in 1831 has grow today into 46 factory buildings. The average monthly payroll for the first half of this Sesqui-Centennial year was about $75,000. Employment over the same period of time was being given to well over six hundred employees.
With the part that the Fairbanks family has played in St. Johnsbury's history, all of which is quite general knowledge, it is difficult for present gen- erations to comprehend the effrontery of the town fathers of 1815 who at- tempted to banish the family from the community.
The selectmen ordered served on Joseph Fairbanks, father of the four boys who were to distinguish themselves in the scale industry, a notice to "depart said town." The elder Fairbanks paid little or no attention to the writ as it was a New England custom of the day to order newcomers out of town, so the town would not be responsible for their keep in case they be- came destitute.
So after the process server withdrew himself from the presence of the newly arrived family, the elder Fairbanks started to improve the water privi- lege where the scale works now stands, set up a saw mill and had it in opera- tion that fall. The next spring, in 1816, he added a grist mill but the cold season brought the mill little work to do.
In 1817, Thaddeus Fairbanks, just turned 21 years old, fitted out the upper story of the grist mill as a wagon manufacturing plant. His business enjoyed modest prosperity and that year he turned out several pleasure wag- ons, the first wagons ever to run on St. Johnsbury roads, with the exception of the Fairbanks family wagon they brought here when they immigrated in 1815, two years before.
The grist mill, with its second story wagon shop, was carried away in the great flood of 1828. The Fairbanks brothers had started a small foundry on the Moose river for the making of plows, forks and hoes. This enterprise was enjoying some degree of success and remained in the hands of the Fair- banks family for several years until after the invention of the platform scale Then the business on Sleeper's river required the combined attention of the whole family and the Moose river foundry plant was forsaken. In 1848 George W. Ely reestablished the old Fairbanks fork and hoe plant and renamed it the Moose River Works. In later years it became known as the Ely Fork & Hoe Co. and the American Fork & Hoe Co.
With the entire Fairbanks family back at the Sleeper's River location to support Thaddeus Fairbanks' platform scale making idea. the enterprise gained quick foothold and one by one new buildings were added : more em-
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ployees came as the business enlarged ; national commerce began to recognize the town of St. Johnsbury; then world commerce was found standing at her door.
Last year, 1936, this world commerce amounted to 20 per cent of the factory's output. There is hardly a country on the globe that has not done business with the Fairbanks scale factory. Despite this unlimited expanse of territory, the factory finds that the simple beam counter scale and small hand operated scale, in which is incorporated the principles of the first plat- form scale, are still the most universally accepted after these past 106 years.
The principle of the first scale for weighing cart loads of flax was soon adapted to smaller scales for weighing loads of other materials handled by hand and resulted in the counter scales and portable platform scales to set on the floor.
The founding of the Fairbanks company marked the beginning of scales and scale making on a commercial basis. The scale industry is very old. The ancient Babylonians used a crude even balance in commerce and trade 7000 years ago in what now is Ethiopia. This type of scale is still used for fine laboratory work and testing but is, however, too slow an operation for modern industry and commerce, although it was generally used down to the beginning of the last century.
The Fairbanks company has records of a large even balance scale which was built for a liquor store in London about 300 years ago and which is still in use. The weigh beam is about six feet long, with platforms about four feet square suspended from each end of the 6-foot beam. This scale proved very popular for personal weighing and the owners have records of persons they have weighed during all of these years and which include practically all of the English royalty and many notable persons from all parts of the world. In weighing persons on this scale it is balanced up with a chair on one platform to give the customer utter comfort during the operation.
The first improvement over the even balance for commercial weighing was the Roman steelyard developed about 2000 years ago and which is still a popular scale for some operations such as weighing baled cotton. The Fairbanks company still manufactures several modifications of this scale.
The second important improvement in scales, and which started modern scale making and the prosperous St. Johnsbury industry, was the invention of the platform scale in 1831 by Thaddeus Fairbanks. This scale was arranged with the platform supported on a number of multiplying levers connected to a weigh beam so that the weight of a load of any size placed on the platform could be determined by the manipulation of a comparatively small weight. This is the basic principle of all modern scales.
The first scale the Fairbanks company made was built specially for weighing cart loads of flax. It was the inconvenience of weighing flax in small bundles by a steelyard that urged Thaddeus Fairbanks to work out a faster method for this operation. Then followed the adaption of this principle in smaller scales --- and a new industry was born.
This great industry produced 43,700 scales last year, 1936. The amount it paid out in wages to employees amounted to 46 per cent of the factory sales.
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The Fairbanks shops in 1855. A veritable village had grown up around them.
In 1830 Thaddeus Fairbanks invented the platform scale. In 1831 he took out his first patent, making the trip to Washing- ton on horseback, and started scale making on a commercial basis in this little plant.
The Fairbanks shops of today. Its 46 factory build- ings have an aggregate floor space of more than half a million square feet and its scales go to every corner of the world.
FAIRBANKS SCALEFACTORY
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The office of the Fair- banks Scale Division of Fairbanks, Morse & Co., and the well kept grounds.
To simplify weighing cart loads of hemp, Thaddeus Fairbanks contrived the original platform scale, the first improvement in weighing in twenty centuries. From this experience with hemp, Fairbanks today is able to weigh the world.
Carly American Period 1830. The First Platform Scale.
The Fairbanks principle of multiplying levers makes weighing monstrous objects a quick and simple task with utmost accuracy. This locomotive is standing on a platform scale of the same principle as the hemp weighing device above.
Fairbanks Scales
P
Depicting "Fairbanks Scales Weigh the World", theme of the Fairbanks pageant com- memorating 100 years of scale making in 1930. Characters representing all nations on the globe took part in other scenes of this great historical drama.
FAIRBANKS
JOHNSBURY.)
S
One Hund nared Fifty Years of Pr 1937 **
Progress
Material and factory operating expense required another 32 per cent of factory sales. Out of the balance came factory expenses, such as taxes, insurance, depreciation and plant upkeep; therefore it had to practice the thrift for which Vermont has such a reputation in order to realize a small margin of profit.
From the outside, the modern industrial plant seems to ramble aimless- ly down the valley, and crosses Sleeper's River four times. Inside, however, there are many operations that represent modern, approved manufacturing practice and some of the leading industrial magazines sent men to the Fair- banks shops last year to secure data for articles on scale manufacturing methods and equipment as applied to the Fairbanks scheme.
While St. Johnsbury once upon a time might have been considered off the beaten path, the Fairbanks company recently showed that it is at the cross-roads of commerce and industry. This spring the company delivered some delicate parts for a track scale in Cincinnati, Ohio, in just eight and one- half hours after they left the factory. If they had been wanted on the West Coast they could have been delivered at their destination within 24 hours.
Modern transportation provides quick service to distant points, and when a progressive company takes advantage of modern progress it will keep itself and its town at the cross-roads of world commerce and industry.
An interesting angle to the local scale industry is seen in an old plat- form scale in the museum in the Fairbanks factory. In 1834 the scale was sold to Brackett & Bacon for a store in Passumpsic. This scale was used in service until 1893 when it was bought back by the Fairbanks company as a museum piece. While many improvements have been made in scales since the day this oldster was built, the general design today remains the same.
The factory is keeping abreast of modern times with a special labora- tory where scientific experiments pertinent to the industry are carried on. The development of the platform scale with its almost unlimited capacity opened up a vast field with many interesting problems of special applications, which, while they provide only a small part of the sales volume, serve as a sort of appetizer to keep laboratory wits sharpened and tend to keep the scale in- dustry up in line with modern progress.
The factory has been called upon to design scales for weighing canal boats in order to determine what toll should be collected; and along much the same line of purpose, scales to compute the weight of trucks crossing bridges where tolls are required.
Last year the company furnished the 30-ton motor truck scales for the Bay Bridge at San Francisco for weighing motor trucks. These scales weigh the truck and record the weight on a ticket from which the amount of toll to be collected is calculated.
This year the company has developed and is constructing the 40-ton motor truck scales with 60-foot platforms for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, for the same purpose of determining toll automatically on a slip of paper.
The research department of the factory has installed a device for de- termining the various forces on an airplane when the ship is flying through the air at a high rate of speed. Flying conditions are duplicated on an air-
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ship by mounting a model in a stream of air driven at a velocity of approx- imately 500 miles an hour. The ship is so mounted on a frame that all of the various forces acting on it can be measured by means of scales.
Another interesting scale developed in the laboratory is the one built for counting the number of small metal bases used on electric light globes. This scale will automatically count out 12,000 of these bases and deposit them in a barrel in about two minutes' time. Tests indicated the scale would count this lot of bases within a tolerance of eight or ten parts. The entire opera- tion is automatically under electric control.
As an agricultural adjunct, the Fairbanks company, during the past two years, has built quite a number of scales for weighing hogs as they pass from the killing beds in packing houses. The hogs are suspended from car- riers which run on a monorail track. As these carriers pass over a short sec- tion of the track supported by the scale, the scale automatically weighs the hog and prints the weight at two places on a ticket. One half of this ticket goes to the office for permanent record, while the other half is pinned to the hog as a record of its weight as it passes through the remaining marketing process.
Another newly developed scale is one of 10,000 to 20,000 pound capacity for weighing sheet metal while being handled by a crane. This scale, used principally by the large automobile companies, records the weight of the bun- dle and discharges the ticket, which is caught by a man on the floor and at- tached to the bundle after it is deposited at its destination by the crane. Many other kinds of scales which record weights without the necessity of delay while manufacturing or boxing processes are going on have been developed at the St. Johnsbury laboratories of the company. A description of this process would be too technical for the average layman to comprehend.
These things are mentioned in passing to give an insight into the pres- ent day workings of the scale works. Large sums of money are expended annually to keep development abreast of the times. The company attacks scale problems in a sane and business-like manner and it is meeting industry's demand for every conceivable type of weighing apparatus. In fact, Fairbanks scales are tuned to the times. With specialty scales it is no longer necessary to handle products piece-meal. The weighing may be done at the same time the product is being handled for other purposes relevant to its marketing without a single wasted operation.
While these specialty scales are of interest and form an important part of the company's production, its "bread and butter" is in the manufacturing of the common counter scales and portable platform scales, which represent about 60 per cent of the value of the production. These scales are used mostly for commercial weighing and for light industrial operations where loads are handled by hand. Last year, 1936, 41.500 of the total production of 43.200 scales were in this class.
Heavy scales represent about 15 per cent of the value of the company's production and are used for weighing loads that generally are handled by mechanical equipment. Such scales come under the classification of wagon. motor truck, warehouse, hopper, tank and railroad track scales, running in
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JOHNSBURY.
One Hundred 1937' dred Fifty Years of Progr
capacity from one-half ton up to 600 tons. It is a little difficult to visualize the weighing of a single load of 600 tons, but if all of the people in St. Johns- bury were to be put on a platform about ten feet wide by 75 feet long, such a scale could weigh all of them at once, and more would have to be sent for to balance it.
The company has developed fine weighing equipment such as dials and recording devices, many of which are arranged for automatic operation under electric control. These devices not only automatically show how much the load weighs, but also print the weight. Modern industry will not take time to take products to a scale for weighing, so a scale must be adapted for weighing a product at certain parts of the process of manufacture without delaying its progress. Such weighing often must be entirely automatic even to recording of not only the weight but various other data to identify the particular weighing and to provide for more accurate control of industrial operations.
The St. Johnsbury factory probably solves more weighing problems for modern industry than any other spot in the world, but it is all a part of the modern progress the company has been leading for more than a century. The work goes on every day without confusion of any kind with an organization that is an essential part of the life of the town.
Such then, is the progress made in the scale industry since Thaddeus Fairbanks gave to the world the platform scale, the first improvement in scales since the days of the Caesars and the Roman even balance. The name of Fairbanks is indissolubly associated with St. Johnsbury, whose progress and prosperity has been largely built upon the great business which bears that family name. The lives of the Fairbankses are still being revered; their public services are still being enjoyed, and by their lasting nature they will continue to be enjoyed for many more years to come.
The original firm consisted of three brothers, Thaddeus, Erastus and Joseph. Joseph was the literary man; Thaddeus, the inventor; Erastus, the business man. Thaddeus was of an extremely inventive mind. The scale was a simple invention, but many of the machines invented by him for facili- tating the manufacture were exceedingly ingenious, and his inventions were not merely for scales, for which, and for their making, he received 32 patents. He also patented a hemp machine, a stove, a cast iron plough, a steam heater, a steam water heater, a feed water heater, and an improvment in refrigerators. His last patent was allowed on his ninetieth birthday, a short time before his death in 1886.
The Fairbanks company was started with these assets : One half dozen blacksmiths, one old wooden bed-lathe, a few vises and anvils found in a Bos- ton junk shop. But there was an unlimited supply of ingenuity, tenacity, mechanical skill, business and executive ability. There was very little capital.
If it had not been for the plow-making establishment founded by the brothers, there undoubtedly never would have been Fairbanks scales today. Their plow-making was so successful they enlarged their enterprise to em-
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FAIRBANKS SCALES
Fairbanks, Morse & Co. FAIRBANKS SCALE DIVISION ESTABLISHED 1830 St. Johnsbury, Vermont
JOHNSBURY.Y
One Hundred nared Fifty Years of Proq 1937
brace stove making and the manufacture of hoes and pitchforks. Their repu- tation for skill and reliability in their work was so universal they were award- ed a big contract to make hemp-dressing machines for a newly developed industry.
It was this contract that directly led to the invention of the Fairbanks platform scale. The work under the contract necessitated some means of weighing hemp by wagon loads. A crude apparatus was contrived by Thad- deus Fairbanks to grapple the axles of the wagon, lift the load and approxi- mately get its weight. Thaddeus foresaw an improvement to this clumsy device. While exercising his ingenuity upon it, he caught the idea of a plat- form resting on levers, which embodied the principle of what is now known as the platform scale.
The new scale, which in a few years was to weigh the world, was at hand. The ancient reign of Astraea was disturbed and the steelyard of old Rome was taking its departure. The original platform scale was devised but the inventive mind of Thaddeus started to improve upon it before it was com- mercialized beyond a few villages in Vermont.
The first improvement, a principle which still exists in practically all Fairbanks scales, was the knife-edge supports for the platform. He was thinking how to improve on the original scale when it occurred to him that with A-shaped levers, or four straight levers meeting at a steelyard rod, or hanging from one that hung upon the steelyard rod, he could secure four knife-edge supports for his platform, from all of which the leverage as related to the steelyard beam might be the same. For all practical purposes this was the birth of the modern scale.
From that time on this knife-edge principle was deemed practical and best suited for obtaining accurate weights. New styles and sorts of scales were gradually invented, including the first portable platform, warehouse and counter scales, and then later came the railroad track, elevator and live-stock scales; and more recently the delicate scales and balances; these scaled from one-tenth of a grain to six hundred tons.
The old measure and count gave way immediately to trade transac- tions done almost entirely by weight. Before the growth of the scale industry nourished the growth of St. Johnsbury, all supplies and finished products had to be hauled by team to and from Portland and Boston. When the town began to feel the pulse of new life skilled workers came in, homes were built, roads were developed-then in time came the railroad, completing a transpor- tation system into this area.
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