Toledo "No Springs — Honest Weight" Cast Iron Computing Scale

Somewhere in Prineville, Oregon, a butcher named something like Ed or Earl ran a counter where beef came out chopped, shaped, and frozen under the E & E Meats label. The scale at the front of that counter was this one — a Toledo Scale Company Model, serial 362939, Style 144, capacity 99 pounds. It weighed the product. It told you the price. It did this honestly, without springs, which Toledo considered a moral position worth putting in the name.

The cylindrical cast iron head is dressed for retail — nickel-plated ornamental panels worked with foliate scrolls and rosettes frame a glass-fronted computing chart that cross-references weight against unit price, a merchant's arithmetic table built directly into the machine. Patent dates stamped across the top of the chart face run from 1895 through 1904, charting a decade of refinements to the pendulum mechanism that made Toledo the dominant name in American commercial weighing. The cream porcelain enamel housing, the engraved balance bar, the cast decorative junction block at the beam center — this is a scale that understood it was part of a store's public face, not just its back room. The Oregon Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures "Tested & Sealed 1965" inspection seal and a Type A Scale License (No. 13225, expiring June 30, 1965) remain on the housing. So does the E & E Meats product label — chopped beef, monosodium glutamate, spices, Prineville, Oregon 97754, All Central Oregon — still adhered to the rear guard panel where a butcher stuck it decades ago and nobody ever took it off.

Last known working placement: E & E Meats, Prineville, Oregon — a Central Oregon butcher shop operating under State of Oregon commercial scale licensing through at least 1965. The Oregon Department of Agriculture Weights and Measures inspection seal (1965) and Type A Scale License No. 13225 remain intact on the housing. The E & E Meats product label — printed for chopped, shaped, and frozen steaks — is adhered to the rear guard panel. These are not decorative additions; they are the documentary record of a working tool.

CONDITION

Good; fully functional. Age-appropriate wear throughout: scuffing, paint chipping and loss to the cast iron base and lower housing, light surface oxidation. The glass back panel is cracked. The round platter is a later non-original replacement. Oregon weights-and-measures inspection labels and the E & E Meats butcher-shop label are present but worn. No remarkable structural damage beyond the noted glass crack.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Overall: 31" H × 19" W × 19" D
• Maker: Toledo Scale Company
• Serial Number: 362939
• Indicator Style: 144
• Capacity: 99 lbs.
• Materials: Cast iron, steel, nickel plate, glass, porcelain enamel finish
• Patent Dates Marked: Sept. 3, 1895; re-issued Apr. 28, 1896; Jan. 11, 1898; Apr. 24, 1900; May 28, 1901; June 18, 1901; May 19, 1903; Dec. 6, 1904
• Provenance Labels Present: Oregon Dept. of Agriculture Weights & Measures seal (1965); Type A Scale License No. 13225 (exp. June 30, 1965); E & E Meats product label, Prineville, OR 97754
• Note: Round platter is a non-original replacement