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80-512: Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Founded in 1823 as a manufacturer of weighing scales , it later diversified into pumps, engines , windmills , coffee grinders, radios , farm tractors , feed mills, locomotives , and industrial supplies. It was purchased by the Penn-Texas conglomerate in 1958. There are three separate corporate entities that could be considered successors to

160-440: A balance , which compares the torque on the arm due to a sample weight to the torque on the arm due to a standard reference mass using a horizontal lever . Spring scales measure force , which is the tension force of constraint acting on an object, opposing the local force of gravity. They are usually calibrated so that measured force translates to mass at earth's gravity. The object to be weighed can be simply hung from

240-431: A fulcrum . One plate holds an object of unknown mass (or weight ), while objects of known mass or weight, called weights , are added to the other plate until mechanical equilibrium is achieved and the plates level off, which happens when the masses on the two plates are equal. The perfect scale rests at neutral. A spring scale will make use of a spring of known stiffness to determine mass (or weight). Suspending

320-421: A load cell instead. A voltage is applied to the device, and the weight causes the current through it to change. The current is converted to a digital number by an analog-to-digital converter , translated by digital logic to the correct units, and displayed on the display. Usually, the device is run by a microprocessor chip. A digital bathroom scale is a scale on the floor which a person stands on. The weight

400-769: A Fairbanks office in Chicago , from which he expanded the company's territory of operation and widened its product line. As part of this expansion, Morse brought Wheeler and his Eclipse Windmill pumps into business with the Fairbanks company. Morse later became a partner in the Fairbanks Company and by the end of the nineteenth century, it was known as Fairbanks Morse & Company and was headquartered in Chicago. Canadian and American cities had branch dealerships, with Fairbanks first coming to Montreal, Quebec , Canada, in 1876 and later opening

480-578: A certain mass will extend the spring by a certain amount depending on the spring's stiffness (or spring constant ). The heavier the object, the more the spring stretches, as described in Hooke's law . Other types of scales making use of different physical principles also exist. Some scales can be calibrated to read in units of force (weight) such as newtons instead of units of mass such as kilograms . Scales and balances are widely used in commerce, as many products are sold and packaged by mass. The balance scale

560-418: A cloud service or an ERP system for real-time monitoring and management of material flow. A pallet jack scale is a device that combines a pallet jack and a weighing scale. It allows you to weigh and move pallets at the same time, saving time and labor. Pallet jack scales are used in various industries, such as manufacturing, logistics, and shipping. Hammermill A hammer mill is a mill whose purpose

640-400: A constant gravity or acceleration. Very precise measurements are achieved by ensuring that the balance's fulcrum is essentially friction -free (a knife edge is the traditional solution), by attaching a pointer to the beam which amplifies any deviation from a balance position; and finally by using the lever principle, which allows fractional masses to be applied by movement of

720-674: A dedicated factory the following year. In 1947, F-M introduced two new road switcher models, the 1,500 hp H-15-44 and the 2,000 hp H-20-44 . In late 1949, the company's new cab units, named the Consolidated Line , were introduced to replace the Erie-builts in its catalog. None of the late-1940s models sold as well as competing units from EMD and Alco , and the Consolidated Line fared particularly poorly as cab units fell out of favor on American railroads. In 1951 F-M began designing

800-594: A factory there. In the late nineteenth century, business expanded in the Western United States , as did the company's catalog. It grew to include typewriters , hand trucks , railway velocipedes , pumps, tractors, and a variety of warehouse and bulk shipping tools. The company became an industrial supplier distributing complete "turn-key" systems: tools, plumbing, gauges, gaskets, parts, valves, and pipe. Its 1910 catalog contained over 800 pages. The Fairbanks Morse Company began producing oil and naptha engines in

880-779: A factory was opened in Mexico, where model Z engines were built well into the 1980s. An Australian branch factory, similar to the Canadian Branch operation, was opened; remote sheep stations benefited from their products. It dated from 1902, when Cooper Sheep Shearing Machinery Ltd was set up in Sydney, and became an agent for Fairbanks Morse in that hemisphere. The company sold and updated the Eclipse model of windmill pumps in North America until they became obsolete with widespread rural electrification in

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960-400: A force to counter the sample being measured and output the result by measuring the force needed to achieve balance. Such a measurement device is called an electromagnetic force restoration sensor. Pendulum type scales do not use springs. These designs use pendulums and operate as a balance that is unaffected by differences in gravity. An example of application of this design are scales made by

1040-419: A fulcrum at its center. For highest accuracy, the fulcrum would consist of a sharp V-shaped pivot seated in a shallower V-shaped bearing. To determine the mass of the object, a combination of reference masses was hung on one end of the beam while the object of unknown mass was hung on the other end (see balance and steelyard balance ). For high precision work, such as empirical chemistry, the center beam balance

1120-436: A kitchen during cooking. These are usually lightweight and compact. In electronic versions of spring scales, the deflection of a beam supporting the unknown mass is measured using a strain gauge , which is a length-sensitive electrical resistance . The capacity of such devices is only limited by the resistance of the beam to deflection. The results from several supporting locations may be added electronically, so this technique

1200-641: A locomotive market supplied by existing manufacturers. In 1943, the WPB approved F-M's plans to sell locomotives, and it introduced the 1,000 hp switcher H-10-44 in 1944, followed by the 2,000 hp cab unit, dubbed the Erie-built for its outsourced assembly location, in late 1945. The early locomotives soon proved unreliable, as high-stress railroad service exposed weaknesses in the engine that had not been seen in less demanding marine applications. In 1947, F-M reorganized its locomotive division, hiring new managers and building

1280-484: A long-term plan to build locomotives in-house. It hired electrical engineer John K. Stotz from Westinghouse Electric Corporation and began developing plans for a 1,000 hp switcher and a 2,000 hp multipurpose locomotive. While the company was ready to begin production of the units in 1940, the War Production Board (WPB) denied it permission, citing the national interest of F-M's production of submarine engines and

1360-470: A major engine manufacturer and developed plants for railway and marine applications. The development of the diesel locomotive , tug, and ship in the 1930s fostered the expansion of the company. Fairbanks-Morse renamed their headless 1.5 horsepower (1.1 kW) Model to "Z" in July 1914, according to engine historian C.H. Wendel. On all "Z" engines the gasoline tank is located in the base. In 1917, they expanded

1440-424: A margin of error +/- 7 mg. Many microbalances and ultra-microbalances that weigh fractional gram values are torsion balances. A common fiber type is quartz crystal. A microbalance (also called an ultramicrobalance, or nanobalance) is an instrument capable of making precise measurements of the mass of objects of relatively small mass: on the order of a million parts of a gram and below. An analytical balance

1520-631: A new large locomotive, and in 1953 it introduced the 2,400 hp H-24-66 Train Master , then the highest-powered locomotive available. It also proved unpopular. In 1956, the Santa Fe ordered three specialized units, based on the H12-44, for terminal switching in Chicago's Dearborn Station : the H12-44TS ("TS" for "Terminal Switcher"). They remained in service until the early 1970s. In 1958, F-M built its last locomotive for

1600-456: A pair of equal-length arms and pivoting in the center of each arm from a central vertical column, creating a parallelogram. From the side of each vertical column a peg extended. To the amazement of observers, no matter where Roberval hung two equal weight along the peg, the scale still balanced. In this sense, the scale was revolutionary: it evolved into the more-commonly encountered form consisting of two pans placed on vertical column located above

1680-410: A personal hand in their development. Even with all the advances in weighing scale design and development, all scales until the seventeenth century AD were variations on the balance scale. The standardization of the weights used – and ensuring traders used the correct weights – was a considerable preoccupation of governments throughout this time. The original form of a balance consisted of a beam with

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1760-431: A platform can be floated on a cantilever beam system which brings the proportional force to a noseiron bearing; this pulls on a stilyard rod to transmit the reduced force to a conveniently sized beam. One still sees this design in portable beam balances of 500 kg capacity which are commonly used in harsh environments without electricity, as well as in the lighter duty mechanical bathroom scale (which actually uses

1840-510: A small mass along the measuring arm of the beam, as described above. For greatest accuracy, there needs to be an allowance for the buoyancy in air, whose effect depends on the densities of the masses involved. To reduce the need for large reference masses, an off-center beam can be used. A balance with an off-center beam can be almost as accurate as a scale with a center beam, but the off-center beam requires special reference masses and cannot be intrinsically checked for accuracy by simply swapping

1920-421: A smooth turbulence-free airflow that prevents balance fluctuation and the measure of mass down to 1 μg without fluctuations or loss of product. Also, the sample must be at room temperature to prevent natural convection from forming air currents inside the enclosure from causing an error in reading. Single-pan mechanical substitution balances maintain consistent response throughout the useful capacity, which

2000-555: A spring scale, internally). The additional pivots and bearings all reduce the accuracy and complicate calibration; the float system must be corrected for corner errors before the span is corrected by adjusting the balance beam and poise. In 1669 the Frenchman Gilles Personne de Roberval presented a new kind of balance scale to the French Academy of Sciences. This scale consisted of a pair of vertical columns separated by

2080-467: A stand and the outside gears fixed to pans, as well as the "sprocket gear balance" consisting of a bicycle-type chain looped around an odd number of sprockets with the central one fixed and the outermost two free to pivot and attached to a pan. Because it has more moving joints which add friction, the Roberval balance is consistently less accurate than the traditional beam balance, but for many purposes this

2160-426: A two-pan, beam balance) are one of the traditional symbols of justice , as wielded by statues of Lady Justice . This corresponds to the use in a metaphor of matters being "held in the balance". It has its origins in ancient Egypt. Scales also are widely used as a symbol of finance, commerce, or trade, in which they have played a traditional, vital role since ancient times. For instance, balance scales are depicted in

2240-460: Is a class of balance designed to measure small mass in the sub-milligram range. The measuring pan of an analytical balance (0.1 mg or better) is inside a transparent enclosure with doors so that dust does not collect and so any air currents in the room do not affect the balance's operation. This enclosure is often called a draft shield. The use of a mechanically vented balance safety enclosure , which has uniquely designed acrylic airfoils, allows

2320-439: Is a weighing system that is built into a forklift truck. It allows for the weighing of loads while they are being lifted and transported by the forklift. This eliminates the need for separate weighing operations and reduces the time and labor required for material handling operations. Forklift scales are used in various industries, such as manufacturing, logistics, and shipping. Material Handler Scale : A Material Handler Scale

2400-400: Is a weighing system that is integrated into a material handler machine, such as a grapple or a magnet. It allows for the accurate and efficient weighing of materials while they are being moved, unloaded, or loaded. A Material Handler Scale can be used in various industries, such as scrap, recycling, waste, and port and harbor. A Material Handler Scale can also transfer the weighing information to

2480-423: Is achieved by maintaining a constant load on the balance beam and thus the fulcrum by subtracting mass on the same side of the beam to which the sample is added. Electronic analytical scales measure the force needed to counter the mass being measured rather than using actual masses. As such they must have calibration adjustments made to compensate for gravitational differences. They use an electromagnet to generate

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2560-491: Is compensated for by its usability. The torsion balance is one of the most mechanically accurate of analog balances. Pharmacy schools still teach how to use torsion balances in the U.S. It utilizes pans like a traditional balance that lie on top of a mechanical chamber which bases measurements on the amount of twisting of a wire or fiber inside the chamber. The scale must still use a calibration weight to compare against, and can weigh objects greater than 120 mg and come within

2640-481: Is designed to be more reliable, and is also claimed to be much cheaper and more energy efficient than regular hammermills. The design & structure of the hammermill is always determined by the end use. Water-powered trip hammer mills were created in 488 AD by the medieval Chinese mathematician and engineer Zu Chongzhi which was inspected by Emperor Wu of Southern Qi (r. 482–493 AD). The water-powered trip hammer mills were powered by minor hill flowing stream that

2720-451: Is shown on an LED or LCD display. The digital electronics may do more than just display weight, it may calculate body fat, BMI , lean mass, muscle mass, and water ratio. Some modern bathroom scales are wirelessly or cellularly connected and have features like smartphone integration, cloud storage, and fitness tracking. They are usually powered by a button cell, or battery of AA or AAA size. Digital kitchen scales are used for weighing food in

2800-518: Is still one of the most accurate technologies available, and is commonly used for calibrating test masses. However, bronze fragments discovered in central Germany and Italy had been used during the Bronze Age as an early form of currency. In the same time period, merchants had used standard weights of equivalent value between 8 and 10.5 grams from Great Britain to Mesopotamia. The balance (also balance scale , beam balance and laboratory balance )

2880-491: Is such a simple device that its usage likely far predates the evidence. What has allowed archaeologists to link artifacts to weighing scales are the stones for determining absolute mass. The balance scale itself was probably used to determine relative mass long before absolute mass. The oldest attested evidence for the existence of weighing scales dates to the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt , with Deben (unit) balance weights, from

2960-470: Is suitable for determining the mass of very heavy objects, such as trucks and rail cars, and is used in a modern weighbridge . These scales are used in the modern bakery , grocery , delicatessen , seafood , meat , produce and other perishable goods departments. Supermarket scales can print labels and receipts, mark mass and count, unit price, total price and in some cases tare . Some modern supermarket scales print an RFID tag that can be used to track

3040-407: Is to shred or crush aggregate material into smaller pieces by the repeated blows of small hammers . These machines have numerous industrial applications, including: The basic principle is straightforward. A hammer mill is essentially a steel drum containing a vertical or horizontal rotating shaft or drum on which hammers are mounted. The hammers are free to swing on the ends of the cross, or fixed to

3120-410: Is used to describe a weighing device that is used to measure the mass, force exertion , tension, and resistance of an object without the need of a power supply. Types of mechanical scales include decimal balances , spring scales , hanging scales, triple beam balances , and force gauges . A spring scale measures mass by reporting the distance that a spring deflects under a load. This contrasts to

3200-439: Is used. It is also common in high-capacity applications such as crane scales to use hydraulic force to sense mass. The test force is applied to a piston or diaphragm and transmitted through hydraulic lines to a dial indicator based on a Bourdon tube or electronic sensor. Electronic digital scales display weight as a number, usually on a liquid crystal display (LCD). They are versatile because they may perform calculations on

3280-681: The US Navy . In addition to OP engines (used in the USCGC Hamilton class ), Fairbanks-Morse license builds Pielstick (used in the Whidbey Island -class dock landing ships and San Antonio -class amphibious transport docks ), Alco (used in USCGC ; Polar Sea ), and M.A.N. design engines. Other World War II era models are the 875 hp 5-cylinder Model 37E16 installed in some T1 tankers . Shortly after it won its first U.S. Navy contract,

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3360-647: The 1890s with the purchase of the Charter line of engines (the first commercially available gas engine). They had the idea that an engine could be used as backup power for when one of their Eclipse windmills wasn't getting wind. The Fairbanks Morse gas engine became a success with farmers. Electricity generation and oilfield work also used these engines. Small lighting plants built by the company were also popular. Fairbanks Morse power plants evolved by burning kerosene in 1893, coal gas in 1905, then to semi-diesel engines in 1913 and to full diesel engines in 1924. The Model N

3440-400: The 1940s, various electronic devices were being attached to these designs to make readings more accurate. Load cells – transducers that convert force to an electrical signal – have their beginnings as early as the late nineteenth century, but it was not until the late twentieth century that their widespread usage became economically and technologically viable. A mechanical scale or balance

3520-441: The 1940s. Low-cost electricity from the grid eliminated the need for local power production by small and medium diesel plants. While many Fairbanks Morse engines dutifully served into the late twentieth century, they could not compete with modernization, regional plant closures, and electricity. An inter-family feud for control of the company in 1956 between the sons of Charles Morse weakened the company. Consequently, Fairbanks-Morse

3600-576: The 1990s was the 38D 8-1/8 engine , ranging from 4 to 12 cylinders. This engine was delivered to the U.S. Navy in large numbers, often for use in fleet submarines, which used 9- or 10-cylinder versions as main engines in World War II . When the innovative but faulty EMD 16-338 "pancake" engines of the Tang class proved unworkable, they were replaced with World War II-style Fairbanks-Morse engines, and these remained standard on US diesel-powered submarines through

3680-564: The American market, followed in 1963 by its final delivery to a Mexican customer. In total, it sold 1,460 diesel locomotives. Fairbanks Morse continued to build diesel and gas engines, as it had been doing for the first half of the twentieth century. This is in addition to the pump and engine division, which produced Canadian Fairbanks Morse-branded products for farms, factories and mines. Export offices were established in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires;

3760-540: The Toledo Scale Company. A programmable scale has a programmable logic controller in it, allowing it to be programmed for various applications such as batching, labeling, filling (with check weight function), truck scales , and more. Another important function is counting, e. g. used to count small parts in larger quantities during the annual stock taking. Counting scales (which can also do just weighing) can range from mg to tonnes. The scales (specifically,

3840-611: The UK by the International Organization of Legal Metrology . An industrial weighing scale is a device that measures the weight or mass of objects in various industries. It can range from small bench scales to large weighbridges, and it can have different features and capacities. Industrial weighing scales are used for quality control, inventory management, and trade purposes. There are many kinds of industrial weighing scales that are used for different purposes and applications. Some of

3920-483: The beam is as close to equilibrium as possible. In precision balances, a more accurate determination of the mass is given by the position of a sliding mass moved along a graduated scale. A decimal balance uses the lever in which the arm for weights is 10 times longer than the arm for weighted objects, so that much lighter weights may be used to weigh heavy object. Similarly a centesimal balance uses arms in ratio 1:100. Unlike spring-based scales, balances are used for

4000-622: The central rotor. The rotor is spun at a high speed inside the drum while material is fed into a feed hopper. The material is impacted by the hammer bars and is thereby shredded and expelled through screens in the drum of a selected size. The hammermill can be used as a primary, secondary, or tertiary crusher. Small grain hammermills can be operated on household current. Large hammer mills used in automobile shredders may be driven by diesel or electric motors ranging from 2000 to over 5000 horsepower (1.5 - 3.7MW). The screenless hammer mill uses air flow to separate small particles from larger ones. It

4080-412: The common types are: Weighbridges  : A large scale that can weigh trucks, lorries, containers, and other heavy-duty vehicles. They are used in industries like manufacturing, shipping, mining, agriculture, etc Container Stacker Scale : A container stacker scale is a specialized weighing system designed for accurately measuring the weight of shipping containers. It is typically integrated into

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4160-471: The company introduced its 5 inches (13 cm) bore by 6 inches (15 cm) stroke opposed piston diesel to the rail industry, installing the engine in various self-propelled railcars. This engine proved unreliable, and was superseded by a larger 5-cylinder 8 inches (20 cm) bore by 10 inches (25 cm) stroke engine that produced 800 hp and was installed in the OP800 railcars in 1939. In 1935, F-M launched

4240-467: The company, none of which is a complete and direct descendant of the original company. All claim the heritage of Fairbanks Morse and Company: Fairbanks Morse and Company began in 1823 when inventor Thaddeus Fairbanks opened an ironworks in St. Johnsbury, Vermont , to manufacture two of his patented inventions: a cast iron plow and a heating stove. In 1829 he started a hemp dressing business for which he built

4320-429: The contents of the pans as a center-beam balance can. To reduce the need for small graduated reference masses, a sliding weight called a poise can be installed so that it can be positioned along a calibrated scale. A poise adds further intricacies to the calibration procedure, since the exact mass of the poise must be adjusted to the exact lever ratio of the beam. For greater convenience in placing large and awkward loads,

4400-432: The displacement of the spring by any variety of mechanisms to produce an estimate of the gravitational force applied by the object. Rack and pinion mechanisms are often used to convert the linear spring motion to a dial reading. Spring scales have two sources of error that balances do not: the measured mass varies with the strength of the local gravitational force (by as much as 0.5% at different locations on Earth), and

4480-627: The earliest design for such a device dates to 1770 and credits Richard Salter, an early scale-maker. Spring scales came into wide usage in the United Kingdom after 1840 when R. W. Winfield developed the candlestick scale for weighing letters and packages, required after the introduction of the Uniform Penny Post . Postal workers could work more quickly with spring scales than balance scales because they could be read instantaneously and did not have to be carefully balanced with each measurement. By

4560-539: The early 1960s. These and other Fairbanks-Morse OP engines were also used as backup power on US nuclear submarines through the Seawolf class of the 1990s. Fairbanks-Morse ranked 60th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. The US Navy has had Fairbanks-Morse diesels in operation on its submarines almost continuously since 1938. They remain in service on Los Angeles -, Seawolf -, and Ohio -class nuclear submarines of

4640-435: The elasticity of the measurement spring can vary slightly with temperature. With proper manufacturing and setup, however, spring scales can be rated as legal for commerce. To remove the temperature error, a commerce-legal spring scale must either have temperature-compensated springs or be used at a fairly constant temperature. To eliminate the effect of gravity variations, a commerce-legal spring scale must be calibrated where it

4720-400: The equipment used for loading and unloading containers, such as container handlers or stacker cranes. Container stacker scales provide real-time weight measurements, allowing logistics professionals to ensure that each container is loaded within the specified weight limits. Container stacker scales are used in industries like ports, shipping, and logistics Forklift scale : A forklift scale

4800-402: The fulcrum and the parallelogram below them. The advantage of the Roberval design is that no matter where equal weights are placed in the pans, the scale will still balance. Further developments have included a "gear balance" in which the parallelogram is replaced by any odd number of interlocking gears greater than one, with alternating gears of the same size and with the central gear fixed to

4880-764: The item for tampering or returns. In most cases, these types of scales have a sealed calibration so that the reading on the display is correct and cannot be tampered with. In the US, the scales are certified by the National Type Evaluation Program (NTEP), in South Africa by the South African Bureau of Standards , in Australia, they are certified by the National Measurement Institute (NMI) and in

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4960-414: The line to include more sizes. In 1918, they stopped making headless models and adapted the 1.5 H.P. to have a head, and larger H.P. engines could now run on Kerosene. In 1928 The "Z" style "D" was introduced, and was entirely enclosed. The Z was made in incremental sizes of 3, 6, 12, 15 and up to 20 horsepower (15 kW). Over a half million units were produced in the following 30 years. In the early 1980s

5040-542: The line was sold off to Bell. The model Z found favor with farmers, and is a collectable today. During World War I , a large order of 60 30 H.P. CO marine engines were installed in British decoy fishing ships to lure German submarines within range of their 6" naval guns. In 1939 Fairbanks-Morse developed a marine engine using an unusual opposed piston (OP) design, similar in arrangement to a series of German Junkers aircraft diesels . The most common variant for submarines through

5120-601: The machinery. Though unsuccessful in fabricating for fiber factories, another of Morse's inventions, the platform scale, formed the basis for the later company. It was patented in June 1832, and a generation later, with his brother Erastus Fairbanks , the E. & T. Fairbanks & Company was selling thousands of scales, first in the United States, later in Europe , South America , and Imperial China . Fairbanks scales won 63 medals over

5200-423: The measurement and transmit it to other digital devices. On a digital scale, the force of the weight causes a spring to deform, and the amount of deformation is measured by one or more transducers called strain gauges . A strain gauge is a conductor whose electrical resistance changes when its length changes. Strain gauges have limited capacity and larger digital scales may use a hydraulic transducer called

5280-493: The precision measurement of mass as their accuracy is not affected by variations in the local gravitational field. (On Earth, for example, these can amount to ±0.5% between locations. ) A change in the strength of the gravitational field caused by moving the balance does not change the measured mass, because the moments of force on either side of the center balanced beam are affected equally. A center beam balance will render an accurate measurement of mass at any location experiencing

5360-503: The reign of Sneferu (c. 2600 BC) excavated, though earlier usage has been proposed. Carved stones bearing marks denoting mass and the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for gold have been discovered, which suggests that Egyptian merchants had been using an established system of mass measurement to catalog gold shipments or gold mine yields. Although no actual scales from this era have survived, many sets of weighing stones as well as murals depicting

5440-426: The scale business was sold off by Colt Industries and became Fairbanks Scales, still an independent company. In 1990, Colt Industries sold its firearms business to C.F. Holdings Corp as Colt's Manufacturing Company , Inc. and became Coltec Industries, Inc., which later became a subsidiary of EnPro Industires, Inc. EnPro was then the parent company of Fairbanks Morse Engine until January 21, 2020, when Fairbanks Morse

5520-538: The seal of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Federal Trade Commission . Scales are also the symbol for the astrological sign Libra . Scales (specifically, a two-pan, beam balance in a state of equal balance) are the traditional symbol of Pyrrhonism indicating the equal balance of arguments used in inducing epoche . Although records dating to the 1700s refer to spring scales for measuring mass,

5600-431: The spring or set on a pivot and bearing platform. In a spring scale, the spring either stretches (as in a hanging scale in the produce department of a grocery store ) or compresses (as in a simple bathroom scale). By Hooke's law , every spring has a proportionality constant that relates how hard it is pulled to how far it stretches. Weighing scales use a spring with a known spring constant (see Hooke's law ) and measure

5680-554: The use of balance scales suggest widespread usage. Examples, dating c.  2400–1800 BC , have also been found in the Indus River valley . Uniform, polished stone cubes discovered in early settlements were probably used as mass-setting stones in balance scales. Although the cubes bear no markings, their masses are multiples of a common denominator. The cubes are made of many different kinds of stones with varying densities. Clearly their mass, not their size or other characteristics,

5760-611: The years in international competition. In Wisconsin , former missionary Leonard Wheeler designed a durable windmill for pumping water, the Eclipse windmill . Wheeler set up shop in Beloit just after the Civil War . Soon half a million windmills dotted the landscape throughout the West and as far away as Australia . At about the same time, a Fairbanks & Company employee, Charles Hosmer Morse , opened

5840-867: Was a factor in sculpting these cubes. In China, the earliest weighing balance excavated was from a tomb of the State of Chu of the Chinese Warring States Period dating back to the 3rd to 4th century BC in Mount Zuojiagong near Changsha , Hunan. The balance was made of wood and used bronze masses. Variations on the balance scale, including devices like the cheap and inaccurate bismar (unequal-armed scales), began to see common usage by c. 400 BC by many small merchants and their customers. A plethora of scale varieties each boasting advantages and improvements over one another appear throughout recorded history, with such great inventors as Leonardo da Vinci lending

5920-408: Was merged with Penn-Western in 1958. The downhill slide continued for the next few decades, with assets being sold off, and branches of the company closed. Regional sales offices were closed, and the one-shop model no longer appealed to buyers in the new consumer age. Automakers, tractor makers, and locomotive builders made inroads into Fairbanks-Morse's market share. Thus the company spiraled down, and

6000-493: Was popular in stationary industrial applications. In 1934, Fairbanks-Morse entered the radio business by acquiring the Audiola Radio Co. After a 1939 factory fire FM decided to exit the radio business. Fairbanks-Morse radios are well known for their colorfulness. The company also had brief forays into building automobiles , tractors , corn shellers , hammermills , cranes , televisions , and refrigerators , but output

6080-401: Was small in these fields. After the expiration of Rudolf Diesel 's American license in 1912, Fairbanks Morse (FM) entered the large engine business. The company's larger Model Y semi-diesel became a standard workhorse, and sugar, rice, timber, and mine mills used the engine. The model Y was available in sizes from one through six cylinders, or 10 to 200 horsepower (150 kW). The Y-VA engine

6160-410: Was sold to Arcline Investment Management. As a result, there are now three companies using either the Fairbanks or Fairbanks Morse trademarks, with lineage to the original Fairbanks Morse and Company. Fairbanks Scale and Fairbanks Morse Pump claim lineage back to E & T Fairbanks Company. Weighing scale The traditional scale consists of two plates or bowls suspended at equal distances from

6240-562: Was sold. Fairbanks Morse and Company merged with Penn-Texas Corporation in 1958 to form Fairbanks Whitney Corporation. Fairbanks Whitney was reorganized as Colt Industries in 1964, taking the name from Colt Manufacturing, the maker of firearms and an asset of Penn-Texas. In 1988, the Fairbanks Morse Pump division was sold off to private investors to become Fairbanks Morse Pump. It was subsequently purchased by Pentair as part of an acquisition of General Signal Pump Group in 1997. In 1988,

6320-533: Was the first high-compression, cold-start, full diesel developed by Fairbanks Morse without the acquisition of any foreign patent. This machine was developed in Beloit and introduced in 1924. The company expanded its line to the marine CO engine (Many 100 H.P. CO marine engines were used in the Philippine Islands to power ferry boats) as well as the mill model E, a modernized Y diesel. From this, Fairbanks-Morse became

6400-400: Was the first mass measuring instrument invented. In its traditional form, it consists of a pivoted horizontal lever with arms of equal length – the beam or tron  – and a weighing pan suspended from each arm (hence the plural name " scales " for a weighing instrument). The unknown mass is placed in one pan and standard masses are added to the other pan until

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