Steelyard

This resembles the reversible steelyard described in the 1869 patent issued to Peter H. Walker, a Boston merchant who sold scales, balances and other hardware. The inscription at the short end of the beam reads “P. H. WALKER BOSTON.” The patent claimed “The employment, for the purpose of suspending the weight from a reversible scale-beam, of a tubular sliding cross-head, which encircles and fits the beam, and upon which the weight is hung, substantially in the manner and for operation as herein shown and described, so that when the beam is reversed, the position of the weight may be correspondingly changed without removing the cross-head from the beam, or the weight from the cross-head.”