HARTNER B 500
letter scale

Hartner letter scale

The design of this letter scale was protected by a patent. It was granted to the firm G. Hartner from Ebingen, Germany. The design was made by Karl Baier. The original German patent DE1549196 was applied for already on June 19 1967. It was published not until June 16 1971. A separated patent DE1774970 with the same application date, was granted not before February 9 1973. The design mainly concerns the mechanism of the weight indicating pointer. It is a well-made fine mechanical design. Remarkable about this letter scale is the fact that it was on the market with at least five trade marks. I've seen Bizerba, Hartner, (Jakob) Maul, Pitney Bowes, and Prior.

in shipping protection

This model has two ranges of weighing: 50 grams (black button down) and 500 grams (red button down). At the front one can switch towards the capacity wanted. Placed at the side of the housing is a zero leveling screw. A red rotating knob at the bottom enables securing the mechanism during transport. The front of the housing has a spirit-level to help checking the horizontal position of the scale. At both front corners of the housing are adjustable feet. The third supporting foot is fixed and is situated at the backside. Scales with higher capacities exist. The Hartner B 1000 has ranges of 100 grams and 1000 grams. Also a Hartner with weighing capacities 200 grams and 2000 grams was made. Versions with a white printing on a black background exist also. Below some more pictures of this letter scale.

letter holder at the back of the horizontal plate

animation: weighing of the same letter in the 2 weighing ranges

a lot of text in the scale reading window

stripes of measure per 1 gram stripes of measure per 10 grams	spirit-level	German postal rates sticker
zero leveling screw	bottom	red transport knob
drawing of instructions sheet	instructions how to start and how to use	legally stamped and sealed with German lead