version for letter weighing only
This letter scale from England is also known as egg scale. There have been different versions. The cast frame is smooth or has a surface of circular dimples. The chart is directly engraved into the frame as like this, or is attached separately in aluminum or in white ivorine or plastic. The weighing platform is flat and strictly for weighing letters or it is also made suitable for weighing eggs. It has an egg shape cutout in the brass surface or an egg shaped dimple in the aluminum surface. The bracket of the aluminum weighing pan for eggs and letters is made of two intertwined brass round bars. Also a model exists for just weighing eggs, the egg holder is shaped of just two bended brass round bars [see EQM 1981, pp. 373]. My Turner scale has no numbers or logos. Other specimen seen on the internet and in publications do have a number and or a logo. On the basis of these images my scale can be attributed to Samuel Turner Senior from Birmingham in England. The design was registered in 1923 by S.T. Lilly from Birmingham with number RD 703857 [EQM 1981, pp. 374]. The aluminum weighing platform has the STS logo of Samuel Turner Sr. Around the STS sometimes is written EGG & LETTER BALANCE. Also seen PAT. APP 5755 at an egg weighing platform. And also I have seen a round mark with REGD721285 in the aluminum egg weighing platform.
The English inland postal letter rates of the ivorine plate were valid in the period May 14, 1923 until May 1, 1940. Remarkable is the text: "To all British possessions, Egypt & U.S.A." followed by "Foreign Countries".
Below some more pictures of this letter & egg balance.
back of the scale
