grain scale
supplier: Apparatenfabriek J. Breuer Jr., Tegelen, The Netherlands
grain scale
| I bought this weighing scale on the Dutch auction site Marktplaats. It is a grain scale or corn scale, also called grain balance or corn balance, in English also named chondrometer. With a chondrometer the density of a batch of grain is determined. The unit of measure used is kilograms per per hectolitre. It is a measure of the quality of the grain and partly determines the price and the volume required for storage and transport.
This scale goes from zero up to 900 and shows the amount of grams per liter of the grain measured. Between 0 and 100 there is no subdivision. Above 100 there is a stripe per each five grams.
The funnel or hopper is filled with grain. The detached weighing bucket is placed centrally under the funnel in the dish and filled with grain by opening the funnel. This is a reproducible filling method. With the scraper, the grain that is above the edge of the weighing bucket is leveled off. The weighing cup of 0.25 liters, which has been filled exactly, is hung from the grain scale and read at standstill. This grain scale was used until 1963 at the Boerenbond in Horst, Limburg. After that, the grain was purchased centrally elsewhere and this grain scale became superfluous. Boerenbond was a retail chain in the southern provinces of the Netherlands. The company originated from the cooperative trade associations of mainly catholic farmers that arose around 1896.
According to the text on the scale this grain scale was made by -or came from- apparatus factory J. Breuer Jr. from Tegelen, The Netherlands. This is rather strange. The firm apparatenfabriek J. Breuer Jr. was a split off of the Breuer Doesborgh company, founded in 1919. This company was one of the factories that originated from the Eureka Iron Foundry. The split off was done in 1948
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back of the grain scale
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by Sjang Breuer and his son Jo Breuer. Their main products were mainly fans, dust filters, and cyclones, but also machines for the button industry. The production of a grain scale was not known at the Heemkundige Kring Tegelen, the local History Society in Tegelen. Mr. Jeu Quicken and the secretary Mr. John Raijen of the Heemkundige Kring Tegelen have described the factory history to me and also contacted Jan Breuer, the son of Jo Breuer about the grain scale. Perhaps this grain scale was a unique side-slip, or a proof to demonstrate professional competence.
This grain scale model is known already from a British patent from 1884 in the name of Max Hedicke, the provisional application was made on behalf of Louis Schopper, a mechanic from Leipzig. It concerns patent GB13852, see the image below, thanks to Mr. Henning Homann of Mass und Gewicht, the German Society for Metrology. Even more recently in the period 1910-1930 such a model can be found in catalogs, among others in the catalog of the Adnet company from France. The funnel, the dish, and the scraper -see the images- are not original. Based on pictures and drawings received from Thomas Schäfer, a German collector of grain scales and egg scales, I made the funnel. This was done by first making a layout on paper of the frustum of cone, pasting this on a sheet of brass and cut the contour out with a jigsaw. Then the cut-out part is folded in a funnel shape with minor overlap. After drilling some holes in the overlap zone, the funnel shape is secured with some small bolts and nuts. The result is sufficiently comparable with images from catalogs.
Below some more pictures of this grain scale.
figure from the patent GB13852 from 1884
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figure from the 1912 catalog of Adnet from France
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animation:
hanging the grain measuring bucket
[move pointer over the photo] |
animation:
emptying the funnel or hopper
[move pointer over the photo] | 
animation:
scraping the excess of the measuring bucket
[move pointer over the photo] |
stripes per 5 grams is very close between 850 and 900
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APPARATENFABRIEK J.BREUER Jr. TEGELEN
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the wire in the reading window
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the 0.25 liter weighing bucket
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the scale in grams per liter from 0 up to 900
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the cast iron tripod with zero leveling screw
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