COTTON YARN BALANCE
for
CATALONIA

the front of the repaired Goodbrand yarn balance

This large brass yarn balance stands on a cast iron tripod. There is no name or logo of the maker, yet it is unmistakably a scale made by Goodbrand & Co. Ltd., of Manchester in England. Walter Goodbrand started a business around 1860s with Thomas Holland under the name Goodbrand and Holland. From 1887 the name Goodbrand & Co. was also used. From 1897 the company continued without Thomas Holland until probably 1951 as Goodbrand & Co. Ltd.. During the First World War 112 Pounder bombs, guns and hand grenades were also made. The company employed 84 men and 30 women at that time. When purchased, the unit is missing a suspension hook for the cotton to be weighed, the weighing arm and the scale frame are bent, and there is an almost complete crack in the long counterweight arm. With the necessary caution the frame and the weighing arm were put back in the desired planes. I made the crack to a complete break and then tried to glue the parts together, that unfortunately turned out to be only temporary. A second repair attempt with soft solder and a brass splint plate proves sufficient. Presumably the short bent arm on which the cotton hook is supposed to be is also bent downwards in the plane. Looking at the picture from the catalogue the short arm does indeed seem bent. I bent the short arm upwards so that the cotton hook suspension point is again the highest point of the arm of the yarn balance at rest. Whether this correction of the geometry is the right one remains to be seen. Where each counterweight is supposed to be remains unclear to me. The screws do not fit well in the screw holes. The thread size is not a standard metric size, I have not changed anything.

the back of the repaired Goodbrand yarn balance

With some weights the weight of the missing cotton hook is determined. With some weighing and calculating I have determined the total hook length and have made a simple hook of brass rod diameter three millimeters. The yarn scale at rest is at zero.
The scale is made for use in Spain, even more precisely for use in Catalonia. The measurement value Cuartos Onza Catalana at the bottom right of the scale makes that clear. The Catalan Onza is 33.3 grams (Gramos), a Cuartos Onza Catalana is 8.325 grams (Gramos). The maximum measuring value is 9 Cuartos Onza Catalana which is 9 x 8.325 = 74.925 grams (Gramos). This yarn balance has separate counterweight discs for England (INGLES) and France (FRANCES). In addition, there is a counterweight marked with the text DOBLE PESO, which translates as: double weight. The lack of information about the original geometry makes figuring out the correct placement of the counterweights too difficult for me.
The numbering of yarn and all the associated facets is quite complicated. As with most units of measure in history, it was defined differently per country, and sometimes even per region. In the late twentieth century, there was some normalization. Interesting to read is the book translated from German to English The Technical Testing of Yarns and Textile Fabrics - with reference to official specifications by Dr. J. Herzfeld, 1898, 2nd edition 1902, 3rd edition 1920.
The book The Metric Fallacy by Frederic A. Halsey together with The Metric Failure in the Textile Industry by Samuel S. Dale, from 1904, illustrates the enormous chaos in units and the conservative textile world.
To understand my yarn balance made for Spain a little better I have purchased the 1923 book Tradato Teórico - Práctico de la Numeración y Peso de los Algodones Lana y Estambre by D. Francisco Rabasa. With the help of Google Translate, the units used are made clear. This book shows the cotton yarn numbers in Spain converted into different units of length and weight, and gives all kinds of example calculations.
Below are some more images of this rare Spanish yarn balance made by Goodbrand & Co. from Manchester, England.

side view

balance with the yarn hook arm bent upwards again

side view

balance still with the bent down yarn hook arm

In the 1937 catalog of Goodbrand & Co. Ltd. there is a simple version of the yarn balance

Goodbrand yarn balance with a slightly different range [photo internet]

Goodbrand rope yarn balance with added sisal range [photo Watt Institution, Greenock, Inverclyde Scotland]

Goodbrand & Holland cover catalog August 1895 [photo internet]

Goodbrand advert in Calculations in Yarns and Fabrics, F. Bradbury, 1900 [taken from Knowles' Patent Yarn Balance, by Norman Biggs & Jenny Hutchinson]

Goodbrand & Co. Ltd. advert in Notes on Sampling and Testing, the Handbook of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce Testing House and Laboratory, 1913

the partly disassembled scale parts

the break was repaired with soft solder, a reinforcement plate on the back and two pins

after the repair the protective lacquer is gone

the soft-soldered reinforcement plate on the back and the two pins

the scale with bent down arm still with the unrepaired almost complete break with the different counterweights and some added weights to reach the zero value

with the cotton hook arm still bent down and the unrepaired almost complete break and some added weights to reach the zero value , the green spirit level indicates the optimum position

the green spirit level indicates the optimal position

the leveled yarn scale with the cotton hook arm bent back upwards and a repaired break and a cotton hook of round 3

For clarity, ESPAÑA is written on the scale, below that weighs 777.5 meters of cotton yarn 440 grams = Spanish yarn number 1 for England multiply the yarn number by 0.96 for France multiply the yarn number by 1.132 ergo: French yarn number 1 = 1.18 x the English yarn number	below each other the scale in grams up to 75 grams the scale in quarter Catalan ounces up to 9 quarter ounces the scale in cotton yarn numbers from 6 to...	...to 100, cotton yarn number = N os Hilos de Algodón
grams, quarters of Catalan ounces, and Spanish cotton yarn numbers	the re-completed pointer	three scales below each other: Gramos Cuartos onza Catalana N os  Hilos de Algodón
the counterweight for the Spanish cotton yarn numbering can also be used with the gram and quarter Catalan ounce scales	the counterweight for the French cotton yarn numbering	the counterweight for the English cotton yarn numbering
DOBLE PESO = double weight	the unused counterweights are fixed at the rear	the main pivot point has conical axle ends
These counterweights can be mounted on the back of the scale	the restored pointer needle	above the grams, in the middle the quarter onza catalana and at the bottom the Spanish cotton yarn numbers from six to one hundred
the brass upright is mounted on the heavy tripod with a sturdy hexagonal screw bolt	the balance has very sturdy legs	the hefty zero adjustment screw