Michigan Get-Togeher 2018

The "Michi-nois" folks gathered at the home of Gregg and Amy M. in Midland, Michigan, on October 6th. All of us who were driving that morning had to get through a storm front with some heavy rains. However, thankfully, it was all gone by the time we arrived at our destination mid-morning.

Why the "Michi-nois" group you ask? Well, 18 people were at the meeting, and eight were from Illinois, while the others were Michiganders. Some of the Illinois couples stopped on their way going to visit in eastern states, some stopped on the way back from eastern states and others just came to Midland for the day. It was certainly great to see everyone.

Gregg and Amy are quite new to ISASC, but hosted us as if they had done it for years. Gregg had been collecting surveying equipment and boxwood measures, i.e. those little folding rulers, when he and Amy "discovered" they had some scales, and scales are definitely a form of measures. Then, after getting his feet wet, he found out that scales are more than just a tangent—so now he's up to his neck in interesting scales! And the learning has just started!!

As part of a show-and-tell session or more like show-and-ask, Bret P. had a set of very small Russian weights that were packaged like the Russian Matryoshka nested dolls. Allan R. brought a Scottish scale that his daughter had given him for his birthday. It has an unusual pan for an unknown special item—maybe tobacco? In addition, Greg M. showed a set of English money weights that were for foreign coins that might be used for trade in England.

Jack M. presented a rare JH Parker Company price computing scale. It's rare in that the company was not one of the major producers of these types of scales, so it's likely not many were ever made. It appears that the combination of the patent being a bit late in the game and a weak marketing strategy was the key factor in its limited production. At a time when transportation was expanding allowing for national distribution, the stronger marketing plans of the "big four" –Dayton, Stimpson, Standard (Detroit) and Toledo—greatly facilitated their rise to dominance in this industry.

The diversity of the items brought kept it interesting. The questions generated by the things we didn't know about an individual scale or weight provoked a lot of discussion. One thing's for sure, Scalies are not known for lack of opinions when it comes to these treasures we collect!

A few of our regular attendees weren't able to attend due to health and travel, and we very much missed them. Jim D. volunteered to host the 2019 Michigan gathering in the Saginaw area, so look for the date and we will plan to see everyone again next year.