MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – A new exhibit at the Vermont History Museum in Montpelier takes visitors through the history of an influential Northeast Kingdom business whose products helped weigh the world.
In the early 1800s, the Fairbanks brothers came up with a platform scale that allowed for wagon loads of materials to be weighed without unloading. The concept was an overnight success and soon the Fairbanks Scale Co. was making scales to weigh everything from a piece of paper to a locomotive.
Cat Viglienzoni spoke with Peggy Pearl from the St. Johnsbury History & Heritage Center, who helped put the exhibit together.
The exhibit, “Fairbanks Scales: Weighing the World,” runs at the Montpelier museum through July 27.