Egg Scales

As I mentioned last week, I have several vintage egg scales that I bought early last year before I started to size out my eggs. I saw a modern egg scale for sale at various places online that was shaped like a chicken, and I frankly thought it was tacky, so I went looking on eBay for an older one that would be simpler and more attractive. It turned out there were more kinds of egg scales out there than I realized, and I ended up with a small collection of them.

As you will see on most of the scales below, the size is most often measured as the number of ounces in a dozen. A large egg individually weighs between 2 and 2.25 ounces., so a dozen would be between 24 and 27 ounces. I don't know exactly why the individual weight is not used more often, but I'm sure there was a reason.

This was the one that started my collection. The Acme Egg-Grading Scale was patented in 1924 and was made by the Specialty Mfg. Co. of St. Paul, Minnesota. It has a series of fan-like bars that lift up until the egg is balanced. The bars on this one are bent somewhat, and they get stuck easily. I'm sure I could fix it, but it looks nice and it doesn't need to be in working condition.

I will admit I didn't know what this was when it arrived. The seller sent this by mistake, and he told me to keep it when I told him it wasn't what I bought. I realized later that this is probably my oldest scale, and besides the broken leg, it is also missing a set of weights which would have sat on the five circles in the front. I believe the weights would be added until the egg balanced, but I am not really sure how it works. It sounds like a lot of trouble in my opinion, but it looks nice and was free.

This is the scale I had actually ordered, and it is has a certain grace to it that makes it my favorite in terms of appearance. It was made by the Specialty Mfg. Co. like the first scale, and I would say it may be from the 1920s or 1930s, though that's just a guess.

I had wanted a "Jiffy Way" egg scale ever since I began my search, but most of them were beyond my price range or were in a well-used condition. I lucked out with this scale in both respects, and it is the only one that I have used to size eggs for sale since it is accurate, easy to read, and also fun to use. It was invented in 1938 by Benjamin Zimmer of Minnesota (apparently the egg scale capital of the world) and was patented in 1940. This particular scale was sold through Sears, Roebuck & Company.