Exhibit: Fairbanks Scales: Weighing the World

Fairbanks Scales: Weighing the World from the St. Johnsbury History & Heritage Center

The exhibit explores how a large scale led to large-scale changes to how the world does business, and changed the course of the history of St. Johnsbury, VT.

In the early 1800s, the Fairbanks brothers had a problem and Thaddeus came up with a solution. His platform scale innovation 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. The exhibit features a number of scales, alongside photographs, documents, and ephemera that tell this core St. Johnsbury story.

On view in the Local History Gallery from March 2 to July 27, 2024