William
Ainsworth
Company
Development
of
the
manufacture
of
assay
balances
in
the
western
states
begins
with
the
company
of
William
Ainsworth.
Ainsworth,
the
founder
of
William
Ainsworth
&
Sons,
Inc.,
was
born
January
22,
1850,
in
Lancashire,
England.
He,
his
mother
and
a
sister
Anne
Elizabeth
(born
May
1842)
came
to
America
in
1853,
but
for
reasons
not
known,
he
and
his
sister
were
soon
left
orphans.
Regardless
of
the
circumstance
that
brought
this
about,
William
was
left
in
the
care
of
George
and Suzanne
Elliott,
an
English
family
owning
a
farm
near
Sussex
Wisconsin.
His
sister
was
left
with
the
Charles
Hart
family
in
nearby
Brookfield.
In
order
to
pay
for
his
food
and
lodging,
William
performed
farm chores.
Ainsworth's
particular
passion,
even
as
a
small
boy
and
continuing
through
the
rest
of
his
life,
was
for
steam
engines,
although
he
seemed
to
have
an
affinity
for
all
types
of
mechanical
apparatuses.
One
story
that
he
often
told
gives
us
some
insight
into
his
abilities:
Arrival
in
his
neighborhood
of
the
first
grain
binder
caused
great
excitement
on
the
farms
in
the
area.
Unfortunately,
the
owners
had
no
idea
how
to
assemble
it,
so
they
sent
for
Ainsworth.
After
studying
the
parts
carefully,
he
began
the
complicated
job
of
assembly.
Once
he
had
finished
the
job,
they
hooked
the
machine
up
and
it
worked
perfectly.
In
his
early
teens,
after
completing
an
apprenticeship
with
a
clockmaker,
he
went
into
business
on
his
own
repairing
clocks.
In
order
to
sell
his
"service"
he
would
travel
through
an
area
playing
his
guitar
to
attract
a
crowd.
In
between
songs,
he
would
get
in
a
plug
for
his
clock
repair.
Still
in
his
teens,
he
obtained
a
job
in
the
Elgin
watch
factory
at
Elgin,
Illinois.
The
exact
details
of
his
work
with
Elgin
are
rather
obscure,
but
it
is
known
that
one
of
his
duties
was
that
of
a "springer".
This
consisted
of
selecting,
testing,
installing
and
manipulating
the
hair
springs
of
the
watches,
a
very
delicate
and
tedious
job.
Although
the
record
is
not
definite,
we
do
know
Ainsworth
worked
for
a
period
of
time
for
the
Union
Copper
Distilling
Company
of
Calumet
in
Cook
County,
Illinois.
(The
company
made
and
distributed
bourbon,
rye
whisky,
188
proof
alcohol,
cologne
spirits
and
French
neutral
spirits). Here
he
was
employed
as
a
steam
engineer
and
family
stories
indicate
his
employers
were
so
impressed
by
his
mechanical
ability
that
in
a
very
short
time,
he
was
made
Chief
Engineer.
He
must
have
stayed
with
this
job
for
several
years
and
in
February
of
1874,
at
the
age
of
24,
requested
and
received
a
letter of recommendation.
He
also
received
an
August
18,
1875
letter
of
recommendation
from
the
Office
of Roelle,
Junker
&
Company,
Distillers
&
Rectifiers
located
at
261
&
263
East Kinzie,
comer
Cass
St.
in
Chicago.
This
letter
was
signed
by
the
secretary
of
Union
Copper
Distilling
Company
located
in
Riverdale,
Illinois.
He
next
moved
to
Black
River
Falls,
Wisconsin,
where
for
a
short
time
he
worked
for
J.
W.
Cole
and
Company
(Drugs,
Paints,
Oils
and
Fine
Liquors)
as
a
watch
maker.
During
his
time
with
Cole
and
Company,
he
worked
with
W.
B. Woolsey,
another
watch
maker
whom
he
had
met
and
worked
with
at
the
National
Watch
Factory
in
Elgin.
Mr.
Woolsey
in
his
letter
of
recommendation
states,
"...
he
is
the
best
man
on
the
lathe
that
I
ever
saw
in
short
he
thoroughly
understands
a
watch
in
every
respect. It
was
also
in
Black
River
Falls
that
he
met
Elma E. Eastman,
a
young
girl
from
New
York
who
had
arrived
in
Wisconsin
to
visit
a
sister.
The
Denver
Post
of
January
2,
1917
leads
to
the
belief
that
Ainsworth
and
Elma
Eastman
were
married
in
Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
210
He
remained
in
the
employ
of
the
Cole
Company
possibly
through
September
of
1875.
It
is
evident
that
through
the
preceding
experiences,
Ainsworth
learned
to
be
a
top-notch
toolmaker
and
mechanical
engineer.
In
later
years,
evidence
of
his
designing
and
tool-
making
ability
could
be
found
around
the
Ainsworth
factory
in
Denver
in
the
tools
which
he
built
for
the
manufacture
of
the
early
balances.
Some
of
these
tools
were
still
in
use
in
the
factory
as
late
as
1965,
and
the
family
of
his
grandson,
Robert
Ainsworth,
still
has
one
of
the
original
lathes
built
from
"scratch"
by
Ainsworth
sometime
prior
to
1900.
In
1875
or
1876,
the
young
couple
came
west,
traveled
through
Denver
and
settled
in
Central
City,
Colorado.
Upon
his
arrival
in
Central
City,
he
turned
to
his
watchmaking
trade
to
earn
a
living
and
worked
for
various
jewelers
there.
He
soon
developed
a
specialty
cleaning
and
repairing
Swiss
Repeater
watches,
a
very
fine
handmade
Swiss
watch
which
struck
the
hours,
half-hours,
and
quarter-hours.
This
work
led
Ainsworth
into
contact
with
a
variety
of
people,
mostly
miners
and
assayers,
and
it
is
believed
that
these
associations
eventually
led
him
into
the
balance
business.
One
source
indicates
that
Richard
Pearce,
Nathaniel
Hill's
head
metallurgist
at
the
Boston
and
Colorado
Smelter,
one
day
needed
an
assay
balance
fixed
and
in
order
to
avoid
sending
it
back
to
England
for
repair,
presented
it
to
Ainsworth
and
suggested
he
try
his
hand
at
repairing
it.
In
those
days, Oertling,
Becker
and
Troemner
balances
were
shipped
from
their
factories
in
England,
Philadelphia
and
New
York.
When
these
balances
would
not
function
properly,
they
had
to
be
returned
to
those
cities,
which
constituted
a
wait
of
many
months.
Consequently,
Ainsworth,
in
order
to
help
the
assayers,
began
repairing
the
assay
balances
and
in
time
learned
the
"secrets
of
the
trade."
He
determined
that
since
assay
balances
were
in
great
demand
at
that
time,
they
could
be
made
just
as
well
in
Colorado
as
in
England,
Philadelphia
or
New
York
and
he
proceeded
to
develop
his
ideas
for
manufacturing
them.
In
the
meantime,
Ainsworth
and
his
wife
cultivated
a
business
of
making
decorative
chains
from
the
native
silver
being
produced
from
the
mines
in
the
area
and
indications
are
that,
at
least
for
a
short
time,
those
chains
were
the
height
of
fashion
in
the
socially
prominent
Central
City.
In
1877
the
Ainsworths
moved
to
Denver,
probably
to
be
closer
to
suppliers
of
materials
he
needed
for
making
balances
and
to
try
to
make
more
of
his
abilities
as
a
watchmaker,
repairman
and
machinist
and
his
newly
developed
expertise
in
time
lock
repairing
for
banks.
Although
his
primary
sources
of
income
were watchmaking,
machining
and
time
lock
repairing
for
banks,
he
continued
to
develop
his
balance
trade
on
the
side.
The
Denver
City
Directory
of
1879213
lists
William
Ainsworth
as
a
watchmaker forA.
B.
Ingols
Jewelry
and
in
1880
and
1881
he
is
listed
as
an
owner
in
the
Swain
&
Ainsworth
Machine
Shop
on
474
Larimer
Street
TM.
It
was
in
1879
while
serving
as
a
watchmaker
for
A.
B.
Ingols
that
Ainsworth
probably
made
his
first
balance.
He
began
by
buying
a
small
hand
planer
and
on
this
planer
he
machined
the
bed
of
a
small
engine
lathe.
He
built
the
lathe
in
its
entirety
and
then
began
the
slow
process
of
making
his
own
taps
and
dies.
He
established
his
own
standards
of
sizes
and
thread
forms.
It
is
also
believed
that
he
then
constructed
a
milling
machine.
The
first
balance
parts
were
turned
out
on
the
small
lathe
and
miller
with
a
great
deal
of
hand
work.
The
brass
beams
were
laid
out
and
sawed
with
a
jeweler's
saw
and
the
balance
cases
were
made
of
high
grade
African
mahogany
with
a
French
polish
finish.
In
1882
Ainsworth
had
his
watchmaking
and
balance
shop
at
248
16th
Street.
Several
years
later
he
located
his
"Watchmaker
and
Mane'g
Jeweler"
shop
at
577
and
579
Lawrence
St.
This
address
eventually
became
his
factory
and
home
for
many
years.
Ingols
Jewelry
Store,
Denver,
Colorado
Courtesy
Denver
Public
Library,
Denver,
Colorado
In
1887
a
street
re-numbering
occurred
and,
although
the
factory
and
home
remained
in
the
same
building
at
the
same
location,
the
address
became
2151
Lawrence.
Information
regarding
Ainsworth's
early
balances
is,
of
course,
quite
scarce.
A
serial
number
record
from
#473
to
#2027
is
known,
but
it
only
provides
a
description;
there
are
no
dates.
One
assay
balance
is
known
with
a
number
090
inscribed
on
the
beam.
090
doesn't
fit
any
of
numbers
of
the
various
models
of
balances
built
by
Ainsworth,
nor
does
it
fit
part
numbers
which
were
used
from
time
to
time
and
were
two
digit
numbers.
Since
Ainsworth
gained
much
of
his
early
training
in
watch
repairing
where
almost
everything
has
a
serial
number,
it
is
believed
he
may
have
begun
his
numbering
system
with
001.
It
is
possible to date
balance
number
1000
at
1898,
which
would
mean
that
Ainsworth
built
one
thousand
balances
between
1880
and
1898.
This
works
out
that
the
company
built
approximately
50
balances
a
year.
Since
in
1899
the
company
built
approximately
100
balances,
50
a
year
does
not
seem
to
be
an
unreasonable
estimate.
Balance
number
2027
was
made
in
1902,
but
unfortunately,
there
is
a
large
gap
in
serial
number
information
between
1902
and
1945.
Since
there
were
no
balance
theory
and
design
textbooks
available
to
Ainsworth,
he
made
use
of
the
experience
and
practice
of
other
balance
manufacturers.
Drawing
on
the
work
of
Paul
Bunge
of
Hamburg,
who
in
1866
had
proved
a
shorter
beam
in
a
balance
does
not
necessarily
mean
less
accuracy,
Ainsworth
began
his
own
experiments
with
a
short
balance
beam.
One
of
Ainsworth's
outstanding
contributions
to
the
industry
were
his
experiments
in
shortening
the
balance
beam,
which
effectively
quickened
the
assaying
process:
the
shorter
the
beam,
the
faster
the
oscillations,
but
the
least
sensitivity.
The
early
Oertling
and
early
Ainsworth
balances
had
beams
as
long
as
10".
Extremely
long
beams
were
used
in
the
early
days
because
the
adjustment
of
the
knife
edges
did
not
need
to
be
as
accurate
on
a
long
beam
as
on
shorter
ones;
therefore,
adjustments were much
easier.
They
were,
however,
very
slow
in
their
oscillations.
Balances
were
manufactured
in
the
Ainsworth
plant
having
beams
only
4
inches
long,
and
possibly
a
few
of
only
3
1/2
inches.
It
was
learned
from
these
early
balances
that
the
very
short
beams
are
not
as
dependable
and
stable
as
the
five-inch
length
which
was
eventually
adopted
as
a
standard,
although
as
late
as
1920
both
4-inch
and
6-inch
beams
were
available.
It
has
been
determined
reasonably
accurately
that
Ainsworth's
balance
manufacturing,
as
well
as
the
firm
of
WUliam
Ainsworth
Balance
Company,
started
in
1880
even
though
he
continued
with
his
watch
repair
and
time
lock
service.
In
that
year
the
personnel
in
the
Ainsworth
factory
located
at
348
16th
Street
(only
a
few
doors
from
where
Ainsworth
worked
as
a
watchmaker),
consisted
of
William
Ainsworth,
an
apprentice,
a
cabinet
maker,
and
a
mechanic.
Again
the
wood
of
choice
was
mahogany;
a
former
employee
of
the
Ainsworth
Company
has
stated
that
the
mahogany
used
in
the
company's
balances
came
from
Gold
Coast
(Ghana)
of
Africa.
Ainsworth
balances
were
almost
immediately
preferred
by
the
local
assayers.
In
spite
of
this
acceptance,
however,
the
problem
of
building
a
sufficient
quantity
to
support
a
family
with
this
infant
industry
was
a
tough
one,
and
Ainsworth
found
it
necessary
to
hire
out
his
services
to
keep
the
business
going.
This
situation
may
have
resulted
in
his
being
listed
as
a
watchmaker
and
machinist
rather
than
a
balance
maker.
It
was
also
in
the
1880s
that
he
became
well-known
for
his
ability
to
clean
and
repair
time
locks
in
bank
vaults,
and
he
developed
a
good
business
maintaining
the
time
locks
in
all
the
leading
banks
of
Denver
and
the
surrounding
area.
There
is
one
story
from
the
family
that
is
well
worth
telling,
for
it
shows
us
something
of
the
character
of
William
Ainsworth.
"....
a
certain
store
manager
engaged
Ainsworth
to
clean
and
repair
his
safe
and
then
refused
to
pay
the
mechanic
his
fee.
Ainsworth
quietly
returned
to
the
safe
and
performed
an
operation
that
later
proved
one
of
the
most
effective
collective
agencies
devised
by
man.
Several
hours
later
the
owner
accosted
Ainsworth
and
complained
that
he
could
not
open
his
safe.
'I
know
you
can't',
Ainsworth
replied
amiably.
'Well,
what's
wrong?'
the
merchant
wanted
to
know.
Ainsworth,
still
amiably,
replied
that
he
had
changed
the
combination.
When
the
angry
owner
demanded
the
new
combination,
Ainsworth
bargained,
'Pay
me
what
you
owe
me
and
you'll
get
your
combination'.
Well,
Bill
Ainsworth
got
his
money
and
the
owner
got
his
combination. As
was
the
case
in
the
eastern
United
States
of Voland,
Van Zelm, Kohlbusch,
and
perhaps
to
a
certain
extent
Troemner,
who
worked
for
Becker
before
they
went
out
on
their
own,
so
it
was
in
the
west
that
William
Ainsworth
provided
the
experience
and
perhaps
the
motivation
for
a
number
of
prospective balance manufacturers.
Of
the
five
prominent
western
balance
companies,
all
but
one
of
the
owners
had
at
least
some
part
of
their
training
with
William
Ainsworth.
They
were
Elmer
Smith
and
Fred
Thompson
who
would
establish
the
Smith
&
Thompson
Balance
Company
(later
to
become
the
Thompson
Balance
Company),
Albert
Dahlberg
and
Hugo
Franow
who
would
establish
the
Denver
Balance
Company,
and
George
Keller
who
would
establish
the
Keller
Balance
Company
in
Salt
Lake
City.
The
latter
gave
some
training
and
opportunity
to
George
Spiegel
and
Wilfred
Huesser
in
their
balance
making
endeavors.
Their
stories
are
told
elsewhere
in
this
book.
The
Ainsworth
Balance
Company
survived
the
panic
of
1893,
possibly
due
to
the
outside
work
of
William
Ainsworth
in
repairing
clocks,
watches,
safes,
etc.
Sometime
around
1894
or
1895,
Mr.
D.
W.
Brunton
brought
his
newly
patented
Brunton
Pocket
Transit
to
William
Ainsworth
to
manufacture.
The
first
lot
consisted
of
twenty-five
instruments,
and
thus
began
the
Brunton
Pocket
Transit
business,
which
was
to
serve
the
company
well
into
the
20th
century.
The
success
of
the
Brunton
Pocket
Transit
may have contributed
to
the
decision
of
Ainsworth
Company
to
build
and
market
surveying
instruments.
In
any
event,
work
was
started
on
the
manufacture
of
surveying
instruments
around
1903
or
1904,
but
the
first
transits
were
not
marketed
until
1906.
This
continued
until
1940,
when
the
transit
business
was
sold
to
Harry Glantz,
who
had
been
an
instrument
maker
for
Ainsworth.
After
that
purchase,
the
transit
business
that
had
operated
under
the
Ainsworth
name
became
known
as
Rocky
Mountain
Instrument
Company.
Harry
Glantz
died
around
1945,
whereafter
his
son
Omar
took
over
the
business.
The
company
was
last
listed
in
the
Denver
Business
Directory
of
1955.
The
Ainsworth
Balance
Company
continued
to
grow and prosper,
and
around
1899
William's
two
sons
joined
him
and
the
company
became
known
as
Ainsworth
and
Sons.
Robert G. Ainsworth
was
born
in
Pennsylvania
on
January
1,
1878,
and
Alfred
W.
Ainsworth
on
October
30,
1884.
Both
got
their
early
training
in
the
Ainsworth
factory
and
it
was
a
natural
course
of
events
that
led
them
to
join
the
firm
in
1899.
Some
of
the
problems
inherent
in
the
assay
balances
of
this
time
was
the
handling
of
the
rider.
If
the
assayer
wanted
to
change
a
particular
rider,
he
had
to
open
the
case
and
very
carefully
replace
one
rider
with
another.
To
handle
this
problem,
the
idea
of
the
multiple
rider
was
developed.
With
a
multiple
rider
attachment,
the
operator
no
longer
had
to
open
the
case to change
weights;
he
merely
turned
a
rod
and
replaced
one
rider
weight
with
another.
It
has
been
claimed
that
the
Ainsworth
Company
was
the
first
to
develop
and
patent
a
multiple
rider
carrier;
however,
records
of
the
U.S.
Patent
office
reveal
that
Fred
W.
Thompson
filed
his
patent
for
a
multiple
rider
carrier
on
December
26,
1903
(patent
no.
768,829),
while
Robert G. Ainsworth
filed
his
patent
on
May
8,
1905.
The
two
multiple
rider
carrier
ideas
were
different
in
design,
but
achieved
the
same
goal.
Sometime
around
1910,
Ainsworth
&
Sons
began
a
major
shift
from
manufacturing
assay
balances
to
manufacturing
analytical
balances.
These
had
been
made
and
sold
by the company
prior
to
this
time,
but
not
in
any
great
number.
The
change
in
emphasis
was
probably
due
to
several
reasons:
a
general
decline
in
mining,
the
fact
that
assdying
was
more
often
done
in
a
central
assay
office
rather
than
many
separate
assay
offices,
and
an
increasing
demand
for
more
accurate
analytical
balances
for
scientific
research.
This
production
and
development
eventually
led
to
Ainsworth's
first
micro-balances.
Balances
were
developed
that
would
weigh
in
a
vacuum
or
under
pressure,
and
were
sensitive
enough
to
show
the
loss
of
weight
of
a
drop
of
alcohol
as
it
evaporated,
that
would
register
the
difference
in
weight
created
by
the
a
sunbeam striking
a
piece
of
paper
or
the
weight
of
a
pencil
line
on
a
piece
of
paper.
Around
1916,
the
company
began
receiving
orders
for
balances,
weights,
Brunton
compasses, etc.,
in
preparation
for
World
War
I
William
Ainsworth
died
January
1,
1917, leaving
the
management
of
the
company
in
the
hands
of
his
two
sons
and
his
wife,
Elma E. Ainsworth.
From
1918
until
the
1930s the company
went
through
a
period
of
wide
diversification.
These
included
manufacture
of
a
Dodge
automobile
transmission,
spotlights,
tire
gauges,
automobile
signaling
devices,
perfume
atomizers,
toilet
flush
valves,
moving
picture
machines,
tobacco
pipes,
furnace
grates,
valve-
facing
tools
for
automobiles,
seismographs,
carbide
lamps, gunsights,
and
radio
parts.
By
1934
wooden
cased-
balances
were
abandoned
and
the
Company
began
producing
balances
in
metal
cases.
The
Ainsworth
and
Sons
Company
was
purchased
in
1965
by
Xavier
Science
Corporation,
and
in
1967
the
plant
was
moved
to
the
Denver
Technological
Center.
During
this
time,
ownership
of
the
company
went
through
several
hands,
including Tastee-Freeze
Industries,
Inc.
of
Chicago.
More
recently,
rights
to
the
Ainsworth
name
have
been
purchased
by
the
Denver
Instrument
Company
of
Denver.
The
first
known
catalog
listing
of
an
Ainsworth
assay
balance
was
in
the
Denver
Fire
Clay
catalog
of
1895.
Although
the
company
was
producing
at
least
eight
different
models
by
this
time,
they
were
only
represented
in
this
catalog
with
models
043
and
045.
The
No.
043
used
agate
for
both
the
knife
edges
and
bearings,
and
also
contained
double
rider
arms.
By
1898,
Denver
Fire
Clay
had
added
an
Ainsworth
No.
044
and
a
No.
1
with
the
option
of
different
sensibilities
and
different
beam
lengths.
They
also
added
a
page
of
descriptions
of
some of the improvements that had been made by Ainsworth, which was probably a
conscious effort to draw more attention to this local company rather than those
of Oertling, Troemner and Becker.
With their 1901 catalog, DFC listed eight styles of Ainsworth assay
balances: Nos. 0, 1 (three models), 043,044 (two models), and 045 (two models);
this offering was continued at least until 1923, when their catalog was still
listing the same selections.
Henry Hell in 1904 had realized the marketability of Ainsworth balances
and offered seven models to buyers.
In 1905 Ainsworth made many design changes and introduced his multiple
rider carrier. These same models were again shown in their 1909 catalog.
An inverted beam assay balance had been added to the in- ventory by
1911, and by 1912 Mine and Smelter Supply Co.
(MASSCO) was listing thirteen models, including a portable.
In 1916, the Justinian Caire catalog had added the Ainsworth line with
six models, including a slant-front portable balance.
The popularity of the inverted beam assay balance was apparent, as it
was offered by Braun in 1925 and by MASSCO in 1929.
An important design change was evident in 1930 when the Ainsworth
catalog offered assay balances in aluminum cases.
The DFC catalog for 1934 offered two inverted beam assay balance models,
the V and VM, in aluminum cases.
By 1940, Ainsworth catalogs reflected a change in the balance industry
by offering only three assay balances out of nineteen balances listed. Except
for those three, the balances were analytical of varying degrees of sensibility.
For the Ainsworth company, this marked the end of the era of the French polished
mahogany cases with finely-machined gilded brass parts.
Thanks to J.M & G.C. Shannon. Text source " The Assay
Balance "
contact
rovers@aol.com for this great Book.
Please do not use some of this informations without permission from J.M &
G.C. Shannon
|