Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

The first iVBS railway scale test car for the standardization of railroad track and master
scales.
Its equipment consisted of eight 10,000-pound weights, four 2,500-pound weights,
10,000 pounds of weights, and the truck itself, a 5,000-pound weight which
carried the test load on the rails.
Together with small auxiliary weights, the total testing equipment made it possible
to determine weights between one-ten thousandth pound and 105,000 pounds or over
50 tons.
The crane for handling the weights was powered by an electrical generator driven
by a gasoline engine. The equipment, mounted in a standard boxcar, was constructed
for the Bureau by the A. H. Emery Co. of Connecticut, which built many of the
Bureau's heavy test machines.
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