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Consumer Affairs Now and Then... The Seattle City Council passed Ordinance No. 26477 on February 24, 1911 establishing a new Weights and Measures Division in the Department of Public Utilities. The Weights and Measures Division included a Chief Inspector (salary: $125 per month), two Assistant Inspectors ($115 and $100 per month), and a Bookkeeper/Stenographer ($85 per month). The city of Spokane had established a weights and measures program nearly five years earlier but there was no state program.
A. L. Valentine, Superintendent of Public Utilities, appointed A. (Arthur) W. Rinehart as the Chief Inspector of the new Weights and Measures Division on April 22, 1911. Rinehart had worked in real estate prior to his appointment. L. (Leslie) J. Allen was appointed as the First Assistant Inspector on May 15, 1911. Allen had been employed as an accountant previously. On March 11, 1913, Governor Ernest Lister signed S.B. 61 creating a new Washington State Department of Weights and Measures. Rinehart was selected by Secretary of State I. M. Howell to serve as the Deputy Superintendent of the new department. L. J. Allen replaced Rinehart as the Chief Inspector in Seattle on June 1, 1913. The First Assistant Inspector was C. Y. Jared and there were two Assistant Inspectors - James P. Worden and David W. Packard.
The Weights and Measures Division in Seattle was very active in the early years inspecting a wide range of scales from large scales used to weigh coal wagons to small scales used by vendors of fresh fruit and vegetables at numerous public markets. It was estimated that Seattle used 720,000 tons of coal annually. Inspectors also checked a variety of packaged products to assure accurate net contents: bottles of milk, sacks of potatoes, loaves of bread, and bricks of butter. Finally, inspectors tested gasoline pumps to verify the accuracy of liquid meters and they investigated consumer complaints about short deliveries of firewood and ice.
The test procedures and test equipment for scales and gasoline pumps have not changed a lot since then. Inspectors still use calibrated test weights and 5-gallon test measures to make certain that commercial weighing and measuring devices operate within narrow tolerances for accuracy. As more and more goods are sold in packaged form, a greater proportion of inspector work is directed at checking net contents, labeling, method of sale, unit pricing, and price scanning.
The Weights and Measures Division is now the Consumer Affairs Unit. Instead of checking scales used to weigh coal wagons, inspectors now test large scales (120,000 lb. capacity) that weigh 18-wheelers. Many of the public markets are gone but inspectors now check small scales at the checkout stands of grocery stores (30 lb. capacity). A variety of liquid meters are tested including: gasoline pumps, heating oil delivery trucks, LPG meters, loading rack meters, and mass flow meters. |
Tank Truck Meter Testing Program |
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