Friend o'the Archive Lonnie Cummins recently alerted me to a neat eBay auction that offered a unique piece of equipment once used by Topps. Check it out:
Yeah, it's in very rough shape but if you look at the right side of then base, you will see a Topps inventory tag riveted onboard:
It apparently came from the estate of a former Topps employee, who worked in Duryea, Pennsylvania. Topps got started in Brooklyn in late 1938 with what was described as a "tangle" of obsolete machinery in some quarters. I think it's entirely possible this scale was part of that self-described mess and later moved to the Duryea. I actually own a copy of the Operating Manual for the Manufacturing Building in Duryea but the scale is not detailed therein.
I suspect this scale was used by the various chemists employed by Topps over the years. Maybe even this guy:
