Scale Designs

Comparison of Wood/Herbert and Medhurst scale designs

 

It is evident that the designs of many of the industrial scales sold by Henry Wood, as depicted in his catalogue from the 1860s, are identical, or nearly identical, to many of those of the firm of Thomas Medhurst, whose factory was in Little Denmark Street, Soho, London.

 

Thomas Herbert continued to use these patterns after he bought the Wood business in December 1867.

 

It is believed that Medhurst either supplied complete products or licensed his designs to Henry Wood and subsequently Thomas Herbert.

 

However Henry Wood had the products redrawn for his catalogue, probably to disguise the fact that he was not the manufacturer, and Thomas Herbert continued this practice, although Herberts finally bought the Medhurst business in 1881.

 

All three firms used the Royal Coat of Arms on their literature and products, a practice which was banned in the mid 1880s.

 

Click here for comparisons.