It still weighs true, but bureaucratic bungling may force retirement of Altadena Hardware’s vintage scale
by Timothy Rutt
When the Orlandini family bought local landmark Altadena Hardware in 2010, they wanted to modernize it, but also keep its vintage hardware store atmosphere. Manager Jimmy Orlandini said at the time, "We don't want to take away from the old-fashioned look."
So the family -- which has owned Newland Hardware in El Sereno since the 1960's, and became Altadena residents in 1985 -- has striven for state-of-the-art while keeping the old fashioned, friendly look and service Altadena Hardware is known for. One of the treasures of the hometown ambiance is the 1915 vintage scale by the long-gone Computing Scale Company, which has been used to weigh bulk nails for as long as anyone can remember.
But that may come to an end soon. The county agricultural commissioner’s office, which regulates scales, has told Orlandini that he’ll have to get rid of it.
Why? Not because it isn’t measuring accurately -- “the scale’s perfect,” Orlandini says -- but because an inspector transposed two numbers last year, and now Weights and Measures is saying that they can’t be sure it’s the same scale -- so it has to be scrapped.
Orlandini thinks they’re also just trying to get out of inspecting the scale every year. Today, scales and other bulk goods measuring equipment are “certified” by the state ahead of time, and the inspector just checks it for accuracy every year. An older, non-certified scale can challenge an inspector who’s never encountered anything like it before.
The problems began with the 2011 inspection. Orlandini said that the inspector, a woman who seemed inexperienced, apparently hadn’t encountered a counterweighted scale. As part of the inspection, the scale -- which normally doesn’t measure any more than five pounds of nails -- has to accurately record 100 lbs. Orlandini said that the inspector couldn’t lift two certified 50 lb. weights on the scale herself, so the hardware store staff helped her.
This year, it was a different inspector who looked at the scale. It still measured accurately, but the inspector noticed a discrepency: the previous year’s inspector had written down a different scale number. Scale numbers are similar to a serial number, and the scale number in the 2011 inspection records didn't match the number on the machine in 2012 -- two numbers were transposed, Orlandini said. Because the numbers didn’t match -- and even though the scale number recorded for every year except last year was exactly the same -- this year’s inspector said that there was suspicion that it was a different scale. The 1915 Computing Scale Company machine would have to be removed, and a new scale would need to be put in to replace it.
Orlandini urged them to contact the previous year’s inspector, but the current inspector said that the records didn’t show it was the female inspector -- even though the hardware store staff remembers helping her lift the 50 lb. weights onto the scale. The numbers didn't match, and that was that. Orlandini said that he contacted the inspector’s supervisor, but got no relief.
The scale is still in operation -- Orlandini said that they hadn’t received an official notice to retire it yet, and there is something of an appeals process, so it could remain in operation for as long as a year -- but he doesn’t want to get rid of it.
Besides losing the old-school charm, a replacement is going to be expensive, Orlandini said: “If it costs a thousand dollars, for example, it’ll take three years to make it back. That’s a lot of nails.”
Orlandini said another local independent hardware store operator who had similar scale problems now won’t deal with bulk nails at all, and only sells by the box -- something Orlandini would like to avoid.
If the scale is decommissioned, he said, “We’re going to keep it here, and have a plaque made explaining why [we can’t use it].”
A call to the Weights and Measures scale supervisor hadn’t been returned by press time.
