On this day in 1898 Albert Ayer was granted the patent for Leather Measuring Machine. U.S. Patent No. 608,538.
This machine is constructed to measure leather by simply passing the side of leather over a table and between a single lower-feeding-cylinder and a series of independent upper measuring-wheels and adjusted to come in contact with the moving sides of leather and to be made to rotate by it and to rotate only while in contact with the leather. The amount of rotation of each of the measuring-wheels determines the movement of a series of weights which are suspended in a corresponding series of upright tubes containing a liquid, all of the tubes being connected to a single closed tank, which has an upright branch in which the height of the liquid can be measured. The height of the liquid in the branch depends upon the position of the weights in the tubes, and as the positions of the weights in the tubes, and as the positions of the weights are determined by the rotation of the measuring-wheels it is apparent that the height of the liquid in the branch of the tank will have a fixed relation to the area of the side of leather that has passed under the measuring-wheels.
