 The DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, presents the Cavalcade of America. Tonight's star, Mark Stevens. Tonight's story, the Yankee and the Scales. Set in a little knob of hills between the green and white mountains of New England is the little town of St. John'sbury, Vermont. In its quiet, typically New England way, St. John'sbury has made many claims for fame, but the event that rarely put it on the map occurred well over 120 years ago, 1830 to be exact. And it all began with a slight miscalculation in the Fairbanks foundry and wagon works, just a little out from the center of town. You sure you know what you're doing, Thad? Of course I rest, I know what I'm doing. You see, the chemicals drop through the coils, remove the heat from the water. I don't try explaining that contraption to me all over again. All I know is that if we don't get to our regular work, you won't be going to the church social with Lucy Barker tonight. Can't you appreciate a great invention when you see one? This machine will make ice. Ice? That's certainly what we're desperate for up here in Vermont, more ice. Vanir! Vanir! We're all there, Pa. Pa, Pa, I finished it. Finished what? My invention, my ice machine. Are you still fooling around with that? What's that? A muckard. That noise, that hissing. The rastus. I'll be tightening this valve. Quick. What's the matter? I don't know. We've got to tighten this valve. It's exploding, Steph. What's going on? Come on, let's get out of here. Get out? Why? It's going to blow up. Explode, come on, get out. Exploded, my foundry. Please, Pa, don't argue, run. Come on, Pa. Run, come on, hurry up. Run, Thaddeus! That's Fairbanks and Lucy. Good evening, Mr. Inventor. Good evening, Nancy. It's bad. How's your ice machine? You're just being stupid and thoughtless. Lucy, please. And my whole lot of you together haven't got half the brains that Thad, Fairbanks has. Lucy, there's no. Someday you'll all be telling your children that once you knew Thad, Fairbanks. Now you mind that I told you that? Now, Thad, take me home. All right, Lucy, come on. Lucy Barker. Yes. You've really got a temper. Now, what about my temper? Like everything else about you. Beautiful. Come on, let's go home. Lucy. Don't know why, what Thad. Why, you bother about me? Why shouldn't I? Whole town's laughing at me. I don't see why you're asking for a share of it. Well, I suppose it's just that I'm trapped. Trapped? By what? Statistics. That's a horrible thing to be trapped by, isn't it? You better explain what you mean. Well, there are 1,400 people in St. John's Burry. Well, what's that got to do with it? Only about 40% are our age. That's, uh, let's see, that's 280. Half girls and half boys. And 80% are already married. That leaves 28 of either sex, and 30% of them are too ugly or too mean to marry anybody. Which leaves 20 ladies and 20 men. Lucy, I... Don't interrupt when a lady is figuring. Of those left, half are engaged, and three of each sex are pining for someone they can't get anyway, and that leaves seven. Now, statistically, two will pass on, and one will fall ill, and another will choose to stay home, and that leaves three on both sides. Just three. Now, the three wants to rich for me and wants to poor, leaving, well, what does it leave? Me. Thad Fairbanks. You see, I'm trapped by statistics. I love you very much, Lucy Barker. Do you? I'm strictly a mathematical basis, Miss Barker. You can consider this a formal proposal of marriage. You're certainly getting married, Thad. Well, it's Thad. Of course, you understand that you'll have to make some change in the way you do things. What do you mean by that, Pa? Well, up to now, you've kind of gone the way you pleased. Just put everything else aside and went hard-willed and venting. The wife and family, you'll have to stick to one job. But Pa, what's so wrong with wanting to do something different, to build something new? Nothing. Except it takes time and money. When you're married, son, you've got a wife to use up your time and a family to use up your money. Well, so much for fatherly advice. Now, let's get on with weighing out this hemp. That's I, Pa, do it. We'll do it together. It's a back-breaking job, but it's got to be done. I'll pile on the hemp bundles. You take care of lifting down the counterweights on the other side of the beam. You shouldn't do it, Pa. That'll be done, well, can I? Seems to me that someday someone ought to get around to a better scale. How many counterweights you've got on, Thad? I just put 50 pounds on, Pa. That makes 150 pounds on this side. Well, the shipment will be 400. Keep piling on the weights. Yes, sir. Welcome to a fellow from Boston about scale to the other day. He says there hasn't been a change in scale since the time of the Egyptians. Romans did make some improvements, but... Thad, much haste. Get better rest. Let me help you at the office. Get me home, sir. Quick. Get me home. To my beloved wife, Phoebe. I hereby nominate, constitute, and appoint my sons, Erastus, Thaddeus, and Joseph, to be the executors of this, my last will and testament. Signed, Joseph Fairbanks. Well, may I again express my deepest condolences, Mrs. Fairbanks? Thank you, Mr. Tatum. As for you boys, I can only wish that you all rise to the station and eminence of your dear departed fellow. Good day. Good day, Mr. Tatum. Well, Thad, that puts it squarely up to you. Why me alone? I can't give up my store, and Joseph is just building up his law practice to the point where it means something. Yeah, I guess you're right. But just one thing, Thad. Yes? Stick to the business at hand. You'll have enough to do running the foundry and the wagon factory. Forget everything else. You mean my inventions? I mean your inventions, yes. Leave the stargazing for poets and astronomers, Thad. You're a businessman now, so keep both feet on the ground. Now, Billy, you understand exactly how I want this lever cast. Yeah, I think so, Mr. Fairbanks. You see, my idea is to balance the weighing platform on two bearings in the center of the lever and the lever with the ground. This will be held in place by the four chains attached to the post opposite there, the four corners of the platform. Oh, my. My, that sounds complicated. Lucy. Your favorite statistic, unless I've been horribly misled. Get to work on this, Billy. Will you right away? Yes, sir. What was all that mumble jumble about chains and levers? Oh, it's something I had been working on. Can't you tell me what it is? Or don't you want to? Of course I want to, Lucy. Well then, what isn't? Well, it's funny the way it started. It was just an offhand remark by a pod just before he had that heart attack. He complained about the scales we had to use to weigh our hemp and how backbreaking it was to lift the bales and the counterweights. Well, it stuck with me somehow and, well, I'm inventing again. This time a scale. You want to tell me more about it, don't you, Pat? Are you interested? Fascinated. Well, now the whole problem is to transmit the weight from the four corners of the platform to the beam. I see. I've designed an A-shaped lever. Well, Mr. Fairbanks. Yes, Bill. Your brother, Rastus, is here. He's waiting in the office. Oh, all right. Thanks. Yes, sir. Come along, Lucy. It must be something important to take him out of the store in the middle of the day. Hi, Lucy. Hello. Hello, Rastus. Is there anything wrong, Rastus? Well, Pat, we can talk about it some other time. I'll go. No, no, I don't want you to go, Lucy. What is it, Rastus? Well, then I'll get to the point. I was speaking with Squire Tatum. He tells me that he's just gone over the books. And the foundry and wagon works are doing very badly. I know, but business is poor all over the country. Yes, that's true, Thad. But I don't think that's responsible for all the loss. What do you mean? I don't like to say this, especially in front of Lucy. But I honestly feel, Thad, that we're losing money here because you're not giving the business all your attention. I hate to say this to you, Thad, but I don't think you're living up to your trust. I had to throw you right out the door for saying that. Thad, please. Oh, it's all right, Lucy. I'm not going in. Matter of fact, all I'm going to do is ask Rastus for one favor. Yes? Look, I've been working for months on this scale. That's true. But we'll have our first working model ready for trial in two weeks. Let me finish it. Let me test it. Suppose you do finish the model. Then what? Well, if it works. Why, if we have more orders in this shop, then we can fail. And if it fails, yeah, go on. Well, if it fails, I give you my solemn word that it will be my last invention. That's a promise. That's a promise. All right. Try out your scale. And Thad, believe me when I say this, I hope it works. I want to come out, Thad, to see your scale. Well, we're giving something to remember. Are you ready, Billy? In a minute, Mr. Fairbanks. Mr. Trimbles? Mr. Trimbles, you understand what you're to do? Yes. You drive the wagon onto the weighing platform. Yes. Now, make sure the wagon is resting squarely on the platform. You understand? Uh, yes. All right. Already, Mr. Fairbanks? OK. Glad to go, Mr. Trimbles. Get up. Get up. Get up. He. A little more to the left. More to the left. In the middle of the platform. The middle. Help me with Mr. Trimbles. Are you hurt, Mr. Trimbles? Mr. Trimbles, are you hurt? You're going to pay for my horse? Of course I will. And I'm all right. What happened? I don't know, Lucy. I just don't know. You're scared? Look at them, Lucy, grinning like cats at a fish fry. They're happy. Well, we put on a circus for them, a great circus. The Thad Fairbanks is the chief clown. Come on, let's go. From the capital chain of America, Mark Stevens is starring as Thaddeus Fairbanks. A young Yankee inventor in the Yankee and the Scales. In the little town of St. John'sbury in northern Vermont, Thaddeus Fairbanks has seen his first attempt to perfect a new-type scale end in failure. It's a few months later now, a typically cool August evening, and Thad is visiting Lucy Barker, his fiance. So many stars, Thad. Look at them. I've got a favorite star. Did you know that? It's that one. The middle star in Cassiopeia's chair. What's wrong, Thad? Me, I suppose. I can't see anything wrong about you. That's looking at the stars too much. There's plenty wrong, Lucy. Just can't seem to find myself. I go about my work at the family with no spark, no spirit. Bored with my job. I'm even bored with myself. You're not bored, Thad. You're disappointed and you're hurt. You know, it's funny the way a thing can get inside your brain and get in our way at you. That's crazy urge I have to invent something. Invent anything. Just invent. It's not crazy, Thad. Every poet, every writer, everyone that has a mind and wants to use it has the same urge to create. It's built into you. You can't throw it aside. I'd better find a way to throw it aside. Things are getting worse at the foundry. Orders are falling off to nothing. Hello, Uncle Benjamin. Am I interrupting anything special? No, no, of course not, sir. Thad, I've just looked over those plans you gave me on your scale. Give me my collapsible scale. Well, now as far as the scale is concerned, it's absolutely perfect. Your idea of bringing a small mass into equilibrium with a large one by means of a suitable combination of levers, well, that's absolutely sound. Now, your scale will work. No, I'm afraid not. It'll never work. Why not? Because I've given it up. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Thad. Matter of fact, I was discussing your friend of mine in Boston. He's interested. Well, I'm not. What are you going to do with your patent? Frame it, hang it on the wall to cover a crack in the plaster. Mind giving it to me? No, sir. What are you going to do with Uncle Benjamin? Well, that patent is signed by President Jackson. And, well, I think I'll just start collecting autographs. Get it to me someday this week, will you, Thad? I will, sir. Good. Now, I suppose you both be heartbroken if I retire. Oh, now, Uncle Benjamin. I take advice from Shakespeare. As you like it, act three, scene two. Let us make an honorable retreat. Mm-hmm. Oh, he's wonderful. Thad, Uncle Benjamin thinks your invention is good. Wonderful. That makes three of us. Lucy, you, me, Uncle Ben. Three against everybody else in the world. I'm afraid the scale is out of balance. Man, you've got here. And what's the matter? What do you so worked up about, Ma? They're going to close the poundry. Who? Rastus and Mr. Tatum. I've tried to tell him that it's not what I want, and I don't want it. All right, Ma, don't, don't you worry. Nothing's going to happen. Let's go in and talk this thing out. Hello, Thad. Hello, Rastus, Mr. Tatum. That is how I am. I'm all right. Thad, I don't know how to begin, but I know. Ma told me so we can skip the beginning. Your financial position is extremely precarious, that is. I've just audited the books, and I find that there's barely enough left in the bank to meet the payroll. I'm well aware of that. I don't think there's any choice in the matter. If we sell, now we can probably get enough money to provide for a mother. But I don't think selling the foundry will help, or we can't go on losing money. Look, there's a better way. I don't think there is. I know there is. If we can't find markets for our wagons, let's work on something new, something people can't find anywhere else in the world. And what's that? Scales, new, modern scales. Oh, now, Thad, let's not get started on that. I thought we buried that idea with Mr. Trimble's horse. You can't bury an idea. Not you, not I, not anyone. Now, Thad. Listen to me, and listen carefully. I've lived up to my part of the agreement. I haven't touched my scales with a water cooling machine in six months. It hasn't helped business. But from now on, I'm going to do what I think is best. Best for mother, best for myself, best for all of us. I'm going back to work on the scale. Well, just remember this. You're not to use one cent of our capital, not a penny of it. It's about time you realize the truth. Everything you touch seems to blow up or collapse. You ever hear of a success that wasn't built on a failure? Yes. What? My store. I've saved for over the past year for the two of us. It's all gone into the new model of my scale. We're not even half finished with it. Can't you get a rafters to change your mind? Is there anything stubborner than a stubborn Yankee? I wouldn't even try. Hello, you two. Uncle Finn, how was your trip? Fine. Boston never changes. Hiya, Thad. I'm fine, sir. Can I help you with your bags? Thank you, Thad. Hey, golly, I'm stiffer than the frozen cod. Thad, I've got some news for you. Remember, I told you about my friend in Boston, the one who was interested in your ice-making machine? Yes, I remember. Well, doggone it if he didn't buy your patent. He bought it? That he did. Yep, I've got the bank draft in my pocket. Here it is. Read out to you, Thad. Thanks, sir. How much that? Please tell me. Well, I did it. Lucy. Lucy, look. $1,000? Mm-hmm. Sure isn't very much. Isn't very much? Why, it's all the money in the world. A king's ransom. Lucy, what millionaires? People get back behind those ropes. We'll not stop the demonstration of this new scale until everyone is behind the ropes. Thad, I'm praying. Praying. We made every little prayer, Lucy, everyone. Now, folks, we'll get on with this demonstration of the Fairbanks platform scale. The greatest improvement in man's method of measuring weight in 2,000 years. Now, lemme listen. We've made this simple enough for even you folks to understand. We've weighed Mr. Trimble, his horse, his wagon, and all the hemp bundles by the old-type scale. Mr. Fairbanks wasn't present when we did that, so he hasn't any idea what the figure is. He took the judges all morning to get the correct weight, and they've written it down and sealed it in this envelope. Now, we'll see just how close we can get to this true figure using the new Fairbanks scale. All right, Thad, get started. You ready now, Mr. Trimble? Yes. Now, remember, right on the platform. Yes. All right, start up. If anything happens, you pay in for the horse? Yep. Get up, Thaddee. Get up. All right, that's it. Right on the platform. Hold it. There. All right, Billy. Get those weights on the balance quickly. Another one. Another. Now, the smaller one. There, there. The levers is in balance. You have your figure, Mr. Fairbanks. I do. The weight of the wagon and its load, I make to be 3,548 pounds. 3,548 pounds. I will now open this envelope so that you all may see the amount arrived at by the judges. Here's the judge's figure. I'll hold it up so you can all see. Here it is, 3,548 pounds. Mr. Fairbanks. Yes. I'm Frank Thompson from Portland. Just saw the demonstration of your scale. Wonderful. Great. I'm in the face-alting business. I'll buy six scales. When can I get delivery? It would take about three months. Well, what's the price? I don't know, sir. I haven't even had time to figure it out. No, I'll never mind. I'll take six. No, no, no, man, make it eight. It's wonderful. Great. Highest scale in the world. Thad. Thad, you're proved it to everyone. I'm so proud of you. It's just the beginning, Lucy. The beginning for both of us. The practical dreams of Thaddeus Fairbanks have grown into a great American industry. And today, Fairbanks Morse scales are used everywhere to weigh grain and cattle, trucks, trains, and giant Air Force bombers. Under the guidance of Robert H. Morse, Jr., whose grandfather repressed himself to Thaddeus Fairbanks, the Fairbanks Morse company carries on the honorable traditions set down by a young greener whose courage, integrity, and determination have given him a place in the Cavalcade of America. Welcome to the Cavalcade players for tonight's story, the Yankee and the Scales. The DuPont Cavalcade will present, going up, the dramatic account of the man who dreamed of buildings that would pierce the clouds and so changed the living habits of the world. Our star, Robert Cummings. Be sure to listen. Tonight's DuPont Cavalcade, the Yankee and the Scales, was written by L. Wood Hoffman and Irv Tunick. Original music was composed by Arden Cornwell, conducted by Donald Boreys. The program was directed by John Zollard. Mark Stevens, whose latest motion picture is the United Artists' release, Mutiny, was starred tonight as Thaddeus Fairbanks. Cynthia Stone was featured as Lucy. Alan Hewitt was Erastus. Eda Heineman was the mother. Harold McGee was the father. And Cameron Prudam, the uncle. Others were Sandra Spicer, Robert Dryden, Bill Dared, and Fred Reigns. Mrs. Sy Harris speaking. Ladies and gentlemen, within the past weeks, the floods in the Midwest have created misery and suffering for untold thousands.