British Pathe

M/S of Lewisham Market, as a stall holder weighs some oranges for a woman in a bobble hat and empties them into her shopping bag. An inspector from the 'Weights and Measures' Department walks up to the stall, shows the trader his identity card and starts to examine and test his weights and scales in...

M/S of Lewisham Market, as a stall holder weighs some oranges for a woman in a bobble hat and empties them into her shopping bag. An inspector from the 'Weights and Measures' Department walks up to the stall, shows the trader his identity card and starts to examine and test his weights and scales in a spot check. The inspector nods that everything is sound and the trader gets back to work.

M/S in the Weights and Measures office at the London County Council, where a man is seen weighing loaves of bread on a pair of scales; another man brings more loaves with labels attached with elastic bands; the man weighs the loaves and makes notes. M/S of a bespectacled man pouring a pint of milk into a measuring jug to check it is a pint! Another man empties a tin of baked beans into a measuring jar and checks it on the scales.

M/S of a man weighing skeins of brightly coloured wool on a pair of scales; C/U of this man concentrating and adding fine weights to the scales. M/S of a man at a workbench measuring out a half-pint of liquid which he pours into a glass; the liquid overflows meaning "Someone's been getting one under the eight!". C/U of the man as he nods disapprovingly; extreme C/U of the Government stamp on a glass that is then filled with liquid; it takes the full half-pint.

M/S of several weights on a table; two 2lb weights are picked up and we see the underside; the one on the right has had the centre of the inside removed to make it lighter. Another weight has had a row of holes drilled from the base. A small weight is picked up and cork that has been used to fill in a hole on the top is chipped away. C/U panning left of the 'master' set of standard weights for the area; they are checked every five years. A trader's weight that measures up to the standard is shown being stamped with the crown. C/U of oranges being weighed at the market stall.

Note: there is an 'Illustrated' magazine article about trader's weighing tricks to watch out for, plus notes and correspondence from the Weights and Measurements Department at the LCC on file.