Phil Wehman

Dieters in the 1890s couldn’t buy NutriSystem plans.

But they could — and did — purchase the Eugene Christian Calculating Food Scale.

“It weighs your food and gives you the different food values. It was better than Weight Watchers,” said Phil Wehman, a North Chattanooga antique scale collector.

Last weekend, 103 antique scale collectors from around the world converged in Chattanooga for an annual convention. Several hundred scales were sold at auction.

While the Wehman collection is not for sale, Mr. Wehman said that with his wife’s recent death, the collection will eventually need one or several homes.

“I’m not going to sell anything at this hour. I don’t know how you sell your children,” he said.

One of the highlights of the annual convention, though, was a tour of the Wehman scales, said by experts to be a “premiere” collection of more than 1,000 items.

Nearly 40 years ago, Mr. Wehman’s wife, George Anna, inherited a simple produce scale from her aunt. Intrigued, she bought another, then another, then eventually the couple gathered hundreds more, Mr. Wehman said. They scoured auctions, antique stores, garage sales, estate sales and collectors catalogs.

In the collection now are specialty scales for weighing gold coins, gold teeth, diamonds, drugs, eggs, candy, milk, produce, postage, photo chemicals, grain moisture, truck weight, human weight and tea.

“Scales used to be part of everyday life,” Mr. Wehman said.

The oldest is a “V-scale” circa 1750, so-called because it’s shaped like a “V.”

Modern items include the 4-foot-tall 1940s or 1950s-era Royal Crown Cola bottle scale. People placed coins in a slot in the bottle cap to measure their weight.

“There are only about 25 of these left in the world,” Mr. Wehman said.

The collection also features dozens of toy scales, miniature versions of the instruments children watched adults use daily.

“These are getting really hard to find. They weren’t made to last as long, and you’re competing with toy collectors and scale collectors,” Mr. Wehman said.

Scales once came in many varieties, a fact that hooks most scale collectors.

“It’s a fun thing,” Mr. Wehman said. “Scales go from a tiny postage-type scale to the size you can weigh a wagon on.”

A classic balance scale, for example, positions two cups hanging from a precisely-calibrated balance bar. The scale weighs amounts in one cup by balancing a weight on the other side.

Apothecary’s scales, used to weigh tiny amounts of powders and potions, were so delicate they were often encased in boxes to protect them from breezes.

Spring-loaded scales were commonly used for kitchen produce.

Calculating scales, such as the diet scale, reported how much an object at each weight would cost. A marker moved left or right along a board covered with numbers, as objects weighed more or less.

Collectors, of course, also like to seek out the unusual.

While many scales are coveted because they are in exceptional condition and work perfectly, one of Mr. Wehman’s favorite finds is a Menkhaus — valuable because it never worked.

“You can stand on your left foot, then on your right foot, and it gives you two different weights. It had to be recalled — it was totally inaccurate,” Mr. Wehman said.