DETECTO was founded in 1900 in Brooklyn, New York, by three immigrant brothers, the Jacobs Brothers. The Jacobs brothers were exceptional at building and repairing food service scales.
In 1950 William H. Perry started Cardinal Scale in his garage in his hometown of Webb City, Missouri. WH Perry was an experienced scale industry man and founded the new company due to customer needs for a line of special-capacity scales.
In 1981, Cardinal Scale acquired DETECTO, founded in New York City in 1900, which specialized in manufacturing baker dough scales, butcher’s scales, doctor scales, hanging scales, and portion scales. This acquisition brought an essential new dimension to Cardinal Scale, lower capacity foodservice, and healthcare scales.