
Figure 9.—PRICE’s STREAM-GAGING PLANT at Paducah, Kentucky, in 1882. 
Hoyt, McDonald, Price, and Hill. Note meter between Price and Hill. 
Price.) 
in water, air becomes trapped in the cavities which 
surround the pivots, preventing silt-laden water from 
reaching the bearing areas. The drawing in this 
figure was based on the earliest model of Price’s 
meters; his later models contained even larger air 
traps, the particular feature that characterizes all 
Price-type current meters. The provision of such air 
traps was the specific idea for which his first current- 
meter patent (325,011) was granted on August 25, 
1885. 
Price’s original current meter, identified as Price 
No. A, was first placed in service at Paducah, Ken- 
tucky, on the Ohio River, between two and three 
miles below the mouth of the Tennessee River, on 
January 24, 1882. The plant, a catamaran which 
was towed from one position to another by the Jaunch 
Rose Bud, which Price had used at Clayton, Iowa, for 
handling rod floats, was outfitted with reels for 
handling the new current meter (fig. 9). News 
about Price’s current meter spread quickly among 
the stream gagers who worked for the Mississippi 
River Commission, and they seemed to have been 
favorably impressed by it. By February 1883, Price 
had built a second model, No. B, which was placed 
in service during that same month at Carrollton, 
Louisiana, near New Orleans, and was exhibited 
Crew, from left to right: Dorst, 
(Photo from scrapbook of W. G. 
at the United States World’s Industrial and Cotton 
Centennial Exposition (December 16, 1884, to 
June 1, 1885) in New Orleans. 
After finishing the construction of current meter 
No. B, Price began building additional meters for 
sale on a commercial basis to the Corps of Engineers 
and others. These he started to number consecu- 
tively, beginning with no. 1. By July 1885 he had 
sold 11 of them, mostly to the Corps of Engineers. 
In Price’s letter of January 14, 1885, to W. & L. E. 
Gurley, he tried to induce that firm to take over the 
manufacture of his current meters. ‘The letter stated 
in part: 
It is a great trouble to me to find a machinist who can 
make them, and I have been obliged to do all of the fine 
work myself. I wish you would undertake the manufac- 
ture of these instruments and furnish them to the U.S. 
Government at a reasonable price. The instruments cost 
$40.00 to make, which is the value of material and cost of 
machinist’s labor at $5.00 per day. You can make them 
for less money. 
I want a royalty of $25.00 on each, and would require 
you to sell them for not more than $100. If you accept 
this offer, I will have the instruments patented . . . and 
any orders I receive for them I will send to you. 
Subsequent events show that the firm of W. & L. E. 
PAPER 70: WILLIAM GUNN PRICE AND THE PRICE CURRENT METERS 49 
