
Figure 13.—NETTLETON’s COLORADO CURRENT METER as made by W. E. Scott & Co., Denver, 
Colorado. (USNM cat. no. 289641; Smithsonian photo 44537-H.) 
and to ascertain what instruments would be best for 
that purpose. Embudo is reported to have been 
selected by Powell because of his acquaintance with it 
from studies he had made of the Pueblo Indians in that 
area and because the river was a western stream, ac- 
cessible by railroad, and situated in a canyon which 
was assumed to have a mild winter climate. The 
engineer placed in charge of that group of potential 
hydrographers was Frederick Haynes Newell, a 
graduate student from the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. 
Arriving at Embudo during the early part of 
December 1888 and remaining there until late in 
April 1889, the party tried out all the known stream- 
gaging methods and tested practically all the different 
types of floats, current meters, and other streamflow 
measuring devices that they could build, borrow, or 
otherwise acquire within the allotted time. The 
Price models 375 and 376 meters apparently were 
either too scarce at that time or too large for use on the 
then-shallow Rio Grande to have been included in 
those trials. In fact, most of the actual discharge 
measurements made on that occasion were accom- 
plished with Nettleton’s Colorado meter (fig. 15). 
a2 BULLETIN 252: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM 

Figure 14.—NrETTLETON’s COLORADO CURRENT METER 
THE 
as improved by Bailey of Lallie & Bailey, Denver, 
Colorado, now in the Smithsonian’s Museum of 
History and Technology. (USNM cat. no. 248696; 
Smithsonian photo 44538-A.) 
MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 
