Figure 16.—PRrIce’s INSTRUCTIONS on 
care of current meters. (Photo 
courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey.) 
While working on the Missouri River when still 
employed by the Mississippi River Commission, Price 
was selected to deliver a speech as a delegate from 
Iowa to an irrigation conference held on January 
30-31, 1894, at O'Neill, Nebraska. The newspaper 
accounts of that event described him as an enthusiastic 
irrigationist. 
With such a background and in such an environ- 
ment, Price was quick to recognize the need for a 
meter, similar to that designed by Nettleton, with 
which to measure the discharge of shallow streams and 
irrigation ditches. According to his notes, he had 
conceived of a design for such a new meter as early as 
1893, the year before the irrigation meeting took 
place at O'Neill. It was not publicly announced, 
however, until his article entitled ““A New Current 
Meter, and a New Method of Rating Meters” ap- 
peared in the January 10, 1895, issue of Engineering 
News. 
The Geological Survey was one of the earliest 
purchasers of the new meter. 
recorded as follows: !° 
No. 19. Small Price acoustic meter. Maker’s No. 3. 
Purchased in June, 1895, and issued to W. G. Russell, 
Kansas. 
Its first purchase is 
On page 16 of the same document are the following 
comments: 
The little Price acoustic meter, lately introduced, has also 
been successfully used, even under unusual difficulties. 
The instrument has commended itself by its extreme 
lightness and its sensitiveness, and it has been found 
possible to employ it from bridges by suspension from the 
end of long rods made of gas pipe. 
Although records show that Price had conceived its 
design in 1893 and that sales of this meter had already 
been made in 1895, he did not file an application for a 
patent on it until August 4, 1896. Patent 582,874 was 
issued to him as of May 18, 1897. 
10 FREDERICK Haynes NEWELL, “Report of Progress of the 
Division of Hydrography for the Calendar Year 1895,” ibid., 
Deo39- 
PAPER 70: WILLIAM GUNN 
| 
| 
| 


PRICE AND THE PRICE CURRENT METERS 


Ths Meter 
¢ 15 30 Constructed 
inte 
the bearings. 
/r should wmever be Wrned boffom side ve 
thet when 
properly used no grit can get 
excep? oe orf sh and this must 
be done in the morning when there will Probably be m0 water sett jn the sewer 
PUL of the bearing Tubes. 
7S Ol THE ryETER 
O/ te Meter every morning W ss used os follows; Turn Me yeRr bom 
sede up ond pour o/ smb the /ower Searing and held i/ so FM the oil runsin.| 
Torn it back again. Teke ovt the “ttle Screw with a leather ont and put 
‘9 One drep of of/, If you fail fo off The 
Mfeler fer @ few dos 
i may fel rm 
Carry the Electric Currenr. 
he Electric Contact 
% Contact hos never been known 
This form % fail 
te Side of Be whee/ it's now, <2¢ The slee/ needle 
wher kept brjghth tq 
in order. f must be on 
Pomt mus stand neorly Aerpendicular t the hub Sf Be wWhee/. 
Ws not necessary © Aave Me spr 
ng very SIF .A “ight Pressure ts sufficient. 

Iy Using = this Mgeler ot Should = be Tracked Pe 0 Minch 
fron mod which 
Corres o heavy Sead wergst 25 Showm in the cbove fy sure. The oaistence 
from the tp of the weight % fhe center of the Meter frome Should never be 
fess Than /0 inches. “lf any other form of weight 1s used, if shov/d be iz, 
The rod should be “inked te the weight which must balence fo be Rept 
Parallel with the current by “% vene. s 
The rod should be 2 feet song; Fer deep “Md swift currents © very heory 
weywht s/s mecessary The weight vsed at Corrolifen £@ in 110 eer of 
water weghed 1/0 /bs. 
The Meter shovid be fowered by Two N2/0 Irom Wires 2M@ of Which 
hes on insulated wire wound Around if dq the other 13 graduated Te <eet | 
by a winding of Sine siren thread Seldered *% it 
Red and white cloth tags shov/id be ted o7 at every a/fernate /0 feet. 
These srom wires Show/@ run on JB iach woeder pulleys. 
The gradvo wire vsed et Carrollton every dey /asfed FS months and 
ISdeys before breaking. 
Two Mee/S are reguired, ome of which Carries the redvated mire, and the 
other, the (7su/ate. wire which 1$ Wound around the other siren wire. 
The electriciy 13 Corried from the battery f the insulated wire. Through 
three Springs, whieh press Uernst 9 Copper bondi fastened Arevad the 
Shaft ef the wheel, bet insulated from st 
The Cerrent (Ss Carried rough the graduated mire and the other mee/ 
in the Same way , except that the copper band 13 net insulated from 
Me shafr bur 13 Seldered fo 'f, | 
Solder ali connections pessible, ind be sure Mar the thers are bright. 
Yse 3 Colg Fo tee Pre lecianche boTery. 
The rom wire whith 1 mot gradvefed must be 
against loosing the meeter; Uf the wee ore 
ron pulle ty wel break sm @ Short ime. 
uf x dest we Cowdidion of Me Meher 
Place + in 1% bac 
os possible with the Aand. in the 
when in the water, end st Shevid run at seast BO** 
renewed xcasione/ly to insure 
allewed fo run over @ small 
ond give tle whee/ as fast a wh r/ 
direchon im which if Mens 
The mefer frame must be allowed fo turn in bot the rertical snd herizental 
Plame; Anumier ef Careful experiments Preve thet this (3 The proper 
woy "fe vse Me meter. 
With Tis Opparates the meter, Weight and wires Sag down sfream in Swift My 
but if mokes m0 
the wire must net be 
Integrations must be run 
must be rosed 204 lowered very slowly. In an 
measures The ciagona/ of a parallelogram whose sides ore 
water and the aislence if runs during the obserration. 
For measuring cischerge the micf depth velocity 1s olf Mot +s 
deep waler 
with 
Afference except that the sounclings Taken 
vsed in Computing Me Arschocge 
integration the meter 
the depth of the 
pecessary 
Bi 4, PReee- 
US Aust Engineer 
1 
on 

in beth directions 204 2 mean feken; ~~ the meter | 









