
Figure 17.—TuHe Price Acoustic CURRENT METER. 
(Photo courtesy of W. and L. E. Gurley.) 
A photograph of a Price Acoustic current meter is 
shown in figure 17 and a copy of the patent drawing 
in figure 18. Its name was derived from the manner 
in which sound was conducted from the meter to the 
ear of the hydrographer. As the impeller revolved, 
a worm gear located within the enlarged section of the 
suspension rod caused its associated worm wheel to 
make 1 revolution for every 20 revolutions of the 
impeller (see figure 18). Projecting from one side of 
the worm wheel were two short pins, 180 degrees 
apart. Each pin, in its turn, caused a small, spring- 
actuated hammer to be pushed downward against the 
At the 
tenth revolution, the pin automatically disengaged 
spring during 10 revolutions of the impeller. 
itself from the hammer mechanism. The hammer 
then flew up and struck a diaphragm situated across 
the top of the chamber, thus creating a sharp sound. 
Then the second pin started depressing the hammer, 
and the process repeated itself over and over again as 
long as the impeller continued to revolve. The sound 
caused by the hammer striking the diaphragm every 
OG CONTRIBUTIONS FROM 
BULLETIN 252°: 
(No Model » 
W.G. PRICE. 
CURRENT METER. 
Patented May 18, 1897 
No. 582,874 

WITWESSES: INVENTOR 
4 4 
MS Chamel 1 tics 
Sfp tte ti 
2Y ip Ch Prk pwd foe 
4 _-« 
Figure 18.—PATENT DRAWING for Price Acoustic 
current meter. 
tenth revolution traveled upward through the hollow 
rod, then through a rubber tube to the earpiece worn 
by the hydrographer. The hydrographer thus could 
count by tens the number of revolutions made by the 
impeller during a certain period of time and convert 
the data, by means of a previous rating of the meter, 
into figures representing the velocity of the water in 
feet per second. 
At the time when the Gurley firm started manufac- 
turing this new meter, they adopted an entirely new 
numbering system for cataloging such instruments. 
On that occasion they announced that (1) the new 
acoustic meters were to be listed as their catalog no. 
616; (2) the 24-inch Price meters (model 376) were 
HISTORY 
THE MUSEUM OF AND TECHNOLOGY 
