vo 
& 

Figure 19.—Gacinc car provided with blocks and 
tackles to facilitate using the Acoustic meter. 
(From U.S. Geological Water-Supply 
Paper 56, pl. 9.) 
Survey 
to be renumbered as catalog no. 600; and (3) the 
manufacture of the 35-inch Price meters (model 375) 
was to be discontinued. 
The Acoustic meter soon achieved a considerable 
degree of popularity, but either a Large Price or a 
Haskell meter had to be taken along on stream-gaging 
trips by field parties of the Geological Survey in order 
to enable them to measure the deep as well as the 
shallow rivers. Many attempts were made to adapt 
the Acoustic meter for deep-water observations so as 
PAPER 70: WILLIAM GUNN PRICE AND THE 
615-884— 68 5 
to avoid that nuisance. In at least two instances, one 
of which is shown in figure 19, gaging cars were pro- 
vided with blocks and tackles for lowering the entire 
car and its occupants almost to the water’s surface. 
With such a facility it was possible to shorten the 
length of the gas pipe required for positioning the 
meter at the proper depth in the river, but this never 
proved to be wholly satisfactory. 
First Small Price Current Meters 
The division of hydrography of the Geological Sur- 
vey had started early in its existence the practice of 
holding periodic conferences at which the problems of 
the field men were discussed and new ideas ex- 
1896, 
Newell requested that the resident hydrographers be 
changed. Prior to the conference held in 
prepared to submit suggestions for improving current 
meters. ‘The suggestions received on that occasion 
led Edwin Geary Paul, the mechanician of the divi- 
sion, to design the first Small Price electric current 
meter. That design contemplated using a 6-cup 
impeller identical to those furnished on Acoustic cur- 
rent meters, in combination with a yoke, tailpiece, 
and electric contact facilities resembling the corre- 
sponding parts of the Large Price meters but built on 
a much smaller scale. 
W. & L, E. Gurley collaborated with E. G. Paul in 
manufacturing a meter conforming with his specifica- 
tions (fig. 20). Figure 21 shows Mr. Paul rating a 
later version of such a meter at the Survey’s rating 
facility at Chevy Chase Lake, Maryland. 
the Geological Survey’s Water-Supply Paper 11 (1897) 
Records in 
show that the new meter (Gurley’s no. 1) had been 
assigned no. 91 in the Survey’s meter-numbering 
system and that this meter had been purchased from 
Gurley as of November 12, 1896. E. G. Paul and 
C. C. Babb rated it on December 10 of that same year. 
The overall length of this new, custom-built, experi- 
mental meter was a mere 12 inches. Several improve- 
ments were suggested before a production lot was 
manufactured, and about six months later (June 28, 
1897) the Survey made its first purchase. A drawing 
and a photograph of a meter from that lot (Gurley 
catalog no. 617) are shown in figures 22 and 23 re- 
spectively. This model soon became very popular. 
Within a short time its sales far exceeded the com- 
bined previous sales of both the early types of Large 
Price current meters. 
Throughout all of the period during which the 
model 617 current meters were in vogue, the task of 
PRICE CURRENT METERS Dis 
