Section A-A 


Figure 22.—CRross-sEcTIONAL viEW of model 617 
Small Price current meter. (From U.S. Geological 
Survey Water-Supply Paper 56, fig. 3.) 


Figure 23.—Mobpet 617 SMa. Price current meter, 
now in the Smithsonian’s Museum of History and 
Technology. (USNM cat. no. 289644; Smith- 
sonian photo 44538-F.) 
dials, count the clicks . 
keeping the time by watching the second hand of an 
ordinary watch while it marks off fifty seconds. 
. made by the miniature sounder, 
These two innovations—the adoption of the new 
meter and the abandonment of the electrical count- 
ers—brought about an unexpected difficulty, the solu- 
tion of which fell on Hoyt’s capable shoulders. In 
explanation of that difhculty, it should be mentioned 
that large-diameter cup-wheels on current meters, 
“‘much like large-diameter wheels on a wheelbarrow,” 
to use a favorite expression of Hoyt’s, revolve at a 
slower rate than small wheels. Hydrographers fre- 
quently found that during flood periods they were 
barely able to keep up with the count of the clicks 
PAPER 70: WILLIAM GUNN PRICE AND THE 

Figure 24.—EaRLiest VERSION of model 618 Small 
Price current meter. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Geologi- 
cal Survey.) 

Figure 25.—LATER VERSION of model 618 Small Price 
current meter. (Photo taken by author.) 
produced by even the large-diameter impellers of the 
Large Price meters. When, therefore, the smaller 
impellers were introduced on the new Small Price 
meters, their rate of rotation was so much faster that 
it was utterly impossible for the hydrographer to keep 
PRICE CURRENT METERS 59 
