
up with them without an electric counter. ‘That situ- 
ation reached a climax at the second annual confer- 
ence of the Survey’s eastern hydrographers in January 
1905. The minutes of that conference show that a 
recommendation was made to the effect that a current 
meter should be constructed for use in flood measure- 
ments that will record once every 5, 10, or 20 revolu- 
tions. 
It may be remembered at this point that Price’s 
Acoustic meter had an impeller with the same dimen- 
No fault was 
found with it in this respect, because, as previously 
explained, that meter produced one click for every 10 
revolutions of its impeller. With it, the hydrographer 
sions as those of the Small Price meter. 
easily could count those revolutions by tens, even 
under the most severe velocity conditions. Its greatest 
fault, if any, lay in the opposite direction. While 
measuring extremely low velocities, the clicks were 
widely separated in time, and the hydrographer might 
have to wait several minutes before the first one oc- 
curred. Since many observations are needed during 
the course of a measurement, an unwarranted amount 
of his time would thereby be wasted. 
Such circumstances prevailed when John Hoyt 
returned to Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1906 from 
Alaska, where he had just inaugurated the Territory’s 
first stream-gaging program. ‘The events which then 
took place are best described in the following extract 
of a letter dated April 5, 1932, which Hoyt wrote to 
Willard G. Steward: 
As I remember, when I returned from Alaska in the fall 
of 1906, you were engaged in designing a penta head [one 
which produced a ‘“‘click’’ at the completion of every fifth 
revolution of the impeller] for the Small Price current 
meter. In discussing this matter with you shortly after I 
returned, it occurred to me that gearing similar to that 
used in the acoustic meter would give the desired results. 
The idea came from having used the acoustic meter in 
Figure 26.—OrIGINAL MODEL of the 
621-type yoke- and penta-contact 
chamber for use on Small Price 
Details of the 
inner parts of the contact chamber 
are the same as those in figure 27. 
current meters. 
‘The instrument is now in_ the 
Smithsonian’s Museum of History 
(USNM cat. 
Smithsonian 
and ‘Technology. 
no. 289645; 
44538-B.) 
photo 
Alaska during the previous season. Following this sug- 
gestion, you made a model of a contact chamber in which 
you used a set of gears from an acoustic meter [and] pro- 
vided [it] with contact points so as to indicate electrically. 
This arrangement gave satisfactory results, and a meter 
was equipped with this contact chamber and sent to 
W. & L. E. Gurley, who adopted the idea. In the meter 
which was sent to Gurley several other changes were made, 
including the substitution of sliding connections in the 
place of screw connections. ‘The meter was designed so as 
to use either a single point contact chamber or the penta 
contact chamber, and was known as the combination 
meter. 
Mr. Steward’s reply contained a few suggested cor- 
rections to Hoyt’s statement, namely that the model of 
the contact chamber actually had not been built by 
him but rather by ‘tan old German model maker, 
Haverbach(?).” It also indicated that he and Hoyt 
had ‘designed the balancing weights for the tail- 
piece, and revised the locking mechanism [which had 
been designed originally by Maxie R. Hall of the 
Geological Survey] on the tailpiece so as not to lose 
half of the tail.” 
Both Steward and Hoyt overlooked mentioning two 
other important features that either of them might 
have been responsible for on this occasion. ‘The first 
was a slot through the stem of the yoke, through which 
a flat hanger bar could be passed and used to support 
both the meter and one or more sounding weights. 
That facility reduced the cost and complexity of the 
hangers and greatly improved the streamlining of the 
assembly. The second feature was that of a sliding 
hanger used in connection with wading rods. It 
enabled the meter to be positioned conveniently at the 
desired depth below the surface when it was used for 
making wading measurements. Such sliding hang- 
ers made it possible, for the first time, for the same 
Small Price current meter to be used for making wad- 
60 BULLETIN 252: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 
