1,571,433 
Bab..2; 1028: W. G. PRICE 
CUNRENT METER 
1922 
Filed Nov. 21. 






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Figure 31.—Price’s PATENT NO. 1,571,433, showing 
both the single- and penta-contact facilities provided 
within one contact chamber. Note the upper bear- 
ing at the extreme top of the chamber. 
improving water-stage recorders. Five patents were 
awarded to him for such improvements. 
In 1925, Au turned his attention toward improving 
current meters, and by October of that year he had 
applied for a patent on a design which satisfied him. 
Two patents were eventually awarded: patent 
1,644,005 dated October 4, 1927, and patent 1,704,162 
dated March 5, 1929. 
which Au had applied for these patents that he and 
J. C. Hoyt appealed to the W.& L. E. Gurley firm 
to revise the design of the Small Price meters to cor- 
It was during the same year in 
respond with Au’s latest ideas. As usual, Gurley 
64 BULLETIN 252: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM 
March 5, 1929. Cc. H. AU 1,704,162 
CURRENT METER 
Original Filed Oct.17, 1925 



“Set Ff 
32.—Au’s for 
Figure 
DRAWING patent 1,704,162 
showing the single- and penta-contact facilities 
both patent 
(fig. 31) appears to have covered this identical 
feature. 
within the same chamber. Price’s 
agreed. They assigned catalog no. 622 to the new 
model and manufactured a small lot for field trial. 
The new models were referred to in Hoyt’s writings 
as the “‘Small Price ‘Improved’ Current Meter.” 
One of Au’s patent drawings of this meter is shown 
in figure 32. It reveals that his design still contained 
the feature that Price had objected to so strongly, 
namely that the upper bearing was located below rather 
Moreover, Au’s 
new design for the /ower bearing eliminated practi- 
cally all of the beneficial air pocket in that area. In 
fact, the improvements which Price had so diligently 
than above a substantial air pocket. 
worked for in current meter design were seemingly 
ignored in Au’s design. Apparently neither Au, nor 
Hoyt, nor Gurley’s design engineers were aware of 
that circumstance. 
The first lot of experimental models built in accord- 
ance with Au’s design was completed in March 1926 
and distributed for trial purposes among selected field 
offices of the Survey. W.& L. E. Gurley also sent 
one to W. G. Price in Yakima with a suggestion that 
he exhibit it among those of his friends who were em- 
ployed on neighboring irrigation projects. Price was 
then away from home for a long period, but about a 
year later he exhibited the model as requested. His 
report to Gurley (with a copy to the U.S. Geological 
Survey) dated March 29, 1927, was both frank and 
discouraging, as shown by the following extracts: 
THE MUSEUM OF 
HISTORY AND TECH NOLOGY 
