
Figure 39.—THe WES Mipcer VeLociry meter de- 
signed for use on model studies by the Corps of 
Engineers, US: Army. (Photo courtesy of the Mississippi 
River Commission.) 
Meanwhile, W. & L. E. Gurley has con- 
tinued to manufacture them in accordance with the 
facilities. 
Survey’s latest specifications. 
Pygmy Small Price Current Meters 
Just as the Large Price current meters were found 
to be too large for use in shallow streams, so the 
Small Price current meters were found to be too large 
for use in still shallower streams. Even normally 
large rivers can become so shallow during periods of 
drought that the Small Price meters will not produce 
accurate results. To attempt to measure them by 
building weirs is usually a highly expensive and time- 
consuming procedure. A Pygmy Small Price current 
meter, the advantages of which are described in the 
Geological Survey’s Water-Supply Paper 868, accord- 
ingly was designed by the author in 1936. Several 
variations in its design were tried experimentally 
during the succeeding two or three years, but the 
final design as it emerged in February 1939 is that 
7 and 38. 
shown in figures 3 The impellers on such 
Pygmy meters are two inches in overall diameter 
(two-fifths the size of those used on the Small Price 
meters). ‘The meter is designed to fit onto the wading- 
rod facilities used with all Small Price meters. Be- 
cause it is intended only for use with rod suspension, it 
has not been provided with a tailpiece. Pygmy meters 
enable a hydrographer to make fast and accurate 
measurements of streams that are too shallow for the 
Small Price meters to be used, yet too large for the 
use of weirs or volumetric methods. 
In 1944, a still smaller cup-type current meter was 
designed, constructed, and used by the Corps of 
Engineers at the U.S. Waterways Experiment Sta- 
tion at Vicksburg, Mississippi, for measuring the 
It still 
The impeller of the so-called 
WES Midget Velocity meter is about 1% inches in 
currents in scale models of river channels. 
serves that purpose. 
diameter—only a little over one-half the diameter of 
the impeller on the Pygmy meter. Thus, the Corps of 
Engineers, the organization that sponsored the design 
of the earliest and largest of the Price meters, also 
sponsored the design of the latest and smallest of the 
cup-type 
meter is shown in figure 39. 
meters. A photograph of that Midget 
Conclusion 
The cup-type current meter, conceived in America 
in 1867 by Daniel Farrand Henry and improved 
upon by Ellis and Price in 1874 and 1882, respectively, 
rapidly became one of the most frequently used 
current meters in the world. Among all of the 
changes that have been made in its design, the 
principle of the cup-type impeller, borrowed from 
the Robinson anemometer, has been steadfastly 
adhered to, but the principle introduced by Price of 
excluding silty water from its bearings through the 
use of trapped air has undergone numerous changes. 
At one time, as has been shown, that principle was 
threatened with extinction, largely because the 
history of its conception and its purpose seemed 
The Smith- 
sonian’s fine collection—the largest in the world— 
temporarily to have been forgotten. 
and such papers as this explaining the important 
design details concerning these meters will ensure 
that their importance is not overlooked. 
U.S. Government Printing Office: 1967 
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 
Washington, D.C. 
20402 
Price 35 cents 
