CHAPTER III 

 FORMS OF METER RATES NOW IN USE 



I do not believe that there is any other line of business that has such 

 great and unreasonable variety in its schedules of charges as will be found 

 in water works. Allen Hazen, Jour. N.E.W.W. Assn., Vol. XXVI, 1912, 

 p. 102. 



Units of Volume. Water is sold at meter rates either by the 

 100 (or 1000) cubic feet or by the 1000 U. S. gallons. Both units 

 are in common use. In the early days of metering, the use of 

 cubic feet predominated, and it seemed at one time as if this 

 unit might be universally adopted Recently, however, there 

 has been a tendency to go back to the gallon. The gallon is more 

 easily understood by the public than the cubic foot. It is also 

 the ordinary basis of most water works statistics. 



It would be advantageous if one or the other unit could be 

 universally adopted. Either is suitable. At the present time 

 use and preference for the two units is so evenly divided that the 

 universal adoption of either does not seem to be possible at an 

 early date. 



In this discussion gallons will be uniformly used, and where 

 rates are referred to which are expressed in cubic feet they 

 will be converted into gallons for uniformity. 



One cubic foot equals 7.48052 gallons. For most rate calcu- 

 lations the round figure 7.5 may be used for converting one to 

 the other. 



In Canada, the Imperial gallon, equal to 1.20 U. S. gallons, 

 is used. 



Where the metric system is employed, the cubic meter, 

 equal to 264 U. S. gallons, is the basis of measurement. 



Time Interval. With some kinds of meter rates the time 

 interval is not stated, but many of them are expressed in amounts 



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