CHAPTER II 

 BEGINNINGS OF THE METER BUSINESS 



Keeping accounts is at the foundation of an economical conduct of any 

 business, and to keep accounts in the water-supply business, the water must 

 be measured, that is, metered. Clemens Herschel, Trans. Am. Soc. C.E., 

 Vol. XXXIV, 1895, P- 212. 



No attempt will be made to develop a full history of the 

 introduction of meters in American water- works systems. The 

 pages of technical journals and municipal reports have been filled 

 with it for thirty years. But a brief glance at some of the 

 early conditions is necessary to an understanding of present 

 conditions. 



If a cheap and reliable water meter had been available in the 

 early days of American water works, it would, no doubt, have 

 been generally used and the discussion of equitable meter rates 

 would have come much earlier. 



Probably a great degree of the irregularity in the manner of assessing 

 water rates is due to the fact that in the infancy of the business there was 

 no simple, cheap, and efficient way of measuring with approximate accuracy 

 the quantity of water used by the individual consumer. At the outset we 

 are confronted with a condition appertaining, perhaps, to no other line of 

 business. John C. Chase, Journal N.E.W.W. Assn., Vol. XVII, 1903, 

 p. 174. 



Without going too minutely into history, it appears that the 

 water meter in a comparatively attractive form first made 

 its appearance in the United States between 1870 and 1880. 

 The advantages of the meter system were recognized at an early 

 date, and in the decade beginning with 1880, rapid advance was 

 made. 



The commonest use of meters was to apply them to a selected 

 number of services in each system. The services selected to be 

 metered were usually the ones taking the most water in that 



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