144 UNDER-REGISTRATION OF METERS 



prices meters that are deficient in the qualities that make for 

 continued accuracy. 



Present Testing Methods. It has been American practice 

 to test meters by streams of water flowing through circular 

 openings of various sizes. Usually the smallest sized opening 

 has been sir-inch, representing under an ordinary working 

 pressure about 500 gallons of water per day. In most cases 

 meters are not tested on smaller water quantities than this. 

 In other cases tests with a er-inch opening, corresponding 

 to a flow of about 125 gallons per day, have been made. It 

 is very rare indeed that tests with lower flows have been made. 



When Mr. Kuichling's statement * is remembered in con- 

 nection with these testing limits, the large opportunity for 

 passage of water without registration as a steady flow at low 

 rates is apparent. 



This condition would certainly be improved if methods 

 of testing were perfected by which the registration of meters at 

 still lower rates of flow could be rapidly determined and recorded, 

 for instance, if an instrument were available which would allow 

 a number of successive quantities of water to pass, the quantities 

 being otherwise measured, and these quantities were made to 

 pass through a meter, a record could be made of the first quantity 

 that caused the moving parts to revolve and that would then 

 become a matter of record. 



John Thomson presented a paper to the New England Water 

 Works Association, called " Is the Game Worth the Candle?" f 

 in which he suggested that, in order to facilitate the business of 

 introducing meters, that the standard of test should be reduced 

 with a view to decreasing the cost of manufacture of meters. 

 The discussion of this proposition by the water works superin- 

 tendents who were present was not favorable. 



Looking at the matter from the standpoint of twenty years 

 after, the question may fairly be raised whether the time has 

 not come for more rigorous specifications for meters, and for 

 requiring mechanical construction that in the case of a clear 



* Chapter II, p. 8. 



t Jour. N.E.W.W. Assn., Vol. VIII, p. 58, 1893. 



