Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. IX, No. 4 
118 
head, and a determination of such loss of head would indicate the volume 
of water flowing in the channel. Thus far, Venturi’s principle had not 
been considered in the action of such a device. Small flumes with ver¬ 
tical sides were used in the preliminary experiments; and, after employ¬ 
ing several different ratios of widths of throat to lengths of flume, lengths 
£T/evbt/on 
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Fig. i.—S tandard plans for the Venturi flume with rectangular cross section. 
of throat, and arrangements of gages and end wings, the form shown in 
figure i was chosen as the standard. A greater length of converging 
and diverging section and a rounding of the throat section would result 
in less loss of head and greater accuracy in measurement of flow, but the 
standard was chosen as a compromise between accuracy and cost. 
