Worthington Water Meter
date: label: date made
content: ca 1890-1900
name: label: maker
content: Worthington, Henry R.
notes: label: Description
content: This water meter, with an iron case marked “WORTHINGTON” and serial number 55,542, was probably made in Brooklyn in the late nineteenth century. The inscription refers to Henry R. Worthington (1817-1880), a New York inventor and manufacturer who specialized in pumps and other hydraulic machinery, and whose duplex-piston water meter (covered by U.S. Patent 13,320 of July 24, 1855) was the first successful water meter made in the United States. <i>Scientific American</i> reported in 1880 that over 20,000 Worthington water meters were in daily use, the form having “been adopted by all the principal water works in the United States and Canada.” The original form was still on the market at the turn of the century.
label: Description
content: Ref: “American Industries. No. 55. The Manufacture of Pumping Engines and Water Meters,” <i>Scientific American</i> 43 (1880): 149.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Brooklyn
topic: label: Subject
content: Water
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Natural Resources
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content: Water Meters
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: A. A. Hirsch
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.329741
label: accession number
content: 245003
label: catalog number
content: 329741
objectType: label: Object Name
content: water meter
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 17 in x 14 1/2 in x 20 in; 43.18 cm x 36.83 cm x 50.8 cm