Haskell Water Current Meter
date: label: date made
content: ca 1890
notes: label: Description
content: Eugene Elwin Haskell graduated from Cornell University in 1879, spent a few years with the U.S. Lake Survey, and then joined the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. For the purpose plotting the currents in New York Harbor he designed a horizontal-axis, screw-type current meter, the results of which could be read electrically.
label: Description
content: John Wesley Powell, the first director of U.S. Irrigation Survey, a project of the U.S. Geological Survey, explained that the wheel of this meter “is of the propeller type, conical in longitudinal projection, thus cleaning itself from leaves and grass,” adding that “There is no question that this is the best type of wheel yet presented for a current meter.” “Beyond the inconvenience of wires and batteries common to all electric meters,” Powell went on to say, “the Haskell is superior to any form yet tried.”
label: Description
content: This example is a variation of the Haskell meter as conceived in the late 1880s by engineers of the U.S. Irrigation Survey. It is marked “U.S.G.S. No. 3” and “J. S. J. Lallie, Maker, Denver, Colo.” The U.S. Geological Survey transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1908.
label: Description
content: John S. J. Lallie was born in Marseilles, France, in 1856, and came to the U.S. in 1864. In 1888, after working as a surveyor for some time, he established the Western Mathematical Instrument Co. in Denver. From 1891 until his death in 1911, he traded as J. S. J. Lallie.
label: Description
content: Ref: E.E. Haskell, “Ship’s Log,” U.S. Patent 384362 (1888).
label: Description
content: J. W. Powell, “Irrigation Survey—Second Annual Report,” in <i>Report of the Secretary of the Interior</i> (Washington, D.C., 1890), vol. 4, part 2, p. 9.
label: Description
content: Arthur H. Frazier, <i>Water Current Meters in the Smithsonian Collections of the National Museum of History and Technology</i> (Washington, D.C., 1974), pp. 64-67.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Colorado, Denver
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Water Currents
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U. S. Geological Survey
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.248697
label: accession number
content: 48341
label: catalog number
content: 248697
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Water Current Meter
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 1/4 in x 21 1/2 in x 7 in; 15.875 cm x 54.61 cm x 17.78 cm