Pitot-Darcy Tube
date: label: date made
content: after 1850
notes: label: Description
content: The Pitot tube, a simple device for determining the subsurface flow of water, is a hollow tube with a bend at the bottom that can be turned to face the flow. A French engineer named Henri Pitot described the form in 1732. Henry Darcy, the Inspector General of Ponts et Chausées in Paris, discussed various improvements in the 1850s.
label: Description
content: This example consists of two brass tubes that measure 54 inches long overall, arranged so that one can face into the current and the other can face away from it. The tubes are mounted on a wooden board with a graduated scale. It came from the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals in Lowell, Mass., and was probably used by the resident engineer, James B. Francis. Francis did not mention instruments of this sort in the 1855 edition of his <i>Lowell Hydraulic Experiments</i>, but in the 1868 edition he talked about tubes of about two inches diameter and various lengths.
label: Description
content: Ref: James B. Francis, <i>Lowell Hydraulic Experiments</i> (New York, 1868), p. 172.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Water Currents
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Proprietors of the Lock and Canals
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.314776
label: accession number
content: 211155
label: catalog number
content: 314776
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Pitot-Darcy tube
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 54 in; 137.16 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 1 7/8 in x 55 7/8 in x 2 13/16 in; 4.7625 cm x 141.9225 cm x 7.14375 cm