Current Meter Register
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
name: label: maker
content: Builders Iron Foundry
notes: label: Description
content: In 1887, an American hydraulic engineer named Clemens Herschel described a water meter based the principle that the Italian engineer, Giovanni Battista Venturi, had articulated in the 1790s. Examples of Herschel’s meter made by the Builders Iron Foundry in Providence, R.I., were soon installed in numerous large water-works systems. Many were equipped with a mechanical registering device developed by Frederick Connet, the chief engineer of that organization, and his colleague, Walter W. Jackson.
label: Description
content: This early example of Connet’s register is marked “VENTURI METER MANUFACTURED BY BUILDERS IRON FOUNDRY, PROVIDENCE, R. I.” A successor firm, Builders-Providence, Inc., donated it to the Smithsonian in 1957. It measures 68 inches high, 22 inches wide, 20 inches deep, and weighs 200 pounds.
label: Description
content: In 1899, in recognition of their achievements in this regard, the Franklin Institute awarded the Elliott-Cresson gold medal to Herschel, and the John Scott legacy premium and medal to Connet and Jackson.
label: Description
content: Ref: Frederick N. Connet and Walter W. Jackson, “Integrating Apparatus,” U.S. Patent 529,365 (1894).
label: Description
content: Builders Iron Foundry, <i>The Venturi Meter patented by Clemens Herschel </i> (Providence, R.I., 1898).
label: Description
content: "The Venturi Meter," <i>Journal of the Franklin Institute</i> 147 (1899): 108-145.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Rhode Island, Providence
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: Builders-Providence, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.315197
label: accession number
content: 214200
label: catalog number
content: 315197
objectType: label: Object Name
content: current meter register
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 68 in x 22 in x 20 in; 172.72 cm x 55.88 cm x 50.8 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 81 in x 28 in x 31 in; 205.74 cm x 71.12 cm x 78.74 cm