Crown Water Meter
date: label: date made
content: ca 1882-ca 1925
name: label: maker
content: National Meter Company
notes: label: Description
content: This is a rotary piston water meter signed “Nat’l Meter Co. N.Y. AA-X Crown Meter.” It has a split case and no serial number. It fit a ⅝” pipe, and was made by the National Meter Company of New York-whether in Manhattan or in Brooklyn remains to be determined. AA-X designates a linear register.
label: Description
content: Lewis Hallock Nash, a student at the Stevens Institute of Technology, patented the first rotary-piston water meter and assigned his rights to the National Meter Company in New York City. Joining the firm after graduation, Nash developed a rotary piston meter that was accurate, durable, simple, compact, and inexpensive. National termed it the Crown, introduced it to market in 1882, and was soon boasting that this model was “used and adopted by no less than 400 Cities and Towns in the United States, the Dominion of Canada, and abroad.” National was still manufacturing the Crown some forty years later.
label: Description
content: Ref: Lewis H. Nash, “Rotary Water-Meter,” U.S. Patent #211,582 (1879).
label: Description
content: National Meter Co., <i>Statistics, Tables and Water Meters</i> (New York, 1887).
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.325826
label: accession number
content: 245003
label: catalog number
content: 325826
objectType: label: Object Name
content: water meter
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in x 7 1/4 in; 22.86 cm x 18.415 cm