Back to the Start: Water Meters in History

2023-12-21

For most of us living in a modern society accustomed to convenience in all aspects, the desire to understand how our basic needs are satisfied is, of course, becoming no more intense. We are well taken care of with the strong support of finely divided industries. No need to make a new piece of clothing, furniture, or tableware ourselves. Designers help create shapes and patterns while workers on assembly lines are standing by. That said, creativity lives long only if we delve deep into the past for experience, which in turn nourishes what we may initiate in the future. The evolution of water metering told so.

It has taken a long time to witness the advancement of water measurement, and each turning point vital to humans’ better living arrived alongside the surging needs of water consumption. Dating back to 3000 years ago, there were blocks of oases in North Africa where people lived upon farming. They used a water pot to collect water from the spring and to ensure equal distribution, the pot was chiseled into a hole from which the water flowed out within specified minutes to one’s farm. As was the case with North Africa, inhabitants of Babylon, China, and Egypt exerted their wisdom to distribute water.

The method of drawing water from wells, springs, and rivers lasted nearly half a century in Rome until the city expanded so dramatically that water supply couldn’t keep pace with it. Frontinus, the great water commissioner significantly contributed to Rome, whether through the construction of nine aqueducts or the invention of adjutages with cross sections for comparing streams. It was the very first of measuring flowing water although he failed to figure out the velocity of streams.

The time came to 1730. Pitot Tube, named after its father Henri Pitot, was used to determine the relation between the rise of water in the tube and the velocity of flow. Sixty years passed by when the first practical meter for measuring flowing water was known to the public. Reinhard Woltman left his name in the history of water measurement. With the improved version of the meter, the rate of flow was computed from the rotation during a given time period. Then, after another sixty years (in 1850), the first water meter was designed and produced. Since then, more advanced meters have been invented, such as propeller meters and venturi meters. And that’s how our needs to consume water are fulfilled step by step.

If you still have questions or if you need more information of water meters, you can contact us freely. Our website is https://www.kinmeter.com and mail is yueray@kinhil.com ,Kinhil is dedicated to providing high quality water meters and good service to our customers and friends!