“Points” Relating to Water Meters.
In setting a meter in position let it be plumb, and properly secured to remain so. It should be well protected from frost.
If used in connection with a steam boiler, or under any other conditions where it is exposed to a back pressure of steam or hot water, it must be protected by a check valve, placed between the outlet of the meter and the vessel it supplies.
It is absolutely necessary to blow out the supply pipe before setting a new meter, so that if there be any accumulation of sand, gravel, etc., in it, the same may be expelled, and thus prevented from entering the meter. Avoid using red lead in making joints. It is liable to work into the meter and cause much annoyance by clogging the piston.
This engraving, [Fig. 100], shows the counter of the Meter. It registers cubic feet—one cubic foot being 748⁄100 U. S. gallons and is read in the same way as the counters of gas meters.
Fig. 100.
The following example and directions may be of service to those unacquainted with the method:
If a pointer be between two figures, the smallest one must always be taken. When the pointer is so near a figure that it seems to indicate that figure exactly, look at the dial next below it in number, and if the pointer there has passed 0, then the count should be read for that figure. Let it be supposed that the pointers stand as in the above engraving, they then read 28,187 cubic feet. The figures are omitted from the dial marked “ONE,” because they represent but tenths of one cubic foot, and hence are unimportant. From dial marked “10,” we get 7; from the next marked “100,” we get 8; from the next marked “1,000,” we get the figure 1; from the next marked “10,000,” the figure 8; from the next marked “100,000,” the figure 2.
The Fish Trap used in connection with water meters is an apparatus (as its name denotes) for holding back fishes, etc.