Arctic Ironside Water Meter

Object Details

Description: This is a disc water meter with frost-proof bottom and serial number 3,609,508, made by the Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company in the early 1940s. Pittsburgh Equitable explained that “Months of preparation by Pittsburgh-National Research men, preceding the limitation order on the manufacture of bronze meters by the War Production Board, now makes possible the presentation of the Pittsburgh Ironside Meter.” This is “a top quality disc meter in the construction of which over 70% of the bronze normally used in meters of this size has been eliminated. Rust-proofed cast iron and molded glass have been ingeniously substituted for bronze in the outer shell, register box and register lid.” “To meet the conditions in sections of the country where damage from freezing is likely to occur, this meter is equipped with a cast iron bottom plate especially designed so that should the water in the meter freeze, the pressure exerted by the expanding ice with break one or more of the lugs from the cast iron plate, thus allowing the vital working parts . . . to move freely with the expanding ice.”; Ref: Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company, Ironside Water Meter, Bulletin W-535 (1942).
Location: Currently not on view

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