ABSTRACT
KELLEY 17.04. 1839 Woodford/EI 24.01. 1914 Brooklyn NY/USA John Carl Kelley was born in Irish Galway County. His parents emigrated to America soon after his birth, settling at Palmyra and Rochester NY. Fortified by a genuine Irish optimism and a rugged pertinacity, John came to New York City to make his fortune. He launched in 1870 the National Meter Company NMC, of which he was made president, remaining the active head until his death. Water meters were hardly used in the USA in 1870. In the early 1870s, Kelley was in addition to president also the chief engineer and the salesman. He had in this period no difficulty to sell meters to water works companies. The superintendent of the company of Concord NH was so delighted upon watching the movement of the recording dial, that he immediately ordered several meters without further test of their efficiency. During the first ten years of its history, the NMC manufactured and sold on the Gem make, which was of velocity type, as invented and patented by Henry F. Read, Brooklyn NY, in 1869. The objections to early water meters were lack of accuracy, high cost, and their use for small pipes only. The first large-size Gem meters were two 4 inch meters ordered in the early 1870s by the Jersey City water works, and manufactured by Kelley. Although many patents were issued up to 1870, it was noted that The great need of water boards is a durable meter, registering with reasonable accuracy. The fortune of any inventor is secured who can introduce such a meter. The problems encountered with the rotary meters were to reduce the friction of the moving vanes, to direct the water upon the wheel that the latter moves with the least quantity of water, and to design the register that it would hardly retard the motion of the wheel. The NMC devoted the year 1878 to test various devices, resulting in its crowning effort with a meter named Crown Meter. This meter met with early and lasting success. In 1906 the NMC turned out its 500,000 meter, a number doubled by 1913. Kelley was a man of great character and of positive manner. He was intimately connected with the water works history and with the introduction of water meters. Anonymous (1914). John C. Kelley and the American water meter industry. Engineering News 71(13): 674-675. P Kelley, J.C. (1887). Statistics, tables, and water rates of cities and towns, together with facts about water meters. National Meter Company: New York. Nash, L.H. (1879). Crown meter and its principles. Engineering News 6(Nov.29): 385.
