Improvement in modern meter-testing technique

THROUGH more than a score of years a variety of devices has been developed to simplify the procedure and to reduce the hazard of personal errors in the technique of watt-hour meter testing. Of these devices the stroboscope and the photoelectric timer have already become generally accepted tools of the meter-testing art. Indeed, meter-testing problems differ somewhat in the field, in the laboratory, and in the factory, and consequently, no single device nor combination of devices can be considered ideally applicable to all three forms of testing. However, in each case much is to be gained through the use in some form of the many schemes^1,2 which have recently been developed. Such schemes apply equally to single-phase and polyphase meter testing, though in this discussion we shall be concerned only with the single-phase watt-hour meter and the testing problems peculiar to the factory. Briefly these problems are: 1. Removal of the hazard of personal error in testing. 2. Maintenance of closer control of quality. 3. Elimination of errors in portable standards through handling. 4. Reduction of skill required in testing. 5. Shortening of testing time. 6. Reduction of handling of meters. 7. Elimination of storage space for meters awaiting test. 8. Maintenance of a uniform flow of the product from assembly through to packing.