Historical References of the Measurement of Hydrometric Heights and Caudais in Water Courses

Tágides Collection — Volume No. 3 A brief history of experiments, inventions and the long journey since the first observations of water heights were made on the Nile River (“nilometers”) in the time of the Pharaoh Ménès (3100 BC); the realisation by Heron of Alexandria-Dioptra (II BC) of the measurement of the flow of a “manancial” taking into account the speed of water; the descriptions, methods and estimates for the evaluation of flow rates by Leonard da Vinci (1452-1519) and Edmé Mariotte (1620-1684) until the invention of Henri Pitot’s “machinettes” (1695-1771), from Estêvão Cabral (1734-1811) and the Woltman correntometer (1757-1837) which made it possible to measure the velocities of a current at any point in a section, constitute this work.