Columbia Meter Company Type D Wattmeter, 1910-1920

In the late 1800s, companies that supplied electricity to consumers needed a way to measure how much customers used -- and then charge them accordingly. Inventive electrical engineers developed various methods to measure electric power and several companies began production of recording wattmeters. The Indiana-based Columbia Meter Company produced wattmeters during the first decades of the twentieth century before the company folded.