Filling in the Blanks in the Vortex Story

By Jesse Yoder, PhD

I’ve learned a lot since I first set out to determine who introduced the first working commercial vortex flowmeter. I found out that it was Yokogawa in Japan, who introduced insertion vortex meters for flare stacks. The development of this meter was done in Japan, and was based on university and academic research. This was Yokogawa’s main vortex meter until 1979, when it came out with the YEWFLO.

The other company involved in this story at the time was Eastech. Eastech was formed in 1968 by Dr. Douglas F. White, Alan E. Rodely, and Charles L. McMurtrie. Rodely was from Austria and was granted a German patent on vortex meters in 1968. However, this patent was not recognized in the United States. In 1969 Rodely filed a patent in the US for a bluff body flowmeter. This was granted in 1971. In 1973, Rodely received another patent a vortex meter for use in controlling air pollution in internal combustion engines. In 1974, Theodore Fussell received two patents involving the use of shuttle balls to detect vortices.

I have heard the same story from several independent sources, and the patents bear it out. Eastech first began designing vortex flowmeters using shuttle balls to detect vortices coming off a bluff body. When this didn’t work well, the Eastech engineers turned to the use of thermistors to detect differences in temperature in the vortices. The problem with this approach was that the thermistors were not rugged enough to handle the swirls coming off the bluff body, so this approach was also not successful. It wasn’t until the Eastech engineers began using piezoelectric sensors that they were successful in building a viable vortex meter.

Since Eastech did not receive patents for the use of shuttle balls in detecting vortices until 1974, it would appear that the above sequence of events occurred from 1973 to the late 1970s. In the meantime, Eastech was sold to Neptune International, which at that time was busy making oscillating piston (positive displacement) meters. While Eastech did succeed in making some commercial vortex meters during this time, no sales figures are available. It is safe to say the number of vortex meters that Eastech actually sold, if any, was quite small. All these events occurred long after Yokogawa introduced its first insertion vortex meter in Japan for flare stacks.

In 1983, Neptune Eastech was sold to G. Corson Ellis Jr. Associates. This is the same person who was involved in forming Kessler Ellis Products (KEP). Ellis called his vortex products “Neptune Vortex.” It is highly likely that it was Corson Ellis and an associate, possibly Theodore Fussell, that sold Neptune Vortex to Frank Sinclair in 2000. Sinclair retired the product line in 2001.

In the meantime, Frank Sinclair purchased the ultrasonic product line from Badger Meter. He called his new company Eastech Flow Controls. Frank Sinclair received a patent for the cartridge meter, an ultrasonic meter designed to measure flow in partially filled pipes, in 2010. This is a product that Eastech Flow Controls still sells today. Badger Meter, meanwhile, got back into the ultrasonic business when it purchased Racine Federated in 2012.

Dynasonics was the ultrasonic division of Racine. In 2016, Badger also absorbed the vortex meters of Nice Instrumentation, a company founded by Gerry Nice in 1985. Gerry Nice had worked for Neptune Eastech in the mid 1970s and then Kessler Ellis Products before forming Nice Instrumentation in 1985.
The accompanying graphic shows the timeline for the development of Eastech’s vortex meters. For more information, go to http://www.flowresearch.com/vortex.

In the meantime, Frank Sinclair purchased the ultrasonic product line from Badger Meter. He called his new company Eastech Flow Controls. Frank Sinclair received a patent for the cartridge meter, an ultrasonic meter designed to measure flow in partially filled pipes, in 2010. This is a product that Eastech Flow Controls still sells today. Badger Meter, meanwhile, got back into the ultrasonic business when it purchased Racine Federated in 2012. Dynasonics was the ultrasonic division of Racine.

In 2016, Badger also absorbed the vortex meters of Nice Instrumentation, a company founded by Gerry Nice in 1985. Gerry Nice had worked for Neptune Eastech in the mid 1970s and then Kessler Ellis Products before forming Nice Instrumentation in 1985.