The history of vortex meters played out both in the United States and Japan and it has taken a bit of sleuthing to determine which company was first to market.
Some articles and patents relating to vortex appeared in the 1950s and 1960s, but the most serious early work on vortex flowmeters occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s involving Eastech and Yokogawa.
Who was there first?
The question of who first successfully commercialized vortex flowmeters is a fascinating story, and in many ways it parallels the development of Coriolis flowmeters. As was the case with Coriolis flowmeters, there was a series of early patents that laid the groundwork for later developments. Eventually, one or two companies came along to build on these early patents and failed attempts, and brought the flowmeter into commercial production.
In the case of Coriolis meters, some notable efforts include patents by Roby White (1958), Yao Tzu Li (1960), and Anatole Sipin (1965) that were some of the most pivotal. White and Li proposed rotating the fluid, while Sipin suggested oscillating the flowtube containing the fluid. In 1975, Jim Smith built on Sipin’s oscillation idea, and applied for a patent that oscillated the flowtube rather than rotating it. In 1977 he formed Micro Motion out of his garage, and in 1979 introduced the first Micro Motion Coriolis flowmeter. Emerson bought Micro Motion in 1984 and has been the dominant force in Coriolis flowmeters ever since.
The history of how vortex meters came to be is a little more complicated than the Coriolis story, partly because it played out in both the United States and Japan. It is similar in that it occurred at almost the same time as the development of Coriolis meters. While some articles and patents relating to vortex appeared in the 1950s and 1960s, the most serious early work on vortex flowmeters occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and it involves Eastech and Yokogawa.
Did Eastech manufacture the first inline vortex flowmeter?
In an article in David Spitzer’s book “Flow Measurement,” Mason P. Wilson says “Not until 1958 did a vortex shedding flowmeters, developed by Alan El Rodely, have a limited commercial success.”
This claim is inconsistent with the documentary record. Rodely was born in 1935 in Salford, England, and graduated from the University of Bristol in 1956. He appears to have emigrated to the United States between 1956 and 1966, when he worked for American Standard and filed a U.S. patent from there. In 1958 he would have been only 23 years old and had no known colleagues or supporting company. His first known vortex-related patents were granted in 1971 for Eastech Inc. in Watchung, New Jersey. No evidence places him in the U.S. or in vortex research as early as 1958, making Mason P. Wilson’s 1958 claim wildly implausible—likely a decade error or a misunderstanding of Eastech’s later work.
Eastech’s patent beginnings
Eastech was organized as a New Jersey corporation in February 1968. In February 1969, Eastech became a Delaware corporation whose officers were Dr. Douglas F. White,
Alan E. Rodely, and Charles McMurtrie. Rodely received a German vortex patent in 1968, but it didn’t apply in the United States. In 1969 he applied in the United States for another vortex patent that was granted in 1971. Also in 1971, Rodely received another patent for a differential sensor bluff body flowmeter with Charles McMurtrie. Then in 1973, Theodore Fussell received a patent for a bluff body flowmeter with an internal sensor.
All the these patents by Rodely and Fussell were assigned to Eastech, Inc., so it is clear that Eastech was in operation then. What is not clear is the extent to which Eastech had commercialized the products described in these patents during this time. In any case, in 1976 Eastech was sold to Neptune Meter, and began operating as Neptune Eastech. At this point Douglas White retired as president, and was succeeded by Douglas Brooks, who served until he retired in 1979.
In reality, for multiple reasons, Eastech’s vortex meter never achieved sufficient commercial success to consider it a serious contender to either Yokogawa’s insertion flare meter (1969) or Yokogawa’s inline YEWFLO meter, released in 1979. If anything, intellectual credit should go more to Theodore Fussell than to Alan E. Rodely, who is sometimes hailed as the intellectual creator of the vortex meter. Rodely had a good concept that was improved on by Fussell, but the Eastech flowmeters were never good enough to achieve commercial success beyond the creation of prototypes masquerading as customer sales. In other words, it never got beyond the Beta stage, as we would say today.
After Neptune purchased Eastech in 1976, it continued operating as Neptune Eastech for many years until it was purchased and rebranded as Eastech Vortex. In 2000, Frank Sinclair bought Eastech Vortex from two men who had bought it from Neptune Meter, and retired the vortex product line in 2001. At the same time, in 2000, Frank Sinclair acquired the ultrasonic product line from Badger Meter (founded in 1972) and unified the two acquisitions under the revived name Eastech Flow Controls.
The company’s website, archived in 2007 but visible with Wayback Machine, summarized the transition: “Eastech Flow Controls is a leading manufacturer of ultrasonic flow and level measurement products. Founded in 1972 as a division of Badger Meter Inc., the Company was sold to Eastech Flow Controls in 2001 and now operates as an independent high technology group specializing in ultrasonic flow measurement.”
Yokogawa — first to market with an insertion vortex meter
In the meantime, Yokogawa developed its own vortex flowmeter and introduced it in 1969. The development of Yokogawa’s vortex meter mostly occurred in Japan, and was in part based on university and academic publications. However, there is some evidence that Yokogawa’s developers were aware in the 1970s of the Eastech patents. In 1969, Yokogawa came out with its own insertion vortex meter for flare stacks.
It seems clear that Yokogawa was first to market with an insertion vortex flowmeter. However, they may not have been the first to market an inline vortex meter. Before commercializing YEWFLO, Yokogawa conducted research and performed various experiments. Yokogawa’s YEWFLO line, which included inline meters, came out in 1979. The patents attributed to Eastech, Inc. in the early 1970s were for inline meters.
It is not clear to what extent Eastech or Neptune Eastech actually commercialized the meters described in their patents. If they did this successfully before 1979, they may have been the first to bring an inline vortex meter to market. This seems unlikely, however, since one source recounts installing Neptune Eastech vortex meters in 1977. These were insertion meters, not inline. Another possibility is that, while Yokogawa released its YEWFLO line in 1979, they may have sold some inline meters before that release. While this is possible, Yokogawa was indisputably first to the vortex market with its insertion vortex meter in 1969.
The following graphic shows the development of Yokogawa’s vortex flowmeters from 1969 to 2022. In 2022, the company brought out a new line of vortex flowmeters called the VY Series.
Other major suppliers
Over the years other major suppliers have come into the market, including Endress+Hauser (1984), Emerson (1994), and KROHNE (2006). Other companies with a significant market presence in vortex include ABB, Foxboro by Schneider Electric, and VorTek Instruments. Today, the leading vortex suppliers in alphabetical order include Emerson, Endress+Hauser, KROHNE, and Yokogawa.
Chronological Lineage of Eastech and Related Companies (1968–2001)
| 1968 to 1976 | Eastech, Inc. (South Plainfield, NJ) | Founded by Douglas F. White, Alan E. Rodely, Charles L. McMurtrie, and others | Engaged in research and patent activity related to vortex flowmeters: U.S. patents filed by Rodely (1969, granted 1971) and Fussell (1973, granted 1974) assigned to Eastech. No verified commercial products identified. |
| 1976 to ~1990s | Neptune Eastech, Inc. | Acquired by Neptune International in 1976, with Douglas N. Brooks president until his retirement in 1979 | Eastech operations relocated and restructured under Neptune ownership Continued patent development Marketed under the Neptune Eastech name |
| ~1990s to 2000 | Eastech Vortex | Owned by two businessmen in South Jersey who purchased the line from Neptune | Limited activity Maintained residual vortex meter designs and intellectual property |
| 2000 to 2001 | Eastech Flow Controls | Purchased by Frank Sinclair, who also acquired Badger Meter’s ultrasonic flow division | Retired the vortex line in 2001 and refocused entirely on ultrasonic flow and level measurement systems Retained the Eastech name from the vortex line |