️ 🧭 Well Machinery & Supply Co. (Fort Worth, Texas)

A regional industrial firm that briefly became a U.S. water‑meter manufacturer (c.1930–1950)

Origins and Industrial Background (Pre‑1930)

Well Machinery & Supply Co. was an engineering and fabrication business based in Fort Worth, Texas, supplying machinery, municipal equipment, and industrial hardware to local governments and contractors. Although the company’s early product catalogue is not fully preserved, it was clearly established enough by 1930 to bid on large municipal supply contracts.

Their entry into water‑meter manufacturing was opportunistic rather than foundational — triggered by a major procurement event in Fort Worth.

🏭 The 1930 Turning Point: Fort Worth’s Water‑Meter Purchase

In August 1930, the City of Fort Worth agreed to purchase 8,000 oscillating‑piston water meters from the California Meter Company of Los Angeles.

This procurement is documented in the Los Angeles Times (Aug. 30, 1930).

Shortly after this contract was awarded, Well Machinery & Supply Co. acquired California Meter Company, effectively absorbing its designs, tooling, and intellectual property.

This acquisition marks the birth of Well Machinery & Supply Co. as a water‑meter manufacturer.

Creation of the Calmet Brand

Following the acquisition, Well Machinery & Supply Co. began producing water meters under a new brand CALMET.

A contraction of CALifornia METer.

The company advertised Calmet meters as “A Texas Made Product”, signalling both the relocation of production and a desire to position the brand as a regional, domestically manufactured alternative to West Coast suppliers.

Technical Characteristics of Calmet Meters

The Smithsonian’s surviving Calmet Model A‑B provides the clearest technical evidence of the product line:

Type: Oscillating‑piston water meter - Size: ⅝" - Materials: Bronze body with frost‑proof cast‑iron bottom.

Serial range: Example documented at 958,732. Manufacture date approx. 1940.

Other Calmet variants (e.g., Model B‑C) are known through surviving artefacts and municipal records, though the Smithsonian’s A‑B model remains the most authoritative reference.

Production Era and Decline (1930–1950)

The Smithsonian’s dating of Calmet meters to circa 1930–1950 is the strongest evidence for the duration of Well Machinery & Supply Co.’s meter manufacturing.

No surviving documentation, advertisements, or procurement records indicate production beyond the early 1950s. Well Machinery & Supply Co. appears to have returned to its broader industrial‑machinery focus or dissolved sometime mid‑century. In the 1950's (estimated) Worthington-Gamon absorbed the operation using the Calmet name into the 1980's. Worthington‑Calmet (Fort Worth, Texas)c.1950s then Gamon‑Calmet Industries, Inc. early 1960s. Worthington was one of the largest water‑meter manufacturers in the United States.