Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Arno / Romort air meter differences?

I recently picked up a Romort meter that is mounted on a pole. I also have a wall mount Arno meter that I have had for many years.

The Arno is nicer than the Romort, so I was going to swap them out. Strange thing between the two though. The Arno is cast iron. The Romort is some sort of alloy or pot metal. It is also slightly smaller. The front covers will not interchange.

Since the cast iron one is the only other one I've seen, I'm a little scared of the new one. It looks like it's the real deal, I just don't know.

Has anyone else got any experience with different versions of these meters?

Romort was the name of the company, all meters made between 1917 and around 1941 bore the name Romort. In 1941 Romert introduced a new meter, the main one was the model 41. The owner of the company was named Arno Ewald (Romort was the original name of a company in Washington or Oregon that Mr. Ewald purchased and moved to Oakfield, WI). Mr. Ewald decided to name the meter after himself, thus the Arno.
Early ones were made of cast iron, I don't know when, but probably after WWII they switched to aluminum.

I have restored a number of them, and have actually been able to make them work. They actually made a newer model in the mid-1950, but they made very few of them as the company closed a year or two later.

Every air meter made by Romort/Arno is shown in my Air Meter Identification book.

About 10 years ago, I visited Oakfield, met with the daughter of Mr. Ewald and she gave me a picture of him, it is also shown in my book.

Pictures of just about every meter thay made are shown on this page of my website: http://petrolianacollectibles.com/romort.htm

Jack Sim

Great info Jack.

Thanks for the info Jack. I had referenced your books, but they made no mention of what they were made of.

I feel much better about it after hearing from you.

Forgot to mention this. If you find a air meter and it states Erie Pump Co., let it be known, they never made a air meter. Every meter with their name on it was made by Romort. Romort just put a piece of glass and an ID tag on them that said Erie. These meter can be easily changed to say Arno.

Jack Sim