well-maintained late 19th or early 20th century "g2" electric station direct current watthour recording meter designed and manufactured by the general electric company, schenectady, ny. the remarkable antiquated electrical station recording meter was salvaged from a chicago common-wealth substation undergoing demolition. during the late 19th century the measurement of electrical substation output was a constant effort on the part of meter engineers, which was necessary to keep pace with the rapidly multiplying requirements incident to progress. early meters had been looked upon as a "small affai," until the late 1890's when meters of enormous capacity with 10,000-16,000 amperes were becoming the most common meters in operation. it was manifestly impossible to use any form of wound meter field for these very large capacities, so the thomson recording watt-meter had therefore to be greatly modified to meet the conditions of this very heavy service. the rapidly growing tendency to crowd the bus-bars close together and to bring the switchboard into the least possible space had rendered it imperative also that these large meters when intended for the most modern boards should be astatic. the outcome of those needs was meet with what was termed the g2 type of recording meter. the field of this meter consists of a single straight bar of forged copper, above and below which are situated two armatures, astatically arranged, and having a common commutator. the damping device is also double and astatic. the polarity of the upper and lower group of damping magnets being opposite. the damping mechanism is also enclosed within an iron shielding box which prevents the entrance of any stray leakage lines of an unbalancing character. the complete g2 meter structure in this form is independent of local and stray fields installed directly in front of the heaviest buses without the introduction on any inaccuracy. loss of vitreous white enameled along the copper metal dial display is evident. the reinforced paneled glass housing was removed long ago. measures 10 1/4 x 8 x 16 inches.