Nilometer

Lanchester concludes that “words longer mean what they once did. It is not a process intended to deceive, but, like the Nilometer, it confines knowledge to a priesthood—the priesthood of people who can speak money.”

From Forbes ● Aug. 7, 2014

Nilometer, nī-lom′e-tėr, n. a gauge for measuring the height of water in the river Nile: any river-gauge—also Nī′loscope.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

Here is to be seen the Nilometer, a square well connected with the Nile, having in its centre an octagonal column on which is inscribed Arabian measures.

From Due West or Round the World in Ten Months by Maturin Murray Ballou

It was my desire to see the Nilometer on the island, and I did see it, but not until after I had sent the boatman to buy a candle.

From A Trip Abroad by Don Carlos Janes

The priests proclaimed how the flood stood on the Nilometer, and the husbandman made corresponding preparations for a scanty or an abundant harvest.

From History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2) Revised Edition by John William Draper