Energy & Power - Overview
The Museum's collections on energy and power illuminate the role of fire, steam, wind, water, electricity, and the atom in the nation's history. The artifacts include wood-burning stoves, water turbines, and windmills, as well as steam, gas, and diesel engines. Oil-exploration and coal-mining equipment form part of these collections, along with a computer that controlled a power plant and even bubble chambers—a tool of physicists to study protons, electrons, and other charged particles.
A special strength of the collections lies in objects related to the history of electrical power, including generators, batteries, cables, transformers, and early photovoltaic cells. A group of Thomas Edison's earliest light bulbs are a precious treasure. Hundreds of other objects represent the innumerable uses of electricity, from streetlights and railway signals to microwave ovens and satellite equipment.
"Energy & Power - Overview" showing 506 items.
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Integral Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Description
- After the initial introduction of compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) in 1981, many competing lamp companies placed products on the market. The first thirty years of compact fluorescents has seen a wide array of styles and features offered as lamp makers attempt to set their products apart from competitors.
- This U-Lite unit is an integral CFL—the lamp is all one piece. Integral lamps are typically more expensive to replace than modular designs that allow the user to replace only the part that fails. However integral units do not require suppliers to stock replacement parts, and they free consumers from having to try to select the correct part for their device.
- The U-Lite used a slightly larger tube than other companies' CFLs. That simplified the manufacturing process and reduced stress on the phosphor, though it limited the number of tube-legs that could be put on a single lamp. As many as four pairs have been mounted on CFL designs from other makers. More tubes of the size used on the U-Lite would make the lamp too large to install in many fixtures.
- Lamp characteristics: Brass medium-screw base with plastic skirt, glass insulator. A magnetic ballast is housed inside the skirt. Single-bend (T-8) arc-tube with reduced diameter bend and internal phosphor coating. No separate, external envelope.
- Date made
- ca 1987
- date made
- ca. 1987
- maker
- Interlectric Corporation
- ID Number
- 1992.0553.01
- catalog number
- 1992.0553.01
- accession number
- 1992.0553
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Modular Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Description
- As the 1980s progressed, more companies began marketing compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). This modular unit was made by Janmar Lighting around 1987. The ballast that controls the electrical arc in the lamp is contained in the base adapter. The globe-shaped cover serves both to diffuse light and to make the lamp less unusual looking. Some consumers dislike the non-traditional shapes of many CFLs and refused to purchase them for that reason.
- It is not known if the Philips tube assembly is original to this piece or if it's a replacement. However it does demonstrate that the new plug-in bases developed with CFLs became standardized within a few years of the technology's 1981 introduction.
- This unit is a modular CFL with three components: a tube assembly, an adapter, and a cover. Lamp characteristics: Tube assembly is a Philips model PL-7/27. A 7-watt twin-tube unit with connecting bridge-weld mounted on a G23 plastic base with aluminum skirt. The adapter has a brass medium-screw base-shell with retainer. The insulator is part of the plastic skirt that houses a magnetic ballast. A G23 socket is on top and male threads to attach the cover. Cover is a G-shaped, white-glass envelope with black plastic collar at bottom, threaded to mount onto adapter. Electrical ratings are 120 volts, 60 hertz, .18 amps.
- Date made
- ca 1987
- date made
- ca. 1987
- maker
- Janmar
- ID Number
- 1992.0553.03
- catalog number
- 1992.0553.03
- accession number
- 1992.0553
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Integral Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Description
- Inventors seeking to develop energy-efficient lamps could not simply start with a blank piece of paper. They needed to work within the capabilities of existing lighting and power systems. Sometimes even small features had an influence, like the use of the screw-in base and socket.
- What became the standard screw-in lamp base and socket was introduced by Thomas Edison in 1883, and it hasn't changed since. To this day often referred to as an "Edison base," it's formally known as the medium-screw base. While there are other base sizes (and types), the medium-screw base is the most common, especially in residential light fixtures.
- Since sockets for this base are so widespread, designers of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) like this 1993 Panasonic "Light Capsule" needed to ensure their products would fit that size. This model EFG16LE lamp is an integral unit--it's all in one piece, including the screw-in base. Other modular lamps used specially designed plug-in bases. The plug-in base has several advantages over the medium-screw base. One of the most important is that if the light fixture takes a plug-in base, one can't use a cheap regular lamp in place of the more expensive CFL.
- But few homes had fixtures with plug-in bases. And lamp makers realized that few homeowners would replace their fixtures just to use the new lamps. So inventors needed to design their lamps with the screw-base, or develop an adaptor.
- Lamp characteristics: Medium-screw base with plastic skirt containing an electronic ballast and starter. Fluorescent tube assembly containing two electrodes, mercury, and an internal phosphor coating. White, G-shaped glass envelope covers the tube assembly. This lamp came in its original package. Rated at 16 watts, it's intended as a replacement for 60 watt incandescent lamps.
- date made
- ca. 1993
- Date made
- ca 1993
- manufacturer
- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
- ID Number
- 1996.0357.01
- accession number
- 1996.0357
- catalog number
- 1996.0357.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Modular Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Description
- After decades of constant decline, the cost of electricity in the U.S. began to rise beginning in the 1960s. The change occurred for many reasons, one of which was continually growing demand for electric power. During the 1980s electric utilities that had traditionally concerned themselves with managing the supply of power began adopting so-called Demand Side Management programs (DSM). The idea centered on encouraging the use of special pricing and greater energy efficiency to slow the need for new power plants and transmission lines.
- While many DSM programs focused on commercial and industrial power users, some targeted residential consumers. One popular program involved utilities' swapping regular incandescent lamps for new, energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). The participating utility purchased a large quantity of CFLs from a lamp maker at a discount and then provided the lamps to consumers at a reduced price, or sometimes for free. Some governments provided subsidies to help cover the costs.
- Bulb-swaps introduced many people to energy-efficient CFLs. They also provided a market demand during the early years of CFL production when lamp makers were still paying for the new production lines needed to make the new lamps. As more lamps were produced, prices began to decline. This "Super Q'Lite" modular lamp from Lights Of America was offered by Washington, DC utility PEPCO in 1994 as part of a DSM program. Using only 27 watts, it replaced a regular lamp that used 100 watts.
- Lamp characteristics: A modular compact fluorescent lamp with two parts—a tube assembly and a base-unit. The original package and coupon book were collected with this lamp. The tube assembly consists of a four-tube glass structure with two electrodes, mercury and an internal phosphor coating. Plug-in style base. The base-unit has a medium-screw shell and houses the ballast and starter equipment. A receptacle on top accepts the plug-in base of the tube assembly.
- date made
- ca. 1992
- Date made
- ca 1992
- Maker
- Lights of America, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1996.0357.05
- accession number
- 1996.0357
- catalog number
- 1996.0357.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Microwave-powered ultraviolet lamp
- Description
- When most people think of electric lighting, they think of ordinary lamps used for lighting rooms or shops. But many types of lamps are made for use in highly specialized applications. One example is a successful product made by Fusion Systems. Founded by four scientists and an engineer, the company markets an ultraviolet (UV) lighting system powered by microwaves. Introduced in 1976, the system found a market in industrial processing as a fast, efficient way to cure inks. A major brewery, for example, purchased the system for applying labels to beer cans and quickly curing their inks while the bottles went down the production line.
- The lamp seen here is a typical production unit. As in a fluorescent lamp, this lamp makes ultraviolet light by energizing mercury vapor. Fluorescents and other conventional lamps pass an electric current between two electrodes to energize the mercury. But Fusion's lamp has no electrodes. Instead the lamp is placed in a specially made fixture similar in principle to a household microwave oven. The microwaves energize the mercury vapor directly. A small dose of metal halides is also energized in the lamp. The choice of metal halides allows specific wavelengths of light to be produced to meet different needs.
- Profits made from the production of this industrial lamp were used by the company to support research and development of a microwave-powered lamp that made visible light. Instead of mercury that lamp used sulfur. However this sulfur lamp did not sell well when introduced in the mid-1990s.
- Lamp characteristics: Clear quartz tube containing a metal-halide pellet and a drop of mercury. No electrodes. The tube is rotated while being radiated by microwaves and produces ultraviolet light.
- date made
- ca. 1996
- Date made
- ca 1996
- maker
- Fusion Lighting, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1996.0359.03
- catalog number
- 1996.0359.03
- accession number
- 1996.0359
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Integral Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Description
- An unusual looking type of compact fluorescent lamp (CFLs) has spiral tubes, like this "Spiralux" lamp made by Duro-Test in 1996. Several manufacturers developed and now produce spiral CFLs. While the equipment to make these spiral tubes proved expensive to develop, the design addresses two problems.
- CFL engineers faced a problem stemming from the fact that energy efficiency in fluorescent lamps depends in part on the distance the electric current travels between the two electrodes, called the arc path. A long arc path is more efficient than a short arc path. But most residential fixtures are designed to accept lamps the size of ordinary incandescent bulbs. So CFLs have been made with a variety of bent, folded, and connected tubes--all intended to put a long arc-path into a small lamp, the spiral design being one such.
- The second problem centered on how light generated by the lamp interacted with shades and reflectors on fixtures. Most incandescent lamp fixtures are designed to use frosted or so-called soft white lamps. The coatings prevent the filament from being seen, making it look like the entire glass bulb is glowing. Shades and reflectors used in regular fixtures are designed using the science of optics to spread and direct the light in predictable patterns. CFLs, with their glowing tubes, are not shaped correctly for regular fixtures, causing light from the fixtures to be emitted in undesired patterns. Spiral CFLs closely mimic the shape of a glowing incandescent lamp so the optical design of the fixture operates as intended.
- Lamp characteristics: Brass, medium-screw base with plastic skirt and glass base-insulator. Spiral-shaped discharge tube with internal phosphor coating, mercury, and two tungsten electrodes. The shape is intended to simulate an ordinary A-lamp.
- date made
- ca. 1996
- Date made
- ca 1996
- manufacturer
- DURO-TEST Corporation
- ID Number
- 1997.0062.07
- catalog number
- 1997.0062.07
- accession number
- 1997.0062
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Modular Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Description
- One method that companies have long used to minimize production costs is to design products that use many of the same parts. In the early 1990s Duro-Test Lighting used this approach in a series of modular compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).
- Modular CFLs are designed so that specific parts can be replaced if they fail. This allows the reuse of expensive parts that still work. In this particular lamp, the fluorescent tube and the reflector enclosing it are made as one piece; the base-unit that houses the ballast and starter are another. In addition to allowing one to replace the tube assembly if it failed, one could swap different assemblies. The reflector lamp could be changed to a decorative lamp for example, without having to remove the base-unit.
- Since the price of electronic components has dropped since this lamp was made, the economic reasoning behind this feature is less persuasive.
- Lamp characteristics: Two-piece, modular compact fluorescent lamp including a base-unit and a tube assembly. The base-unit has a medium-screw base-shell with plastic insulator, and a plastic skirt that houses a ballast and a starter. A socket on top accepts a plug-in base. Tube assembly includes plastic plug-in base, a fluorescent tube with two electrodes, mercury, and a phosphor coating. A glass R-shaped envelope with silvered coating serves as a reflector and is glued to the tube assembly's base.
- Date made
- January 1991
- 1991-01
- manufacturer
- DURO-TEST Corporation
- ID Number
- 1997.0062.09
- catalog number
- 1997.0062.09
- accession number
- 1997.0062
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Modular compact fluorescent lamp
- Description
- A major hurdle that makers of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) have faced stems from the unusual shapes of the lamps, as compared to traditional incandescent lamps. Consumers have grown used to what light bulbs "are supposed" to look like. Many have rejected CFLs for that reason despite the potential cost savings.
- As lamp makers refined their understanding of the new product, designs were introduced to meet consumers' preferences for less-intrusive styles. Duro-Test developed a series of five modular CFLs around 1996, including this "Duro-Brite" unit that has a removable glass globe covering the twin-tube lamp. Another unit in the collection sports a removable glass reflector. The base-units contain the lamp's ballast and starter, and the tube assemblies themselves are interchangeable.
- This unit is a modular CFL with three components: a tube assembly, an adapter, and a glass cover.
- Lamp characteristics: Tube assembly is a twin-tube unit mounted on a plastic base. The adapter has a medium-screw base-shell with an insulator that is part of the plastic skirt housing the ballast. A G23 socket is on top for the tube assembly, and key-slots are molded around the edge to attach the cover. Cover is a G-shaped, clear-glass envelope with aluminum collar at bottom. There are stamped protrusions on the inside of the collar to mount the cover onto the adapter. Electrical rating is 13 watts.
- date made
- ca. 1996
- Date made
- ca 1996
- manufacturer
- DURO-TEST Corporation
- ID Number
- 1997.0062.11
- catalog number
- 1997.0062.11
- accession number
- 1997.0062
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Low pressure sodium lamp, type Na-10
- Description
- As knowledge of materials and experience making electric lamps grew in the early 20th century, more efficient light sources began to reach the market. In 1932 a collaboration of General Electric Company of England (GEC), Philips in the Netherlands, and Osram in Germany introduced a discharge lamp that used low-pressure sodium vapor. The key to a workable sodium lamp lay in a special glass (called borate glass) that could withstand the very corrosive nature of sodium. Arthur Compton in the U.S. described such a glass in 1926. But it took five more years to learn how to actually produce it so that a lamp could be made.
- Discharge lamps make light by passing an electrical current through a gas, in this case sodium vapor. The current energizes the gas which then emits light. In this lamp, the sodium is contained by the bulb, which is lined with the borate glass. The lamp in turn is mounted inside a larger, double-walled glass jacket (part of the light fixture, not shown) to keep the temperature around the lamp stable during operation. Sodium light is a stark yellow suitable only for use in applications like street lighting, but the energy efficiency is very high. Early models gave 40 lumens per watt (lpw), a figure that reached about 100 lpw by 1960. Today's low-pressure sodium lamps give close to 200 lpw, the most energy efficient light source commercially available.
- This lamp was made for street-lighting use by (U.S.) General Electric around 1940.
- Lamp characteristics: Plastic, four-post base. Re-coiled tungsten electrodes mounted inside metal shields. The small brown cylinder mounted near the stem press is a starting resistance. Six asbestos insulator rings mount on the lamp's neck and are secured by the brass collar. (The rings have been removed and stored while the lamp is on display and are not in this picture.) Tipless, T-shaped envelope with about 70% of the inner wall coated by condensed sodium.
- date made
- ca. 1940
- Date made
- ca 1940
- maker
- General Electric Vapor Lamp Company
- ID Number
- 1997.0387.14
- accession number
- 1997.0387
- catalog number
- 1997.0387.14
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Modular fluorescent lamp
- Description
- In the wake of soaring energy prices in the 1970s, several manufacturers quickly introduced new lamp designs to meet a demand for efficient lighting devices. General Electric mounted a circular fluorescent tube on an adapter that housed a starter and ballast, and that could screw into an ordinary fixture. Called the Circlite, this hybrid product was introduced to the public in 1976.
- Since circular fluorescent tubes were already a mature product (originally developed in 1943), GE could take advantage of existing research data and production lines for the Circlite. Also, retailers and consumers were familiar with circular lamps, which eased resistance to the introduction of the new unit. The modular design allowed users to replace the tube when it failed, without having to replace the more expensive ballast package. Ultimately, GE and other manufacturers produced several versions of the lamp and refined the product. A light-weight electronic ballast replaced the heavier, less-efficient magnetic ballast used in this 1978 model, for example. As of today Circlites remain in production.
- Lamp characteristics: A modular fluorescent lamp with three components: ballast, mounting frame, and lamp. Ballast: aluminum medium-screw base with brass contact and a glass insulator. A plastic skirt houses a magnetic ballast and a receptacle for a circular fluorescent lamp frame. Mounting frame: a three-arm plastic frame (made in two halves) with a sliding switch to release the ballast. The ballast mounts at center of mounting frame. Lamp: circular fluorescent tube with soft white colored phosphor.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca. 1978
- Date made
- ca 1978
- manufacturer
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.25
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.25
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center