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 9 items.
Experimental "Magnetic Arc-Spreading" compact fluorescent lamp
- Description
- The energy crises of the 1970s inspired inventors to try novel ideas for new light bulbs. One of the more unusual designs emerged from the drawing board of Manhattan Project veteran Leo Gross. Supported by Merrill Skeist at Spellman High Voltage Electronics Corporation, Gross designed a compact fluorescent lamp that he called a "magnetic arc spreader" (MAS).
- The design took advantage of a fundamental aspect of electro-magnetism known since the early 1800s. When a current flows through a coil of wire, it produces a magnetic field. The arc discharge that travels between the electrodes of a fluorescent lamp can be affected by the presence of such a field. In the center of the MAS lamp seen here there is a copper coil. Current moving through the coil creates a magnetic field that spreads out the electrical arc within the lamp. The expanded arc energizes phosphor throughout the lamp's entire length.
- The concept was tested at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and General Electric became interested. In 1978 GE purchased a one-year license from Spellman in order to conduct further tests but determined that the necessary glasswork would make the lamp too expensive for commercial production. GE donated one of their test lamps to the Smithsonian in 1998—the only known surviving example of this experimental design.
- Lamp characteristics: No base. Two stranded lead-wires extend about 2" from either end, and each end has one lead wire encased in a glass insulating tube. Two coiled tungsten electrodes are mounted in a hollow cylindrical envelope. The exhaust tip is near one set of leads, and the envelope has an internal phosphor coating. A coil of bare copper wire held together with black string is inserted into the center of the envelope. A current passing thru this coil spreads the arc between electrodes so that more of the phosphor is activated.
- Date made
- ca 1978
- date made
- ca. 1978
- maker
- General Electric Corporate Research & Development Laboratory
- inventor
- Spellman High Voltage Electronics Corp.
- ID Number
- 1998.0050.15
- accession number
- 1998.0050
- catalog number
- 1998.0050.15
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Carbon Filament Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Carbon filament lamp with tipless envelope. Designed by Herman J. Jaeger, lamp has an angled exhaust tube inside stem.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1910
- maker
- Tipless Lamp Co.
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.63
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.63
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental Incandescent Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental carbon filament lamp with electrode. This may be an Edison-effect lamp, forerunner to the radio tube.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1895
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.65
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.65
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Linolite Incandescent Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Linear incandescent lamp with a carbon filament. Made by the Johns-Manville Company.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1908
- maker
- H. W. Johns-Manville Co.
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.68
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.68
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental electrodeless compact fluorescent lamp
- Description
- As energy prices soared in the 1970s, General Electric, like other lamp makers, focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps. One research program conducted by John Anderson at the GE Corporate Research and Development Laboratory in Schenectady, New York, sought to make a small fluorescent lamp that might replace a regular incandescent lamp.
- Most fluorescent lamps, large and small, operate by passing an electric current through a gas between two electrodes. The current energizes the gas that in turn radiates ultraviolet (UV) light. The UV is converted to visible light by a coating of phosphors inside the glass envelope of the lamp. Electrodes are responsible for much of the energy lost in a fluorescent lamp and are usually the part of the lamp that fails. Instead of electrodes, Anderson's design used a donut-shaped, ferrite (an iron oxide compound) to generate an electric field. The field energized the gas.
- He called his design a Solenoidal Electric Field (SEF) lamp. The one seen here is an experimental unit made around 1978. While the lamp worked in the lab, the electronics to control it were expensive and generated heat that needed to be dissipated. As with other electrodeless lamps, radio-frequency interference was a concern. By the early 1980s GE decided to shelve the SEF lamp and market a miniature metal-halide lamp instead. In the late 1990s, however, GE took advantage of the lower cost and higher capability of electronic components and marketed an electrodeless lamp that built on prior work—including the SEF lamp.
- Lamp characteristics: No base. A 1.5" (outside dia.) toroid-shaped ferrite is mounted vertically inside the lamp and held in place by a wire cradle. The conducting wire is insulated with woven nylon and wrapped ten turns around the top of the ferrite. A woven nylon mat is wrapped around the ferrite under the conductor, and another is placed between the conductor and the top-plate of the mount-cradle. A metal lead extends from the bottom of the ferrite into the exhaust-tip where it spirals around a metal cylinder. Tipless, AT-shaped envelope.
- Date made
- ca 1978
- date made
- ca. 1978
- maker
- General Electric Corporate Research & Development Laboratory
- ID Number
- 1998.0050.07
- accession number
- 1998.0050
- catalog number
- 1998.0050.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental integral compact fluorescent lamp
- Description
- As energy prices soared in the 1970s, lamp makers focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps. A great deal of effort by many researchers went into designing small fluorescent lamps that might replace a regular incandescent lamp. These efforts led to modern compact fluorescent lamps that use bent or connected tubes, but many other designs were tried. This experimental "partition lamp" from 1978 shows one such design.
- Soon after the 1939 introduction of linear fluorescent lamps, inventors began receiving patents for smaller lamps. But they found that the small designs suffered from low energy efficiency and a short life-span. Further research revealed 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. That's why fluorescent tubes in stores and factories are usually 8 feet (almost 3 meters) long.
- Inventors in the 1970s tried many ways of putting a long arc path into a small lamp. In this case there are thin glass walls inside the lamp, dividing it into four chambers. Each chamber is connected in such a way that the electric current travels the length of the lamp four times when moving from one electrode to the other. So the arc path is actually four times longer than the lamp itself, raising the energy efficiency of the lamp. This unit was made by General Electric for experiments on the concept, though other makers were also working on partition lamps.
- While the partition design works, it proved to be expensive to manufacture and most lamp makers decided to use thin tubes that could be easily bent and folded while being made.
- Lamp characteristics: No base. Two stem assemblies each have tungsten electrodes in a CCC-6 configuration with emitter. Welded connectors, 3-piece leads with lower leads made of stranded wire. Bottom-tipped, T-shaped envelope with internal glass partition that separates the internal space into four connected chambers. Partition is made of two pieces of interlocked glass and is not sealed into the envelope. All glass is clear. No phosphors were used since the experimenter wanted to study the arc path.
- Date made
- ca 1978
- date made
- ca. 1978
- maker
- General Electric Corporate Research & Development Laboratory
- ID Number
- 1998.0050.16
- accession number
- 1998.0050
- catalog number
- 1998.0050.16
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Supermarket Scanner
- Description
- On 26 June 1974, the first installation of supermarket scanners entered service in a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio. This Spectra Physics model A price scanner, is one of those first ten scanners. A package of Wrigley's chewing gum became the first purchase made with scanners that could read the new Uniform Product Code (UPC or barcode). Mounted within the unit a helium-neon laser projected a beam onto a rotating mirror and thence up through a glass plate on the top surface. The light reflected from the code label on the package and was detected by a photo-diode. A computerized cash register matched the signal from the photo-diode with information in a stored database to determine which product was being scanned.
- Spectra Physics and NCR jointly developed the system, and provided the laser scanner and the computerized cash register, respectively. A group called the "Ad Hoc Committee of the Grocery Industry" developed the barcode itself. Organized in 1970 by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., the Ad Hoc Committee consisted of senior executives of leading firms in the grocery industry. The coding system they devised had an enormous impact on a wide range of applications, most notably for retail sales and inventory control.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1974
- maker
- Spectra-Physics Scanning Systems, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1994.0180.01
- accession number
- 1994.0180
- catalog number
- 1994.0180.01
- serial number
- 006
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- The group "Bike for a Better City" encouraged New York commuters and lawmakers to view bicycling as a means for everyday transportation. The organization, founded in 1970 by Barry Fishman and Harriet Green, called for the establishment of special bike lanes to make city biking safer.
- maker
- Fishman, Barry
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0051
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0051
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Niagara Falls Original Turbines
- Description
- Using this extremely fine wood model as part of its technical proposal, the Swiss firm Faesch & Piccard won the contract to design the original turbines for the Niagara Falls power station. The actual turbines were built by the I. P. Morris Company of Philadelphia and were installed in 1895, the year the Adams Station went on line. The hydroelectric power generation facility at Niagara Falls gained international acclaim for its ability to efficiently convert a portion of the Falls' awe-inspiring natural energy into electricity. This was the world's first large-scale central electric power station, demonstrating how falling water (or other power sources) could be used successfully to supply electricity over an extended geographical area.
- For additional information
- date made
- 1895
- ID Number
- 315850
- accession number
- 221414
- catalog number
- 315850
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center