Energy & Power

Gasoline Pump

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.

Topic: Inventions

Experimental Laser Crystal

A major breakthrough marks only the beginning of a scientist's work. In November 1960 Peter Sorokin and Mirek Stevenson, at IBM's Watson Research Center, successfully demonstrated a second type of laser.
Description
A major breakthrough marks only the beginning of a scientist's work. In November 1960 Peter Sorokin and Mirek Stevenson, at IBM's Watson Research Center, successfully demonstrated a second type of laser. They energized a crystal of calcium-fluorine treated with a variety of uranium (written in chemical symbols as CaF2:U3+) to generate a pulse of laser light.
Sorokin and other colleagues experimented with many elements as they learned more about both pulsed and continuous-wave lasers. This crystal, from mid-1962, was the first one made of strontium, fluorine and samarium (SrF2:Sm2+) to successfully operate. Laser research was a very competitive field. Despite their efforts at IBM, Sorokin told museum staff that a team from Bell Labs, "made the first CW [continuous wave] solid-state laser using an ordinary crystal of CaF2:U3+. After that achievement we abandoned our CW efforts and went on to other topics." Those other topics included significant early work on generating laser beams using liquid dyes.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1962
ID Number
1985.0268.06
catalog number
1985.0268.06
accession number
1985.0268

Ruby Crystal from Maiman Laser

This is a ruby crystal from Theodore Maiman's experiments of May 1960, and may be the first crystal to generate laser light. The synthetic crystal was mounted in a small holder that also contained a spiral flashlamp of the type photographers used.
Description
This is a ruby crystal from Theodore Maiman's experiments of May 1960, and may be the first crystal to generate laser light. The synthetic crystal was mounted in a small holder that also contained a spiral flashlamp of the type photographers used. When the lamp flashed, the light pulse stimulated the atoms within the crystal. The atoms released that energy in the form of a laser light pulse.
Maiman earned a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford in 1955 and went to work at Hughes Research Laboratories the following year where he worked on masers. After attending a conference in September 1959, Maiman ran experiments investigating the possibility that a ruby crystal might be capable of emitting laser light. The experiments proved successful when, on 16 May 1960, he and assistant Irnee D’Haenes demonstrated the first operating laser. Rather than producing a continuous beam, their ruby laser operated in pulses. Their success caught the scientific community by surprise and was a pivotal moment in the history of lasers.
This crystal was one of several in the laboratory at the time of the experiments. No one knows with certainly which crystal actually generated the first laser light, though when the crystal was donated to the Smithsonian in 1967, officials at Hughes reported that this crystal was indeed the first.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1960
associated date
1960-07
associated institution
Hughes Research Laboratories
maker
Maiman, Theodore H.
Hughes Aircraft Company
ID Number
EM.330048
catalog number
330048
accession number
288813

Experimental cesium laser component

In 1957 Columbia University physicist Charles Townes discussed recent maser developments with Gordon Gould, a Ph.D. student at the University. Inspired by the conversation, Gould wrote down thoughts and ideas for lasers and had the pages of his notebook notarized.
Description
In 1957 Columbia University physicist Charles Townes discussed recent maser developments with Gordon Gould, a Ph.D. student at the University. Inspired by the conversation, Gould wrote down thoughts and ideas for lasers and had the pages of his notebook notarized. Recognizing the commercial potential of lasers, Gould left Columbia and pursued laser research at TRG, a defense company founded in 1953.
Though he lost the race to make the first working laser, Gould did make several lasers using cesium in 1961. This is the cesium light source for one of the early lasers based on his designs. The extent to which Gould’s notarized ideas were his own ignited fierce debate and patent litigation that lasted into the 1990s. The result of the litigation was that Gould’s patents, based on his 1957 notebook entries, were upheld.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961
maker
Gould, Gordon
ID Number
EM.330385
catalog number
330385
accession number
288761

Head Piece from Maiman Laser

This object may be the first laser. It was made by Theodore Maiman and his assistant Irnee D'Haenens at Hughes Aircraft Company in May 1960.In 1959 Maiman attended a technical conference on the subject of lasers.
Description
This object may be the first laser. It was made by Theodore Maiman and his assistant Irnee D'Haenens at Hughes Aircraft Company in May 1960.
In 1959 Maiman attended a technical conference on the subject of lasers. Maiman heard several speakers state that ruby was unsuitable for a laser but grew troubled by some of the numbers they cited. When he returned to his lab at Hughes he began experimenting. By May 1960 he and D'Haenens constructed several small metal cylinders. Each contained a photographer's spiral-shaped, xenon flashlamp that surrounded a small cylindrical crystal of synthetic ruby. When they fired the flashlamp, the burst of light stimulated the ruby crystal to emit a tightly focused pulse of light--the first operating laser.
Hughes Aircraft donated this and several other pieces of Maiman's apparatus to the Smithsonian in 1970. The crystal mounted inside this unit is from a 1961 experiment. While the donation records indicate that this is the first laser, Maiman wrote that he received the first laser as a gift when he left the company in April 1961. Several experimental models were made during the research, a common practice. So we may never know which unit actually generated the first laser light.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1960
associated date
1960
maker
Maiman, Theodore H.
Hughes Aircraft Company
ID Number
EM.330050
accession number
288813
catalog number
330050

Wave guide with ruby crystal

This is an experimental device made by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Aircraft in late 1959 or early 1960 as part of the series of experiments leading up to the demonstration of the first laser in May 1960.
Description
This is an experimental device made by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Aircraft in late 1959 or early 1960 as part of the series of experiments leading up to the demonstration of the first laser in May 1960. This object features a cube-shaped ruby crystal mounted at one end of a microwave wave-guide. Maiman sought to test the response of the synthetic ruby crystal to microwave stimulation. Other researchers claimed that ruby would be a poor material to use in a laser. Maiman thought otherwise.
After Charles Townes invented the microwave-emitting maser in 1954, researchers began trying to move to the higher energy levels of infrared and visible light. They referred to such devices as "optical masers," and only later did people adopt Gordon Gould's term, "laser." This experimental piece clearly shows the influence of microwave technology. The metal tube is not a stand but rather a hollow guide that channels microwaves to the ruby crystal. The results of this and other experiments led Maiman to ultimately choose a cylinder of ruby rather than a cube for his laser.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1959
associated date
1960
associated user
unknown
associated institution
Hughes Research Laboratories
maker
Maiman, Theodore H.
Hughes Aircraft Company
ID Number
EM.330052
accession number
288813
catalog number
330052

Laser Eraser

This laser eraser was made and used by physicist Art Schawlow while at Stanford University. If he made a mistake while typing, Schawlaw could simply press a button and vaporize the typewriter ink, thus removing the incorrect characters.
Description
This laser eraser was made and used by physicist Art Schawlow while at Stanford University. If he made a mistake while typing, Schawlaw could simply press a button and vaporize the typewriter ink, thus removing the incorrect characters. The wavelength of the laser was optimized for the absorption characteristics of the ink. Only the ink, not the paper, went up in smoke. Though the eraser was too expensive for commercial production, Schawlow received US Patent 3,553,421 for the invention and used the eraser on his office typewriter.
The object includes a power supply (to convert alternating current of 120 volts to 900 volt direct current pulses), the laser emitter, a connecting cable and carrying case.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968
maker
Schawlow, Arthur L.
ID Number
1985.0144.01
accession number
1985.0144
catalog number
1985.0144.01

Helium-Neon Laser Discharge Apparatus

This is the discharge unit for the third type of laser invented. Dr. Ali Javan and his colleagues William Bennett and Donald Herriott demonstrated this laser at Bell Labs in December 1960.
Description
This is the discharge unit for the third type of laser invented. Dr. Ali Javan and his colleagues William Bennett and Donald Herriott demonstrated this laser at Bell Labs in December 1960. Using a mixture of helium and neon gasses, this laser emitted a continuous beam of light at 1.153 nano-meters, in the near-infrared part of the spectrum. Their successful demonstration proved crucial for many applications. The first supermarket scanners, made by Spectra Physics, used a helium-neon laser, as have many other commercial devices.
Ali Javan came to the U.S. from Iran in 1948 and trained in the laboratory of maser inventor Charles H. Townes at Columbia University. When he received his Ph.D. in 1954, Javan went to work at Bell Labs where began investigating the possibility of making a laser using a gaseous medium. His laser was the first gas laser as well as the first laser to produce a continuous beam of radiation.
date made
1960
maker
Javan, Ali
ID Number
2008.0153.01
accession number
2008.0153
catalog number
2008.0153.01

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