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 6 items.
Experimental Incandescent Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental incandescent lamp, U.S. Patent #210809. The radiator consists of a copper ribbon folded into 5 strips.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1878
- maker
- Sawyer, William E.
- ID Number
- EM*308581
- catalog number
- 308581
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 210809
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Demonstration Incandescent Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Edison demonstration lamp on a reproduction base. Lamp was used at the 1879 New Year’s Eve Demonstration.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1879
- associated user
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- maker
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- ID Number
- EM*310577
- catalog number
- 310577
- accession number
- 123470
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Demonstration Incandescent Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Edison demonstration lamp with bristol-board filament used at Menlo Park on New Year’s Eve 1879.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1879
- associated date
- 1879
- associated user
- unknown
- maker
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- ID Number
- EM*320504
- catalog number
- 320504
- accession number
- 241402
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
H. M. Wood Windmill Patent Model
- Description
- During most of the 19th century, the U.S. Patent Office required inventors seeking patent protection to submit both a written application and a three-dimensional model. This wood and metal patent model of a windmill succeeded in gaining its inventor, H. M. Wood, Patent Number 222,340, which was issued on December 2, 1879. As farms spread into the American heartland, windmills proved an extremely important technology, allowing settlers to use the renewable power of wind to pump groundwater for agricultural and household use. Efficiency and reliability were key attributes for rural windmills, and professional and lay inventors experimented with hundreds of design variations throughout the years.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1879
- patent date
- 1879-12-02
- inventor
- Wood, Harvey M.
- ID Number
- MC*309136
- catalog number
- 309136
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 222,340
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Edison "New Year's Eve" Lamp
- Description
- Thomas Edison used this carbon-filament bulb in the first public demonstration of his most famous invention, the first practical electric incandescent lamp, which took place at his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory on New Year's Eve, 1879.
- As the quintessential American inventor-hero, Edison personified the ideal of the hardworking self-made man. He received a record 1,093 patents and became a skilled entrepreneur. Though occasionally unsuccessful, Edison and his team developed many practical devices in his "invention factory," and fostered faith in technological progress.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1879
- used date
- 1879-12-31
- user
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- maker
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- ID Number
- EM*181797
- catalog number
- 181797
- accession number
- 33407
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Rigged Model, Sidewheel Cotton Packet J.M. White
- Description
- The Mississippi River sidewheel steamboat J.M. White was built at Jeffersonville, Ind., in 1878 for the Greenville and New Orleans Packet Company. Measuring 321’ long and 91’ in beam across the paddlebox guards, the White only sat 10’-6” deep in the water when fully laden. The steamboat was designed for Mississippi River packet service between New Orleans, La., and Greenville, Miss.
- The White was one of the largest, most expensive, luxurious, and most powerful river steamers ever built, with 2,800 horsepower and a capacity of 250 first-class passengers and 10,000 bales of cotton. Named after famous riverboat captain J. M. White (1823–1880), the “supreme triumph in cotton boat architecture” was a masterpiece of the gaudy, glamorous style known as “steamboat Gothic.” It had multiple bridal chambers; stained glass skylights and windows; rare wood veneers and gilded finishes; seven gilded “Egyptian-style” chandeliers; a sterling silver Tiffany water cooler in the 250’-long main cabin; monogrammed flatware and china; and a full concert grand piano.
- The White spent most of its eight-year career in service on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Vicksburg, Miss. Despite its economy of size, the White’s high initial $220,000 cost, a spotty economy, and the rapidly expanding railroad network made the steamboat unprofitable. It caught fire, blew up, and burned to the waterline at a Louisiana landing in December 1886, killing several aboard.
- Date made
- 1974
- built
- 1878
- used date
- late 19th century
- ID Number
- TR*334847
- catalog number
- 334847
- accession number
- 315419
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center