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 23 items.
Page 1 of 3
Prototype Reflector Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Reportedly the first ellipsoidal reflector lamp. See U.S. patent #4,041,344 issued to Frank LaGuisa.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1976
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- 1985.0410.01
- accession number
- 1985.0410
- catalog number
- 1985.0410.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Description
- Ordinary lamps give good quality light and can be designed for all manner of special tasks. However, they waste a tremendous amount of energy in the form of heat. The steep rise in energy prices during the 1970s spurred a burst of invention aimed at developing lamps that gave more lumens per watt—the lighting equivalent of miles per gallon in cars.
- Much of the invention took place in the laboratories of major lighting companies like General Electric and Sylvania. But inventors outside the corporate labs also offered ideas and new devices. One such inventor was Donald Hollister of California. A UCLA graduate with experience in plasma physics, Hollister patented a small fluorescent lamp called the "Litek." The lamp seen here is a hand-made prototype from 1979.
- 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. Hollister's design was "electrodeless," and used high-frequency radio waves instead of electrodes to energize the gas.
- The Litek lamp worked in the laboratory, and Hollister received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to refine the design. That proved more difficult than expected though. The electronic components available at the time were expensive and generated too much heat. Hollister tried to compensate with the massive heat-dissipation fins set below the bulb, but this added to the cost. Also, as an independent inventor Hollister could not just focus on research. He had to perform administrative tasks that researchers in corporate labs did not, and the project lagged. In the end the Litek did not reach the market, though in the 1990s the major companies all began selling electrodeless fluorescent lamps. These built on the work of several inventors, including Hollister's.
- Lamp characteristics: Nickle-plated brass medium-screw base shell with brass retainer and plastic skirt. The base insulator is part of skirt. A metal fitting attaches to the skirt to dissipate heat. Tipped, G-shaped envelope with phosphor coating on inner wall and clear tip.
- Date made
- 1979
- maker
- Hollister, Donald
- ID Number
- 1992.0466.01
- catalog number
- 1992.0466.01
- accession number
- 1992.0466
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental LEAP (Linear Exhaust And Processing) tungsten halogen lamp for a production method that used a laser.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1972
- maker
- General Electric Lighting Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0082.01
- catalog number
- 1996.0082.01
- accession number
- 1996.0082
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental LEAP (Linear Exhaust And Processing) tungsten halogen lamp for a production method that used a laser.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1972
- maker
- General Electric Lighting Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0082.02
- catalog number
- 1996.0082.02
- accession number
- 1996.0082
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental LEAP (Linear Exhaust And Processing) tungsten halogen lamp for a production method that used a laser.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1972
- maker
- General Electric Lighting Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0082.03
- catalog number
- 1996.0082.03
- accession number
- 1996.0082
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental LEAP (Linear Exhaust And Processing) tungsten halogen lamp for a production method that used a laser.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1972
- maker
- General Electric Lighting Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0082.04
- catalog number
- 1996.0082.04
- accession number
- 1996.0082
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental Fluorescent Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental fluorescent lamp with coated hook near each electrode. Phosphor coating has a clear band lengthwise.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1974
- Maker
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.43
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.43
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Compact Fluorescent Lamp Mock-up
- Description (Brief)
- Wooden mock-up Solenoidal Electric Field lamp made by the inventor at home the evening prior to a program review.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1978
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- 1998.0050.01
- accession number
- 1998.0050
- catalog number
- 1998.0050.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental Solenoidal Electric Field lamp with aluminum-covered ferrite.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1975
- maker
- Anderson, John M.
- ID Number
- 1998.0050.03
- accession number
- 1998.0050
- catalog number
- 1998.0050.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Xenon Flash Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Type R4429 xenon flash lamp for airport. Unit produces short flashes of very bright light.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1977
- maker
- GTE Sylvania, Inc.
- ID Number
- 2000.0224.03
- catalog number
- 2000.0224.03
- accession number
- 2000.0224
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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