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 20 items.
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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
General Electric Demonstration Fluorescent Lamp
- Description
- In the late 1920s and early 1930s, reports began reaching GE and Westinghouse of French experiments with neon tubes coated with phosphors. A phosphor is a material that absorbs one type of light and radiates another. American scientist Arthur Compton, a consultant to GE, reported seeing a green French lamp giving 30 lumens per watt in 1934, and his report sparked an intensive, cooperative research program to make a fluorescent lamp. In 1936, this tube using low pressure mercury vapor and a coating of phosphors was quietly demonstrated to the Illuminating Engineering Society and the U.S. Navy.
- In 1939, GE and Westinghouse publicly introduced fluorescent lamps at both the New York World's Fair and the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco. Other lamp makers like Sylvania and Duro-Test soon followed. The need for efficient lighting in wartime factories brought rapid adoption of fluorescent lighting and by 1951 industry sources reported that more light in the United States was being produced by fluorescent lamps than by incandescent lamps.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1936
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- EM*318197
- catalog number
- 318197
- accession number
- 232822
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Pre-production Electronic Halarc Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Pre-production GE metal halide lamp for indoor use.
- date made
- ca 1980
- maker
- General Electric Co.
- ID Number
- 1996.0080.01
- accession number
- 1996.0080
- catalog number
- 1996.0080.01
- 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 Tungsten Halogen Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental lamp made by co-inventor Edward Zubler.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1975
- maker
- General Electric Lighting Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0082.05
- catalog number
- 1996.0082.05
- accession number
- 1996.0082
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- An experimental 10,000 watt stage and studio lamp with a hydrogen-bromine fill gas.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1970
- maker
- General Electric Lighting Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0082.06
- catalog number
- 1996.0082.06
- accession number
- 1996.0082
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental lamp made by co-inventor Edward Zubler.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1975
- maker
- General Electric Lighting Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0082.07
- catalog number
- 1996.0082.07
- accession number
- 1996.0082
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center