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 32 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
Non-ductile Tungsten Lamp
- Description
- Thomas Edison and others considered element number 6, carbon, ideal for lamp filaments in part because it has the highest melting point of any element. Element number 74, tungsten, has the next highest melting point but it then existed only as a powder. Attempts to make it into a workable form failed until early in the 1900s when a burst of invention occurred in Europe. A pressing technique called "sintering" (squeezing a material into a dense mass) was adopted by several inventors.
- The most commercially successful design proved to be that of Dr. Alexander Just and Franz Hanaman of Austria. Their work on sintering tungsten was based on a prior sintering process developed by Carl Auer von Welsbach for his filament made of osmium. Just and Hanaman made a tungsten and organic paste, squirted it through a die, baked out the organic material, then sintered the tungsten in a mix of gasses. The resulting filament gave about 8 lumens per watt and lasted 800 hours.
- Another Austrian, Dr. Hans Kutzel, used an electric arc to make a tungsten and water paste. He then pressed, baked, and sintered the tungsten in a manner similar to Just and Hanaman's procedure. Yet another pair of Austrians, Fritz Blau and Hermann Remane, adapted the osmium lamp process (they worked for Welsbach) by making a filament from an osmium and tungsten mix. They soon changed their "Osram" lamp filament to tungsten only. (The German word for tungsten is wolfram.)
- All three filaments were brittle and collectively known as "non-ductile" filaments. Individual filaments could not be made long enough to give the proper electrical resistance, so lamps needed several filaments connected end-to-end. U.S. companies quickly licensed rights to all of the non-ductile patents. This particular lamp was made under license by General Electric and sent to the National Bureau of Standards for use as a standard lamp.
- Lamp characteristics: Medium-screw base with glass insulator. Five single-arch tungsten filaments (in series) with 5 upper and 8 lower support hooks. The stem assembly features soldered connectors, Siemens-type press seal, and a cotton insulator. Tipped, straight-sided envelope with taper at neck.
- Date made
- ca 1908
- date made
- ca. 1908
- maker
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1992.0342.16
- catalog number
- 1992.0342.16
- accession number
- 1992.0342
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mercury Vapor Sunlamp
- Description (Brief)
- A type RS sunlamp in original package. Lamp produced ultra-violet rays for tanning purposes and did not need a ballast.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1950
- Maker
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1997.0387.24
- accession number
- 1997.0387
- catalog number
- 1997.0387.24
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Metal Halide Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- An experimental metal halide lamp that could be started with the lamp in any position.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1980
- Maker
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.03
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Metal Halide Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- A metal-halide lamp that could be installed in a base-down position without affecting starting characteristics.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1980
- Maker
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.04
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Metal Halide Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- A metal halide lamp with an arc tube that has a reflective coating on both ends,
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1975
- Maker
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.05
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Metal Halide Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- A metal-halide lamp using a frameless design so that the frame mount does not pass alongside the arc tube.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1980
- Maker
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.06
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.06
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Metal Halide Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- A metal-halide lamp using a frameless design so that the frame mount does not pass alongside the arc tube.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1980
- Maker
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.07
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
High Pressure Sodium Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- A high pressure sodium lamp with two arc-tubes. The lamp will quickly relight if power is briefly interrupted.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1980
- Maker
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.08
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
High Pressure Sodium Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- An experimental high pressure sodium lamp with a clear arc tube. Clear tubes are more efficient than opaque tubes.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1980
- Maker
- General Electric
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.09
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.09
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center