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.

Date: 1970s

Experimental Compact Fluorescent Lamp

Experimental Solenoidal Electric Field header and bulb. A two-piece ferrite would be installed for experiment.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Experimental Solenoidal Electric Field header and bulb. A two-piece ferrite would be installed for experiment.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1975
maker
Anderson, John M.
ID Number
1998.0050.11
accession number
1998.0050
catalog number
1998.0050.11

Experimental High Pressure Sodium Lamp

An experimental high-pressure sodium lamp having an unusual A-shape envelope with diffuser-coating.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
An experimental high-pressure sodium lamp having an unusual A-shape envelope with diffuser-coating.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1975
Maker
General Electric
ID Number
1997.0388.13
accession number
1997.0388
catalog number
1997.0388.13

Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp

Experimental LEAP (Linear Exhaust And Processing) tungsten halogen lamp for a production method that used a laser.Currently not on view
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

Experimental Fluorescent Lamp

Experimental fluorescent lamp with coated hook near each electrode. Phosphor coating has a clear band lengthwise.Currently not on view
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

Experimental Compact Fluorescent Lamp

Experimental Solenoidal Electric Field lamp header with split ferrite mounted inside.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Experimental Solenoidal Electric Field lamp header with split ferrite mounted inside.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1975
maker
Anderson, John M.
ID Number
1998.0050.12
accession number
1998.0050
catalog number
1998.0050.12

"Sunglow Solar Furnace" Button

This button is from Sunglow Solar Systems, a New York company that sold a residential heater called the Solar Furnace.
Description (Brief)
This button is from Sunglow Solar Systems, a New York company that sold a residential heater called the Solar Furnace. These units were made by International Solarthermics Corporation in 1975 and used the sun to warm “tons of rock” in an “A-frame ‘battery’” mounted next to a house. Air blown across this ‘battery’ would carry warm air throughout the house.
Reference: William G. Connally, “Friends of Solar Heating Bask in Hope,” New York Times, 8 June 1975, 259. “Test Set Up on Solar Furnace,” Washington Post, 1 November 1975, C15.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1975
ID Number
2003.0014.0401
accession number
2003.0014
catalog number
2003.0014.0401

Ruby Laser

Lasers have served as teaching tools in more ways than one. This ruby laser, made by General Electric (GE), inspired teenager Ebe Helm from New Jersey to learn more about lasers.Mr.
Description
Lasers have served as teaching tools in more ways than one. This ruby laser, made by General Electric (GE), inspired teenager Ebe Helm from New Jersey to learn more about lasers.
Mr. Helm wrote: "this laser head was originally on display in the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia as part of an electromagnetic spectrum exhibit from GE. It was a working unit that would fire downward on a spool of typewriter ribbon when a button was pushed. The hole it burned could be observed from several angles around its display and through large magnifying lenses arranged over it. ... I first saw this laser on display during a class trip in 1972. The laser had been on display for some years, possibly since the 1960's, and was not working. After it had been removed to a basement store room I managed to talk the Franklin Institute into giving it to me in 1976. I used the components to make an operational ruby laser in 1977 at age 17."
Mr. Helm donated this laser, and several others, to the Smithsonian in 2005.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1978
maker
General Electric Company
ID Number
2005.0034.01
catalog number
2005.0034.01
accession number
2005.0034

Krypton-filled Incandescent Lamp

Krypton-filled "Super Bulb". Adding krypton gas to an incandescent lamp slightly boosts energy efficiency.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Krypton-filled "Super Bulb". Adding krypton gas to an incandescent lamp slightly boosts energy efficiency.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1970
maker
Westinghouse Electric Corp.
ID Number
1997.0389.21
accession number
1997.0389
catalog number
1997.0389.21

Ship Tools from the Propeller Indiana, Hand Truck

These hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space belowdecks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery.
Description
These hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space belowdecks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery. The crew used the shovel to add coal to the fires.
The hand truck—virtually identical to modern examples—is one of four found aboard Indiana and used for moving cargo into, out of, and around the cargo hold of the ship. This hand truck was the artifact that actually identified the vessel when it was located in 1972, for the words “PROPR INDIANA” were stamped into its handle. The other three had different ships’ names stamped on them, indicating that they were secondhand or borrowed equipment.
Date made
ca 1858
when the Indiana was found
1972
ID Number
1994.0033.01
catalog number
1994.0033.01
accession number
1994.0033

Brookhaven superconducting dipole magnet

The Inner part of object 1988.0706.01 consists of a cylindrical metal bore tube surrounded on outer surface by insulation, covered by coil windings of braided niobium-titanium conducting wires held in place by white fiberglass-epoxy bands.
Description
The Inner part of object 1988.0706.01 consists of a cylindrical metal bore tube surrounded on outer surface by insulation, covered by coil windings of braided niobium-titanium conducting wires held in place by white fiberglass-epoxy bands. This structure is surrounded by a yoke of octagonal cross-section, made of an upper and lower half consisting of vertical iron laminations. Surface coating (blueing?) of laminations is black and blue.
About half of the length of the upper half of the yoke is removed to show the coil windings and bands. On both sides of the full-yoke segment are 18 nuts and Allen bolts for joining upper and lower yolk halves, and on both sides of half-yoke segment are 19 more holes without bolts along the cut-away portion.
This object is the fourth in a series of eight one-meter long superconducting model dipoles constructed at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The coil aperture is 8 cm. Most of the design features incorporated in the full-scale 4.5 meter long dipoles for BNL's proposed ISABELLE proton-proton colliding beam facility were worked out on these shorter model magnets, including the superconducting coils. The conductor in the coil is in the form of a wide braid containing 93 twisted multi-filamentary niobium-titanium (NbTi) superconducting wires; each wire is 0.3 mm in diameter and contains 379 ten-micron NbTi filaments. The braid is filled with InPb for additional electrical stability and mechanical rigidity. The two coil halves are held on the bore tube by fiberglass-epoxy bands. The laminated shield, in addition to enhancing the magnetic field in the bore, maintains the coil structure under a predetermined compression at operating temperature. Mounted on the bore tube, immediately under the surrounding main coil windings, are barely discernable sextapole and decapole auxiliary windings in the form of 7-strand cables made from the same 0.3 mm composite wire; these coils primarily compensate for perturbations in the shape of the magnetic field due to iron saturation at high fields.
For a detailed overview of the development of superconducting magnets for particle accelerators at BNL and Fermilab during the 1970's, see William D. Metz, SCIENCE, Vol. 200, 14 April 1978, pp 188-191. In particular, the BNL magnets have a significantly larger diameter relative to those at Fermilab. This is due to the fact that unlike the Fermilab magnets, whose surrounding steel yoke remains at room temperature, BNL chose to cool the entire magnet including the yoke to liquid helium temperature and have the central beam tube at room temperature ("warm bore, cold iron"), whereas the Fermilab beam tube is at cryogenic temperature ("cold bore, warm iron").
For more on superconducting magnets in the Modern Physics Collection, see object ID no. 2012.0186.01, short section of parallel pair of Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) dipole magnets in their vacuum vessels (display model) [Web title "Sections of Magnets for Superconducting Super Collider"].
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1974
manufacturer
Brookhaven National Laboratory
ID Number
1988.0706.01
accession number
1988.0706
catalog number
1988.0706.01

Experimental High Pressure Sodium Lamp

An experimental high pressure sodium lamp with unusual monolithic arc tube seals. Possibly made by Kurt Schmidt.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
An experimental high pressure sodium lamp with unusual monolithic arc tube seals. Possibly made by Kurt Schmidt.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1975
Maker
General Electric
ID Number
1997.0388.11
accession number
1997.0388
catalog number
1997.0388.11

Bryant’s New Showboat

Bryant’s New Showboat was built at Point Pleasant, W. Va., in 1917. Launched in 1918, it could seat around 880 people in its theater.
Description
Bryant’s New Showboat was built at Point Pleasant, W. Va., in 1917. Launched in 1918, it could seat around 880 people in its theater. Most of the shows put on for Bryant’s patrons in small towns along the Kanawha, Ohio, Monongahela, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers were vaudeville or follies productions.
The ornate stage of Bryant’s New Showboat was home to dozens of plays like Hamlet and Little Nell of the Ozarks, and even the antics of a trained bucking mule named January. Owner Billy Bryant offered $10 to anyone who could stay on the animal’s back, but he had to retract that offer in mining towns, as the miners were strong enough to stay on.
The vessel was sold to new owners in 1945, at the end of World War II. Movie theaters, personal automobiles and other developments had gradually ended the colorful showboat era on America’s rivers.
Date made
1976
ID Number
TR.335568
catalog number
335568
accession number
1977.0630

Experimental Projection Lamp

Mini-arc projection lamp. Reflector has a dichroic film that reflects visible light but transmits infrared light.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Mini-arc projection lamp. Reflector has a dichroic film that reflects visible light but transmits infrared light.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1976
maker
General Electric Company
ID Number
1996.0147.39F
accession number
1996.0147
catalog number
1996.0147.39F

1973 gas crisis

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1973-12
photographer
Regan, Ken
ID Number
2014.0112.411
catalog number
2014.0112.411
accession number
2014.0112

Quartz Spheres

Quartz spheres used to seal laser-drilled exhaust holes in tungsten halogen lamps.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Quartz spheres used to seal laser-drilled exhaust holes in tungsten halogen lamps.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1972-09-02
maker
Fridrich, Elmer G.
ID Number
1996.0147.29
accession number
1996.0147
catalog number
1996.0147.29

Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp

An experimental 10,000 watt stage and studio lamp with a hydrogen-bromine fill gas.Currently not on view
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

Experimental integral compact fluorescent lamp

As energy prices soared in the 1970s, lamp makers focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps. A great deal of effort by many researchers went into designing small fluorescent lamps that might replace a regular incandescent lamp.
Description
As energy prices soared in the 1970s, lamp makers focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps. A great deal of effort by many researchers went into designing small fluorescent lamps that might replace a regular incandescent lamp. These efforts led to modern compact fluorescent lamps that use bent or connected tubes, but many other designs were tried. This experimental "partition lamp" from 1978 shows one such design.
Soon after the 1939 introduction of linear fluorescent lamps, inventors began receiving patents for smaller lamps. But they found that the small designs suffered from low energy efficiency and a short life-span. Further research revealed that energy efficiency in fluorescent lamps depends in part on the distance the electric current travels between the two electrodes, called the arc path. A long arc path is more efficient than a short arc path. That's why fluorescent tubes in stores and factories are usually 8 feet (almost 3 meters) long.
Inventors in the 1970s tried many ways of putting a long arc path into a small lamp. In this case there are thin glass walls inside the lamp, dividing it into four chambers. Each chamber is connected in such a way that the electric current travels the length of the lamp four times when moving from one electrode to the other. So the arc path is actually four times longer than the lamp itself, raising the energy efficiency of the lamp. This unit was made by General Electric for experiments on the concept, though other makers were also working on partition lamps.
While the partition design works, it proved to be expensive to manufacture and most lamp makers decided to use thin tubes that could be easily bent and folded while being made.
Lamp characteristics: No base. Two stem assemblies each have tungsten electrodes in a CCC-6 configuration with emitter. Welded connectors, 3-piece leads with lower leads made of stranded wire. Bottom-tipped, T-shaped envelope with internal glass partition that separates the internal space into four connected chambers. Partition is made of two pieces of interlocked glass and is not sealed into the envelope. All glass is clear. No phosphors were used since the experimenter wanted to study the arc path.
Date made
ca 1978
date made
ca. 1978
maker
General Electric Corporate Research & Development Laboratory
ID Number
1998.0050.16
accession number
1998.0050
catalog number
1998.0050.16

Cable and Pipe Display of 345 KV feeder cable

Electric power lines have been connecting generating plants to customers since Thomas Edison put lines under the streets of New York City in 1880. Today aluminum lines like these carry electricity hundreds of miles.
Description (Brief)
Electric power lines have been connecting generating plants to customers since Thomas Edison put lines under the streets of New York City in 1880. Today aluminum lines like these carry electricity hundreds of miles. Hanging these high-voltage lines from towers allows the heat generated by their electrical resistance to dissipate into the air. The expanded area near the center is where the cable connects to an insulator.
Location
Currently not on view (cable part)
date made
ca 1970
ID Number
EM.330142
catalog number
330142
accession number
294058

Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp

Experimental LEAP (Linear Exhaust And Processing) tungsten halogen lamp for a production method that used a laser.Currently not on view
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

Neon-glow Indicator Lamp

Production miniature glow-lamp filled with either neon or argon. Used as indicator lamp.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Production miniature glow-lamp filled with either neon or argon. Used as indicator lamp.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1970
maker
General Electric Company
ID Number
1996.0147.55
accession number
1996.0147
catalog number
1996.0147.55

Alarm Clock

Alarm Clock by Rube Goldberg, circa 1970.
Description
Alarm Clock by Rube Goldberg, circa 1970. This non-working, sculpted model signed by Rube Goldberg was crafted [during the 1960s] to replicate a cartoon from the series The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts that he drew for between 1914 and 1964.
Inscription: At 6 a.m. garbage man picks up ashcan, causing mule to kick over statue of Indian warrior. Arrow punctures bucket and ice cubes fall on false teeth, causing them to chatter and nip elephant's tail. Elephant raises his trunk in pain, pressing lever which starts toy maestro to lead quartet in sad song. Sentimental girl breaks down and cries into flower pot, causing flower to grow and tickle man's feet. He rocks with laughter, starting machine that rings gong and slides sleeper out of bed into slippers on wheels, which propel him into bathroom where cold shower really wakes him up.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
circa 1970
depicted
Butts, Lucifer Gorgonzola
original artist
Goldberg, Rube
ID Number
GA.23502
accession number
1972.289709
catalog number
GA*23502
accession number
289709

Environmental Button

Several types of renewable energy sources are available as alternatives to non-renewable, carbon-based fuels. This button advocates the use of solar energy to generate electricity.
Description (Brief)
Several types of renewable energy sources are available as alternatives to non-renewable, carbon-based fuels. This button advocates the use of solar energy to generate electricity. It was distributed in 1978 by Solar Action, the Washington, D.C.-based organization that helped to organize Sun Day (3 May 1978.) For many people, the 1970s energy crisis was a call to action to change how electricity was generated and used. Making the choice to “go solar”—and encouraging others to do the same—reflected growing optimism about the potential of clean, accessible solar energy.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1978
maker
Edward Horn Co.
ID Number
2003.0014.0400
accession number
2003.0014
catalog number
2003.0014.0400

Demonstration Incandescent Lamp

This lamp’s envelope was made with both “soft white” and “internal-frost” coatings as a sales demonstration.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
This lamp’s envelope was made with both “soft white” and “internal-frost” coatings as a sales demonstration.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1970
maker
Westinghouse Electric Corp.
ID Number
1997.0389.27
catalog number
1997.0389.27
accession number
1997.0389

p-type hexagonal solar cell for terrestrial use

Solar cells come in many shapes and sizes, and are manufactured with a variety of materials. The wafer of this hexagonal cell is made with the element silicon. The dark areas convert sunlight into electricity while the thick and thin lines are part of the electrical circuit.
Description (Brief)
Solar cells come in many shapes and sizes, and are manufactured with a variety of materials. The wafer of this hexagonal cell is made with the element silicon. The dark areas convert sunlight into electricity while the thick and thin lines are part of the electrical circuit. The white, tapered arrow along the center is the main lead and gathers the charge from twelve thin “fingers” that run horizontally across the wafer. This solar cell was designed for use on the ground rather than in space. The hexagonal shape allows many cells to be grouped together on a panel, minimizing wasted space between each cell.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1972
ID Number
2016.0070.09
accession number
2016.0070
catalog number
2016.0070.09

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