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.
Thomson DC Generator
- Description
- This model of a direct-current generator was designed by Elihu Thomson to produce a constant voltage. It could also be used as a motor that would maintain a constant speed. It came to the Smithsonian from the U. S. Patent Office, representing patent number 333,573, issued to Thomson on January 5, 1886. The patent itself indicates that no model was submitted (which is not surprising since by that time models were not required), and this example was probably given to the Patent Office at a slightly later date for display purposes.
- Thomson and Edwin Houston were school teachers in Philadelphia in the 1870s when they formed a partnership (the Thomson-Houston Company) to enter the new and competitive arc-lighting field. They produced a number of successful generators, motors, meters, and lighting devices. Most of their system employed alternating current, which was as good as direct current for lighting. With the development of the transformer in the mid-1880s, AC systems assumed added importance because electricity generated at a low voltage could now be converted to high voltage for more efficient transmission and then converted back to safer low voltage for use by consumers. But electro-chemical applications (like plating) required DC generators, and, until the invention of a practical AC motor by Nikola Tesla at the end of the 1880s, street railways depended on DC.
- Thomson-Houston merged with Edison's company in 1892 to form General Electric.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1886
- patent date
- 1886-01-05
- associated person
- Thomson, Elihu
- associated company
- Thomson-Houston Electric Company
- maker
- Thomson, Elihu
- ID Number
- EM*252663
- catalog number
- 252663
- patent number
- 333573
- accession number
- 49064
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Reproduction Edison Lamp with Box
- Description (Brief)
- This lamp was mass-produced for the centennial of Edison’s invention.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1979
- ID Number
- 1984.0314.03
- accession number
- 1984.0314
- catalog number
- 1984.0314.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Carbon "Stopper" Lamp with Adapter
- Description (Brief)
- Westinghouse made stopper lamps to avoid infringing Edison's patents. The lamp is based on Sawyer-Man patents.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1894
- Maker
- Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.81
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.81
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Faber Steam Engine, 1827
- Description (Brief)
- The F. & W. M. Faber stationary steam engine was built in Pittsburgh during the 1850’s. Stationary steam engines such as this one could be used to power multiple machines in a shop or factory.
- Description
- The F. & W. M. Faber stationary steam engine is a rare survivor of pre-1860 American steam power. With a horizontal cylinder and separate bases for the flywheel and engine, the Faber displays features from the dawn of steam usage inside American factories.
- Although exceedingly rare today, this engine was offered as an "off-the-shelf" stock engine in 1850s Pittsburgh, where it was built. The engine features exceptional refinement in the degree of ornamentation on the flywheel and the flyball governor, evoking the novelty and wonder of early steam power.
- The physical beauty of the Faber engine masks its relative energy inefficiency compared with engines of the period of more robust construction. In addition, records indicate this pretty engine performed the bulk of its actual service inside tanneries in Ohio and Kentucky, where the smells and wet hides and dank darkness would have belied the visions that inspired this engine's elegant design and fabrication.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- F. and W. M. Faber
- ID Number
- 1980.0227.01
- catalog number
- 1980.0227.01
- accession number
- 1980.0227
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- Several types of renewable energy sources are available as alternatives to non-renewable carbon based energy sources. This button advocates the use of solar energy to generate electricity.
- Date made
- 1978
- maker
- Edward Horn Co.
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0400
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0400
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Niagara Falls Original Turbines
- Description
- Using this extremely fine wood model as part of its technical proposal, the Swiss firm Faesch & Piccard won the contract to design the original turbines for the Niagara Falls power station. The actual turbines were built by the I. P. Morris Company of Philadelphia and were installed in 1895, the year the Adams Station went on line. The hydroelectric power generation facility at Niagara Falls gained international acclaim for its ability to efficiently convert a portion of the Falls' awe-inspiring natural energy into electricity. This was the world's first large-scale central electric power station, demonstrating how falling water (or other power sources) could be used successfully to supply electricity over an extended geographical area.
- For additional information
- date made
- 1895
- ID Number
- 315850
- accession number
- 221414
- catalog number
- 315850
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center