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: 1950s

Holiday Bubble Lite Set

A set of 8 bubble lights in original package, series circuit. Lamps: brass miniature bases with glass insulators, 2-piece plastic "Biscuit-style" skirts (used 1947-1960). One lamp is not original to the set and has a "Royal Biscuit-style" skirt.
Description (Brief)
A set of 8 bubble lights in original package, series circuit. Lamps: brass miniature bases with glass insulators, 2-piece plastic "Biscuit-style" skirts (used 1947-1960). One lamp is not original to the set and has a "Royal Biscuit-style" skirt. The plastic skirt-halves are a mix of colors (red, yellow, blue, orange, and green). Tipped tubular glass envelopes filled with colored liquid (1 green, 2 blue, 2 orange, 1 yellow, 1 amber, 1 red), a clear cylinder is contained inside each tube. Liquid is methylene chloride. Bakelite miniature sockets with brass shells. Green-colored plastic-insulated wires lead to all sockets except the last, this has woven cloth-insulated gold wires with red stripes. Bakelite 2-prong plug with receptacle on back and thru-wire passage. 4 metal clips (for attaching sockets to tree limbs) and one metal spiral clip(?) included in box.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950
maker
NOMA
ID Number
2003.0030.06
accession number
2003.0030
catalog number
2003.0030.06

Mercury Vapor Lamp

Experimental mercury vapor lamp made with a heavy phosphor coating to improve the color of the light.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Experimental mercury vapor lamp made with a heavy phosphor coating to improve the color of the light.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950
maker
Westinghouse Electric Corp.
ID Number
1997.0389.43
accession number
1997.0389
catalog number
1997.0389.43

Experimental silicon solar cell

Scientists and inventors in the 19th century recognized that some materials respond electrically to exposure to light. Alexander Graham Bell, for example, demonstrated in 1880 a “photophone” that could transmit voices using the action of sunlight on selenium.
Description (Brief)
Scientists and inventors in the 19th century recognized that some materials respond electrically to exposure to light. Alexander Graham Bell, for example, demonstrated in 1880 a “photophone” that could transmit voices using the action of sunlight on selenium. In the 1930s, Daryl Chapin studied magnetic recording at Bell Labs but later shifted to research on generating electricity with sunlight. In 1954, building on earlier work done by colleague Russell Ohl on fused silicon, Chapin, Calvin Fuller and Gerald Pearson invented a practical solar cell. In 1969 Chapin donated two of his experimental solar cells to the Smithsonian. He also donated a module used in a test installation in Americus, Georgia, to power a rural telephone relay.
date made
1953-09-10
1953
associated date
1953
associated user
unknown
associated person
Chapin, Daryl M.
maker
Bell Laboratories
ID Number
EM.330096
catalog number
330096
accession number
285748

Sunlamp

S-1 sunlamp with both incandescent and mercury vapor technology in one lamp. Clear envelope was only used for one year.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
S-1 sunlamp with both incandescent and mercury vapor technology in one lamp. Clear envelope was only used for one year.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950
Maker
General Electric
ID Number
1997.0388.77
accession number
1997.0388
catalog number
1997.0388.77

Wave guide with ruby crystal

This is an experimental device made by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Aircraft in late 1959 or early 1960 as part of the series of experiments leading up to the demonstration of the first laser in May 1960.
Description
This is an experimental device made by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Aircraft in late 1959 or early 1960 as part of the series of experiments leading up to the demonstration of the first laser in May 1960. This object features a cube-shaped ruby crystal mounted at one end of a microwave wave-guide. Maiman sought to test the response of the synthetic ruby crystal to microwave stimulation. Other researchers claimed that ruby would be a poor material to use in a laser. Maiman thought otherwise.
After Charles Townes invented the microwave-emitting maser in 1954, researchers began trying to move to the higher energy levels of infrared and visible light. They referred to such devices as "optical masers," and only later did people adopt Gordon Gould's term, "laser." This experimental piece clearly shows the influence of microwave technology. The metal tube is not a stand but rather a hollow guide that channels microwaves to the ruby crystal. The results of this and other experiments led Maiman to ultimately choose a cylinder of ruby rather than a cube for his laser.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1959
associated date
1960
associated user
unknown
associated institution
Hughes Research Laboratories
maker
Maiman, Theodore H.
Hughes Aircraft Company
ID Number
EM.330052
accession number
288813
catalog number
330052

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