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.

Carbon Resistance Lamp

This lamp was not intended for illumination but rather for providing resistance in an electrical circuit.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
This lamp was not intended for illumination but rather for providing resistance in an electrical circuit.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1888
Maker
Western Union Corporation
ID Number
EM.333033
accession number
294351
catalog number
333033

Experimental Fluorescent Lamp

Experimental fluorescent lamp with internal structure. A spiral glass rod allows higher current levels to be used.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Experimental fluorescent lamp with internal structure. A spiral glass rod allows higher current levels to be used.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1958
maker
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
ID Number
2001.0084.14
accession number
2001.0084
catalog number
2001.0084.14

Tungsten Filament Lamp

First generation tungsten lamp with mushroom-shaped envelope. Possibly designed for use with a reflector.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
First generation tungsten lamp with mushroom-shaped envelope. Possibly designed for use with a reflector.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1908
ID Number
1997.0388.56
catalog number
1997.0388.56
accession number
1997.0388

Solar Oven

Charles Greeley Abbot (1872–1973), the second director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the fifth secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, spent his scientific career measuring the intensity of solar radiation and seeking to correlate solar changes with weather c
Description
Charles Greeley Abbot (1872–1973), the second director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the fifth secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, spent his scientific career measuring the intensity of solar radiation and seeking to correlate solar changes with weather conditions on the earth. He was also interested in the practical use of solar radiation. This cooker, which he built in 1940, uses a cylindrical aluminum mirror that is mounted parallel to the earth's axis to collect solar energy and focus it on a pyrex tube that is filled with a chlorinated benzene ("arochlor"); the energy is then transmitted to a square oven in which cakes and cookies could be baked. Abbot obtained a patent (#2,247,830) on this cooker in 1941.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1940
user
Abbot, Charles Greeley
maker
Abbot, Charles Greeley
ID Number
PH.334632
catalog number
334632
patent number
2,247,830
accession number
312088

Sample of Plutonium-239

The discovery of nuclear fission in uranium, announced in 1939, allowed physicists to advance with confidence in the project of creating "trans-uranic" elements - artificial ones that would lie in the periodic table beyond uranium, the last and heaviest nucleus known in nature.
Description
The discovery of nuclear fission in uranium, announced in 1939, allowed physicists to advance with confidence in the project of creating "trans-uranic" elements - artificial ones that would lie in the periodic table beyond uranium, the last and heaviest nucleus known in nature. The technique was simply to bombard uranium with neutrons. Some of the uranium nuclei would undergo fission, newly understood phenomenon, and split violently into two pieces. In other cases, however, a uranium-238 nucleus (atomic number 92) would quietly absorb a neutron, becoming a nucleus of uranium-239, which in turn would soon give off a beta-particle and become what is now called neptunium-239 (atomic number 93). After another beta decay it would become Element 94 (now plutonium-239)
By the end of 1940, theoretical physicists had predicted that this last substance, like uranium, would undergo fission, and therefore might be used to make a nuclear reactor or bomb. Enrico Fermi asked Emilio Segre to use the powerful new 60-inch cyclotron at the University of California at Berkeley to bombard uranium with slow neutrons and create enough plutonium-239 to test it for fission. Segre teamed up with Glenn T. Seaborg, Joseph W. Kennedy, and Arthur C. Wahl in January 1941 and set to work.
They carried out the initial bombardment on March 3-6, then, using careful chemical techniques, isolated the tiny amount (half a microgram) of plutonium generated. They put it on a platinum disc, called "Sample A," and on March 28 bombarded it with slow neutrons to test for fission. As expected, it proved to be fissionable - even more than U-235. To allow for more accurate measurements, they purified Sample A and deposited it on another platinum disc, forming the "Sample B" here preserved. Measurements taken with it were reported in a paper submitted to the Physical Review on May 29, 1941, but kept secret until 1946. (The card in the lid of the box bears notes from a couple of months later.)
After the summer of 1941, this particular sample was put away and almost forgotten, but the research that began with it took off in a big way. Crash programs for the production and purification of plutonium began at Berkeley and Chicago, reactors to make plutonium were built at Hanford, Washington, and by 1945 the Manhattan Project had designed and built a plutonium atomic bomb. The first one was tested on July 16, 1945 in the world's first nuclear explosion, and the next was used in earnest over Nagasaki. (The Hiroshima bomb used U-235.)
Why is our plutonium sample in a cigar box? G.N. Lewis, a Berkeley chemist, was a great cigar smoker, and Seaborg, his assistant, made it a habit to grab his boxes as they became empty, to use for storing things. In this case, it was no doubt important to keep the plutonium undisturbed and uncontaminated, on the one hand, but also, on the other hand, to make it possible for its weak radiations to pass directly into instruments - not through the wall of some closed container. Such considerations, combined probably with an awareness of the historic importance of the sample, brought about the storage arrangement we see.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1941-05-21
Associated Date
1941-05-29
referenced
Segre, Emilio
Seaborg, Glenn T.
Kennedy, Joseph W.
Wahl, Arthur C.
Lewis, G. N.
University of California, Berkeley
maker
Segre, Emilio
Seaborg, Glenn
ID Number
EM.N-09384
catalog number
N-09384
accession number
272669

Non-ductile Tungsten Lamp

First generation "Mazda" tungsten lamp. GE used the"Mazda" name to differentiate this from older carbon lamps.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
First generation "Mazda" tungsten lamp. GE used the"Mazda" name to differentiate this from older carbon lamps.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1909
Maker
General Electric
ID Number
1997.0388.74
catalog number
1997.0388.74
accession number
1997.0388

Steamship John Heckmann’s Steam Whistle

Ships’ steam whistles were powered by steam lines from the boilers. They were used to signal other ships or the shore, to announce a vessel’s presence or its intentions.
Description
Ships’ steam whistles were powered by steam lines from the boilers. They were used to signal other ships or the shore, to announce a vessel’s presence or its intentions. Whistles were especially useful when approaching or leaving a port or landing, or in foggy or dark waters.
This whistle originally belonged to the 1895 Army Corps of Engineers towboat Gen. H. L. Abbot, built at Jeffersonville, Ind. and named after a famous general in the U. S. Army Corps. In 1906 it was renamed Gen. J. H. Simpson, after another Army Corps staff. The vessel was dismantled in 1919.
The cabin fittings, the ship’s wheel, and the whistle were purchased by Edward Heckmann for his new Missouri River packet boat, the John Heckmann. The Heckmann was 165’ long and 30’-6” in beam but only drew 4’-6” of water. Uniquely, the Heckmann had two independently operated or “split” sternwheels, which provided much greater maneuverability than a single, wide sternwheel could offer. Its boilers came from the hulk of the steamer Majestic, which had wrecked in 1914 at Chain of Rocks, St. Louis. The Heckmann’s engines were acquired from the obsolete Army Corps sternwheel towboats Aux Vasse and Isle de Bois. Employed in the packet trade between St Louis and Jefferson City, the Heckmann lost money because of competition from the railroads.
The John Heckmann was later converted to a Missouri River 1,200-passenger excursion boat by the Heckmann family. Operating on the Missouri as far north as Sioux City, Iowa, its normal summer route was between Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska. In winter, it resumed packet service on the Cumberland, Tennessee, Illinois, and Ohio Rivers. Wrecked in an ice breakup at its homeport of Hermann, Mo. in 1928, it was dismantled.
date made
1895
purchased whistle
Heckmann, Edward
ID Number
1979.0542.01
accession number
1979.0542
catalog number
1979.0542.01

Capacitor Cap

Aluminum caps for high-temperature capacitor for Halarc metal halide and filament lamp.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Aluminum caps for high-temperature capacitor for Halarc metal halide and filament lamp.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1980
maker
General Electric Company
ID Number
1996.0147.35
accession number
1996.0147
catalog number
1996.0147.35

Mercury Vapor Lamp

The second version of the type H-1 mercury vapor lamp utilized a starting electrode inside the arc tube.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
The second version of the type H-1 mercury vapor lamp utilized a starting electrode inside the arc tube.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1935
maker
General Electric Company
ID Number
1997.0387.01
accession number
1997.0387
catalog number
1997.0387.01

Self-ballasted Mercury Vapor Lamp

This lamp was designed as a retrofit for mogul based, 500 W incandescent fixtures. Discharge lamps such as mercury vapor lamps require a ballast to prevent self-destruction.
Description (Brief)
This lamp was designed as a retrofit for mogul based, 500 W incandescent fixtures. Discharge lamps such as mercury vapor lamps require a ballast to prevent self-destruction. The goal with this product was to improve energy efficiency in the luminaire without requiring installation of a separate ballast. Also, the light emitted by the incandescent filament in this lamp would provide a minimal amount of color correction for the blue-green mercury discharge. Characteristics: brass mogul-screw base with glass insulator. Side-tipped, quartz arc-tube with two main electrodes (tungsten coil-on-coil on mandrels), a coiled tungsten starter electrode (a single-arch filament adjacent to the lower main electrode), multi-piece leads (stranded wire to solid wire to flat plate to ribbon to molybdenum wafer to electrode), flat presses. Mercury condensed on lower electrode. A C-9 tungsten filament (with 5 two-piece supports mounted to a glass bead affixed to one support frame-member) acts as a ballast resistance and is in series with the arc-tube. Crimp connectors on leads, spot-welds on mount-structure. A thermostatic (bi-metal) switch is in series with the starting electrode. Glass-tube insulators on filament legs, and ceramic insulator on switch. Getter dispenser mounted near stem-press. Tipless, PS-style envelope. See Duro-Test form 992 (“High Intensity Discharge Lamps”), page 3; and form 971-8210GTO15M (“Fluomeric Lamps”). Given to donor by an engineer who rescued the lamp from a south Baltimore warehouse which was being demolished around 1981. Fluomeric is a registered trade-mark of Duro-Test (as per 1955). Richard Neubert of Duro-Test reported that Jewell was a subsidiary of Duro-Test until 1981, and marketed the lamp under the trade name "Super Lumen" until around 1975. The trade-names were then consolidated and Jewell sold “Fluomeric” until 1981.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1978
maker
Jewell Products Inc.
ID Number
2003.0030.03
accession number
2003.0030
catalog number
2003.0030.03

Integral Compact Fluorescent Lamp

Production model PLG41E2 compact fluorescent lamp to replace a 60 watt incandescent lamp.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Production model PLG41E2 compact fluorescent lamp to replace a 60 watt incandescent lamp.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1992
maker
General Electric Lighting Company
ID Number
1996.0357.04
accession number
1996.0357
catalog number
1996.0357.04

Electric Power Transmission Cable with Jacket

The cables needed to transmit electrical power may seem simple but are actually complex technological artifacts. Modern cables inherit the lessons learned during more than a century of research and experience.
Description (Brief)
The cables needed to transmit electrical power may seem simple but are actually complex technological artifacts. Modern cables inherit the lessons learned during more than a century of research and experience. This power cable was described by GE engineer William Clark in 1898 as follows: “1,000,000 [circular mil] cable composed of 59 wires, each .1305" in diameter, containing two insulated pressure wires each 2500 C.M. area, the whole insulated with saturated paper 5/32" thick and finished with lead 1/8" thick. This is a feeder cable for circuits not exceeding 2000 volts working pressure on Edison three wire circuits. An outside jacket of tarred jute and asphalt [prevents] corrosion."
date made
1897
maker
General Electric Company
ID Number
EM.181708
catalog number
181708
accession number
33184
maker number
1

Integral compact fluorescent lamp

Introducing a new product involves more than just crafting an advertising campaign aimed at consumers. A company must also convince potential distributors (both wholesale and retail) to stock the product.
Description
Introducing a new product involves more than just crafting an advertising campaign aimed at consumers. A company must also convince potential distributors (both wholesale and retail) to stock the product. That task is made easier if one can visually show the differences between the old product and the new.
This lamp is a Philips "SL Electronic" demonstration piece made about 1985. Philips' original "SL" compact fluorescent lamp came equipped with a magnetic, coil-core ballast when introduced in 1981. The newer version replaced that magnetic ballast with an electronic ballast, raising energy efficiency in the lamp. This demonstration lamp has a clear base-skirt allowing whoever demonstrates the lamp to show the electronic circuitry.
All fluorescent lamps require a ballast due to a quirk engineers call negative-resistance characteristic. The electrical resistance inside a fluorescent lamp is very high when the lamp is off—that's why fluorescent lamps need starters. But once the current is flowing through the lamp the resistance drops, causing the lamp to draw more current, which drops the resistance further, causing still more current to be drawn. Without a control device in the circuit, this cycle would quickly destroy the lamp. A ballast, whether magnetic or elecronic, regulates the amount of current flowing through the lamp and prevents the cycle from occurring.
Lamp characteristics: Brass, medium-screw base with clear plastic skirt that houses an electronic ballast and a starter. Fluorescent tube includes two electrodes, mercury, and a phosphor coating. A corrugated plastic cover protects the tube. Eight slots in the cover allow excess heat to escape. Rating: 18 watts.
Date made
ca 1985
date made
ca. 1985
maker
Philips Lighting Company
ID Number
1997.0389.28
catalog number
1997.0389.28
accession number
1997.0389

Converse Provo Glass Insulator

Aqua - Large base chips - St. Paul Gas Light Company - 12/28/1900 - Converse - Used on St. Croix Power Company's high tension line, November, 1900, (Wisconsin). See Transactions of American Institute of Electrical Engineers, November 23, 1900. "Provo" type. 25000 volts.
Description (Brief)
Aqua - Large base chips - St. Paul Gas Light Company - 12/28/1900 - Converse - Used on St. Croix Power Company's high tension line, November, 1900, (Wisconsin). See Transactions of American Institute of Electrical Engineers, November 23, 1900. "Provo" type. 25000 volts. Same as used in Utah to carry 40,000 v.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1895
ca 1900
maker
Hemingray Glass Company
ID Number
EM.209183
catalog number
209183
accession number
37405

Harlan & Hollingsworth Steam Engine, 1851

This stationary walking-beam steam engine generated forty horsepower to operate woodworking machines at the Southern Railway's shops in Charleston, South Carolina.
Description
This stationary walking-beam steam engine generated forty horsepower to operate woodworking machines at the Southern Railway's shops in Charleston, South Carolina. The engine ran for 75 years, from 1852 to 1927.
The engine's vertical cylinder and graceful walking beam recall the pioneering steam engines of British engineer Thomas Newcomen, who found commercial application for the expansive powers of steam, not to power other machines but to pump water out of mines.
Date made
1851
maker
Harlan & Hollingsworth Company
ID Number
MC.314791
catalog number
314791
accession number
209703

Microwave-powered ultraviolet lamp

When most people think of electric lighting, they think of ordinary lamps used for lighting rooms or shops. But many types of lamps are made for use in highly specialized applications. One example is a successful product made by Fusion Systems.
Description
When most people think of electric lighting, they think of ordinary lamps used for lighting rooms or shops. But many types of lamps are made for use in highly specialized applications. One example is a successful product made by Fusion Systems. Founded by four scientists and an engineer, the company markets an ultraviolet (UV) lighting system powered by microwaves. Introduced in 1976, the system found a market in industrial processing as a fast, efficient way to cure inks. A major brewery, for example, purchased the system for applying labels to beer cans and quickly curing their inks while the bottles went down the production line. U.S. patents issued for this lighting system include 3872349, 4042850 and 4208587.
The lamp seen here, referred to as a "TEM lamp" is a typical production unit. As in a fluorescent lamp, this lamp makes ultraviolet light by energizing mercury vapor. Fluorescents and other conventional lamps pass an electric current between two electrodes to energize the mercury. But Fusion's lamp has no electrodes. Instead the lamp is placed in a specially made fixture similar in principle to a household microwave oven. The microwaves energize the mercury vapor directly. A small dose of metal halides is also energized in the lamp. The choice of metal halides allows specific wavelengths of light to be produced to meet different needs.
Profits made from the production of this industrial lamp were used by the company to support research and development of a microwave-powered lamp that made visible light. Instead of mercury that lamp used sulfur. However this sulfur lamp did not sell well when introduced in the mid-1990s.
Lamp characteristics: Clear quartz tube containing a metal-halide pellet and a drop of mercury. No electrodes. The air-cooled tube is radiated by microwaves and produces ultraviolet light.
date made
ca. 1996
Date made
ca 1996
maker
Fusion Lighting, Inc.
ID Number
1996.0359.03
catalog number
1996.0359.03
accession number
1996.0359

Carbon Filament Lamp

Weston carbon lamp with United States Company base and sinusoidal carbon filament.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Weston carbon lamp with United States Company base and sinusoidal carbon filament.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1885
Maker
Weston
maker
Weston Electric Light Co.
ID Number
1997.0388.60
catalog number
1997.0388.60
accession number
1997.0388

Standard Carbon Lamp

Typical carbon filament lamp tested at the National Bureau of Standards.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Typical carbon filament lamp tested at the National Bureau of Standards.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1905
ID Number
1992.0342.04
catalog number
1992.0342.04
accession number
1992.0342

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

Green “Mazda F” fluorescent lamp with disc-bases and clear ends. Conductive strip runs length of lamp.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Green “Mazda F” fluorescent lamp with disc-bases and clear ends. Conductive strip runs length of lamp.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1936
Maker
General Electric
ID Number
1997.0388.42
accession number
1997.0388
catalog number
1997.0388.42

Electroluminescent switch plate

Electroluminescent switch plate, rated at .2 watts. Serves as both a night-light and to help locate the switch.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Electroluminescent switch plate, rated at .2 watts. Serves as both a night-light and to help locate the switch.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1958
maker
Sylvania Electric Products Inc.
ID Number
1998.0005.03
catalog number
1998.0005.03
accession number
1998.0005

Model of Adams Station hydroelectric turbine

associated institution
Faesch & Piccard
ID Number
EM.315850
catalog number
315850
accession number
221414

Integral Compact Fluorescent Lamp

"EarthLight Universal" compact fluorescent lamp in original package. Rated at 60 watts.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
"EarthLight Universal" compact fluorescent lamp in original package. Rated at 60 watts.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1996
maker
Philips Lighting Company
ID Number
1997.0389.31
catalog number
1997.0389.31
accession number
1997.0389

Standard Tungsten Lamp

First generation tungsten lamp tested at the National Bureau of Standards. Filament is sintered tungsten.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
First generation tungsten lamp tested at the National Bureau of Standards. Filament is sintered tungsten.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1911
ID Number
1992.0342.14
accession number
1992.0342
catalog number
1992.0342.14

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