Industry & Manufacturing

The Museum's collections document centuries of remarkable changes in products, manufacturing processes, and the role of industry in American life. In the bargain, they preserve artifacts of great ingenuity, intricacy, and sometimes beauty.

The carding and spinning machinery built by Samuel Slater about 1790 helped establish the New England textile industry. Nylon-manufacturing machinery in the collections helped remake the same industry more than a century later. Machine tools from the 1850s are joined by a machine that produces computer chips. Thousands of patent models document the creativity of American innovators over more than 200 years.

The collections reach far beyond tools and machines. Some 460 episodes of the television series Industry on Parade celebrate American industry in the 1950s. Numerous photographic collections are a reminder of the scale and even the glamour of American industry.

This patent model demonstrates an invention for an improvement on known methods of shading lithographic drawings with molded gelatine sheets, as by the Ben Day method. The invention was granted patent number 432994.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for an improvement on known methods of shading lithographic drawings with molded gelatine sheets, as by the Ben Day method. The invention was granted patent number 432994.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890
patent date
1890-07-29
maker
Fausel, Daniel
ID Number
GA.89797.432994
accession number
089797
patent number
432994
catalog number
GA*87979.432994
This patent model demonstrates an invention for methods of making photomechanical or other prints resemble original photographs.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for methods of making photomechanical or other prints resemble original photographs. The invention was granted patent number 493850.
Tonal photomechanical reproductions had an objectionable coarseness because of the perceptible pattern of the halftone screen. By this invention, screened plates-either bearing an image or blank-were printed several times slightly out of register with each other, softening the effect of the screen. The key impression of the image would be made first in a dark ink with a heavy body, and then the other impressions in paler or lighter-bodied inks. To imitate sepia photographs, later impressions were made in brown tinted inks.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1893
patent date
1893-03-21
patentee
Woodward, Charles B.
ID Number
GA.89797.493850
patent number
493850
accession number
089797
catalog number
GA*89797.493850
This patent model demonstrates an invention for slim quoins consisting of two metal plates with slanting faces that worked on each other; used when there was not enough space in the form for ordinary quoins. The invention was granted patent number 483185.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for slim quoins consisting of two metal plates with slanting faces that worked on each other; used when there was not enough space in the form for ordinary quoins. The invention was granted patent number 483185. Model incomplete.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1892
patent date
1892-09-27
patentee
Tinsley, William J.
ID Number
GA.89797.483185
patent number
483185
accession number
089797
catalog number
GA*89797.483185
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a type mold which was granted patent number 450083.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a type mold which was granted patent number 450083. The patent details a mold for casting type with letters on both ends, or "duplex-lettered type." Such type was used in printing for the blind, though no particular application is specified for this patent.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1891
patent date
1891-04-07
maker
Mitchell, Thomas
Milne, John
ID Number
GA.89797.450083
patent number
450083
accession number
089797
catalog number
GA*89797.450083
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Richard L. Frost, of Battle Creek, Michigan, February 11, 1890, no. 421355. The patent was assigned to the Union Manufacturing Co.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Richard L. Frost, of Battle Creek, Michigan, February 11, 1890, no. 421355. The patent was assigned to the Union Manufacturing Co. of the same place.
The model represents a section through the steam cylinder, piston, and steam valve of a direct-connected steam water pump. The valve is a steam-actuated piston valve so designed that an increase in the exhaust pressure cannot act on the valve as to entirely close the live-steam port and stop the engine.
The valve is a piston slide valve that admits live steam at its ends through a hollow section to the cylinder steam ports close to the middle of the valve. The exhaust is to the center. Formed on the ends of the piston valve are enlarged pistons which closely fit cylinders provided for them. Ports in these cylinders are so connected to the main cylinder ports and the main cylinder that pressure on one end serves practically to balance the valve, while pressure on the other end actuates the valve. The main piston is relatively long and has an annular depression between its two ends. The space thus formed between the piston ends and the cylinder in combination with ports in the cylinder acts to supply steam to the valve cylinder to actuate the valve.
Reference:
This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890
patent date
1890-02-11
inventor
Frost, Richard L.
ID Number
MC.308718
catalog number
308718
accession number
89797
patent number
421,355
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
est. 1899
1914-1915
maker
Macbeth-Evans Glass Company
ID Number
CE.891
catalog number
891
accession number
58571
A sample book of machine-made lace, French, 2nd half 19th century. From: J. Gaillard, Pere et Fils. Saint-Pierre-lez-Calais, France. Blue cloth covered volume, 19.25” L x 12” W x ¾” D; Embossed gold lettering and border on front cover.
Description
A sample book of machine-made lace, French, 2nd half 19th century. From: J. Gaillard, Pere et Fils. Saint-Pierre-lez-Calais, France. Blue cloth covered volume, 19.25” L x 12” W x ¾” D; Embossed gold lettering and border on front cover. Interior of 26 blue paper leaves with pasted in samples of machine-made lace in various styles, sizes, mostly black or white. More than one sample per page; each paper leaf has samples on both sides. Each sample has a small paper tag in the upper right corner with a style number and price per yard. Exquisite examples of Leavers-machine made lace trimmings for apparel and furnishing uses. The U.S. Leavers lace industry grew after the tariff on imported Leavers machines was removed for several months by the Payne-Aldrich Tariff of 1909.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1850-1899
1850-1900
ID Number
2015.0324.01
accession number
2015.0324
catalog number
2015.0324.01
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
est. 1899
1914-1915
maker
Macbeth-Evans Glass Company
ID Number
CE.809
catalog number
809
accession number
58456
This commemorative medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1893. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
This commemorative medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1893. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and commemorative medals.
Obverse: Image of John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence signing on the upper half, an eagle perched on a shield flanked by busts of Columbus and George Washington on the lower half. The legend reads: SIGNING OF DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE/ JULY 4th 1776/ WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION/ 1892 1893/ COLUMBUS/ WASHINGTON/ CHICAGO
Reverse: Image of Columbus discovering America and planting a cross on the upper half of the coin, and an image of the Pilgrims landing on the bottom half. The legend reads: DISCOVERY OF AMERICA/ OCTOBER 1493/ DEC 1620/ LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1893
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1607
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1607
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this Nicaraguan five centavos coin around the 1898. Scovill was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this Nicaraguan five centavos coin around the 1898. Scovill was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, medals, and coins.
Obverse: Image of the Nicaragua coat of arms, consisting of a triangle, a Phrygian cap and five volcanoes. The legend reads: ESTADO DE NICARAGUA.
Reverse: Floral wreath around the rim. Legend reads: 5/CENTAVOS/1898
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1898
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1582
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1582
This medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1891. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
This medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1891. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and medals.
Obverse: Image of an eagle on the shield of the United States, with a cogwheel and sheaf of grain to the left. The legend reads: PATENT OFFICE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Reverse: The legend reads: PATENT CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION/WASHINGTON April 10, 1891.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1891
referenced
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1608
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1608
This unfinished campaign medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1892.The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer that is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
This unfinished campaign medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1892.The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer that is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and campaign medals. This medal is unfinished, as there is no reverse side.
Obverse: Bust of Grover Cleveland facing left. The legend reads: CLEVELAND & STEVENSON 1892.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1892
depicted
Cleveland, Grover
referenced
Stevenson, Adlai
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1192
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1192
This presidential campaign medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1892. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
This presidential campaign medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1892. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including campaign medals.
Obverse: Image of White House with forward facing busts of Benjamin Harrison and Levi Morton above it. Legend: REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEES 1892.
Reverse: Image of Christopher Columbus landing in America, set inside a globe. Legend: LANDING OF COLUMBUS IN AMERICA OCTOBER 12th 1492./PAT’D DEC. 1. 1891.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1892
patent date
PAT'D DEC. 1. 1891
depicted
Harrison, Benjamin
Reid, Whitelaw
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1245
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1245
This political novelty pill container was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1892. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
This political novelty pill container was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1892. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and campaign medals. Made to look like a coin stack, the container is concave and is supposed to have a screw-on back to become a pill container.
Obverse: Bust of Grover Cleveland facing left. The legend reads: MY STACK ON CLEVELAND.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1892
depicted
Cleveland, Grover
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1232
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1232
This commemorative medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut in 1896. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
This commemorative medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut in 1896. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and medals.
Obverse: Image of Princeton’s Nassau Hall. The legend reads: AVLA NASSOVICA MDCCCXCVI
Reverse: The legend reads: DE/ISVB NVMINE/VICET/QVOD ANTEA FVIT/ COLLEGIVM/ NEOCAESARIENSE/ NVNC ANNIS+CL+IMPLETIS/ VNIVERSITAS/ PRINCETONIENSIS/ SAECVLVM SPECTAT/ NOVVM
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1896
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1606
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1606
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this Nicaraguan five centavos coin around the 1898. Scovill was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this Nicaraguan five centavos coin around the 1898. Scovill was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, medals, and coins.
Obverse: Image of the Nicaragua coat of arms, consisting of a triangle, a Phrygian cap, and five volcanoes. The legend reads: ESTADO DE NICARAGUA
Reverse: Floral wreath around the rim. Legend reads: 5/CENTAVOS
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1898
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1601
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1601
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
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1914
est. 1899
ID Number
CE.240
catalog number
240
accession number
57114
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1892
ID Number
CE.P-144ab
catalog number
P-144ab
accession number
225282
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
c. 1870-1904
date made
c. 1898
ID Number
CE.P-984
catalog number
P-984
accession number
225282
Hand-inking lever press, made by William Clark and Joshua Daughaday, Philadelphia, 1876.The Model press was invented and patented in 1874 by William Clark, Philadelphia, who went into business for its production with Joshau Daughaday, a publisher.
Description (Brief)
Hand-inking lever press, made by William Clark and Joshua Daughaday, Philadelphia, 1876.
The Model press was invented and patented in 1874 by William Clark, Philadelphia, who went into business for its production with Joshau Daughaday, a publisher. The press was intended for tradesmen and amateurs (including children), two groups outside the ordinary printing trade. It came in a range of sizes and models, from hand-inking card presses to full-sized job presses, and was produced well into the twentieth century.
Donated by Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Gilder, 1996
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1890
maker
Daughaday, William
Clark, William
Clark, William
ID Number
1996.0034.01
accession number
1996.0034
catalog number
1996.0034.01
The model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Ila N. Moore, of Battle Creek, Michigan, June 23, 1891, no.
Description
The model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Ila N. Moore, of Battle Creek, Michigan, June 23, 1891, no. 454753.
The feature of this pump power is a piston with steam ports in the piston leading to the ends of the cylinder and a valve fitted to slide on the elongated and reduced barrel of the spool-shaped piston controlling the admission of steam through the steam ports. The object is to provide a steam pump requiring no steam chest. Steam is admitted at the center of the cylinder through two short passages connecting directly with the steam pipe. Exhaust is to a chamber on the opposite side of the cylinder. A hollow tail rod, gland, and housing form part of the exhaust passage. The piston valve, which slides on the barrel of the piston, is actuated in part by the pressure of the steam and in part by the motion of the piston. Packing rings on the outside of the valve heads operate across the steam inlet ports in the cylinder wall and the lands between grooves in the bore of the valve operate across the ports in the piston barrel.
Reference:
This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1891
patent date
1891-06-23
inventor
Moore, Ila N.
ID Number
MC.308717
catalog number
308717
accession number
89797
patent number
454,753
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
c. 1890
ID Number
CE.P-987ab
catalog number
P-987ab
accession number
225282
This injector was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Horace B. Murdock, of Detroit, Michigan, November 11, 1890, no.
Description
This injector was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Horace B. Murdock, of Detroit, Michigan, November 11, 1890, no. 440183; assigned to the American Injector Co.
This is a double injector having two force tubes arranged in parallel order and operated with a single actuating shaft. The overflow valves as well as the steam valves of the two sets of tubes are operated by the same shaft so that the steam valve of the first set opens in advance of the steam valve of the second set and the overflow valve of the first set closes in advance of the second set. The stems of all conical plug valves are extended outside of the injector shell and are provided with slotted ends by which they may be turned with a suitable tool to grind upon the valve seats.
Reference:
This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890
patent date
1890-11-11
inventor
Murdock, Horace B.
ID Number
MC.309186
catalog number
309186
accession number
89797
patent number
440,183

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