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.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1919
unspecified
National Park Service
associated person
Edison, Thomas Alva
ID Number
MI.73.03.02
catalog number
73.03.02
accession number
301353
catalog number
73.03B
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1919
transfer
Thomas Edison National Historical Park
ID Number
MI.73.03.01
catalog number
73.03.01
accession number
301353
catalog number
73.03A
During World War I, machine guns were heavy, crew-served weapons. Their operation required several soldiers. Even so-called light machine guns could not easily be handled by single soldiers.
Description
During World War I, machine guns were heavy, crew-served weapons. Their operation required several soldiers. Even so-called light machine guns could not easily be handled by single soldiers. To meet the need for an individual rapid-fire weapon, several inventors devised submachine guns. Light enough for one-man use, the new weapons were nicknamed "trench brooms" because they swept the trenches clear of enemy troops. The Thompson submachine gun was the handwork of John Taliaferro Thompson (West Point Class of 1882). It saw only limited wartime use, but the "Tommy gun" in the hands of police and gangsters achieved notoriety as "the gun that made the twenties roar."
Location
Currently not on view
inventor
Thompson, John Taliaferro
ID Number
1986.0698.02
accession number
1986.0698
catalog number
1986.0698.02
serial number
11768
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this transportation token in 1919. The Scovill Company 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 transportation token in 1919. 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, medals, coins, and transportation tokens. The center of the token has been punched out, leaving a “U” shape.
Obverse: The legend reads: UNITED RAILWAYS CO. OF ST. LOUIS/1919.
Reverse: The legend reads: GOOD FOR/ONE CITY FARE.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1919
referenced
United Railways Co. of St. Louis
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1452
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1452
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1915
maker
Macbeth-Evans Glass Company
ID Number
CE.888
catalog number
888
accession number
58571
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1915
maker
Macbeth-Evans Glass Company
ID Number
CE.903
catalog number
903
accession number
58571
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1915
maker
Macbeth-Evans Glass Company
ID Number
CE.900
catalog number
900
accession number
58571
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
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1915
maker
Macbeth-Evans Glass Company
ID Number
CE.909
catalog number
909
accession number
58571
This is a patent model for Gideon Sunback’s “seperable fastener” filed on August 27, 1915 and granted patent number 1,219,881 on March 20th, 1917.
Description
This is a patent model for Gideon Sunback’s “seperable fastener” filed on August 27, 1915 and granted patent number 1,219,881 on March 20th, 1917. Sundback’s invention was the second iteration of his “hookless” fastener that he described as the “Hookless Number 2.” The interlocking metal teeth of the separable fastener was first used in boots, and boot maker B. F. Goodrich is credited with first coining the term “zipper.” The zipper wasn’t widely used on clothing until the 1930s, when it replaced buttons as men’s fly closures.
date made
1914
maker
Talon
ID Number
AG.MHI-M-7972.009
catalog number
MHI-M-7972
P # 1219881
accession number
235975
patent number
1219881
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 campaign medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1917. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
This campaign medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1917. 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.
Obverse: Bust of Woodrow Wilson facing left. The legend reads: Woodrow Wilson/27th President/1913-1917/USA.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1917
depicted
Wilson, Woodrow
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1566
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1566
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this transportation token in 1917. The Scovill Company 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 transportation token in 1917. 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, medals, coins, and transportation tokens. The center of this token is punched out to leave the shape of a “K.”
Obverse: The legend reads: KENTUCKY TRACTION & TERMINAL CO./ 1917
Reverse: The legend reads: GOOD FOR 5¢ RIDE/ CITY CAR.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1917
referenced
Kentucky Traction & Terminal Company
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1397
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1397
The Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut produced this transportation token in 1919. The Scovill Company 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 transportation token in 1919. 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, medals, coins, and transportation tokens. There is a yellow and brown discoloration on both sides of the token.
Obverse: The legend reads: UNITED RAILWAYS CO. OF ST. LOUIS/1919.
Reverse: The legend reads: GOOD FOR/ONE CITY FARE.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1919
referenced
United Railways Co. of St. Louis
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1451
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1451
Three Bakelite billiard balls, in their original wooden box, made by the Hyatt-Burroughs Billiard Ball Co. of Newark, N.J. The label on the box states that "Bakelite Billiard balls are of the same resilience as the best ivory balls.
Description
Three Bakelite billiard balls, in their original wooden box, made by the Hyatt-Burroughs Billiard Ball Co. of Newark, N.J. The label on the box states that "Bakelite Billiard balls are of the same resilience as the best ivory balls. 2-3/8 inch balls weigh exactly seven ounces, are of exact diameter, are perfectly and permanently round and balanced, unaffected by climactic conditions, and are practically indestructible."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1907
after 1910
invented hyatt billiard ball
Hyatt, John Wesley
patentee of bakelite
Baekeland, L. H.
maker
Hyatt-Burroughs Billiard Ball Company
ID Number
1981.0976.01
catalog number
1981.0976.01
accession number
1981.0976
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890 - 1930
date on object
1919
maker
Waterbury Button Company
ID Number
MC.314686.1238
accession number
314686
catalog number
314686.1238
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1914
est. 1899
ID Number
CE.240
catalog number
240
accession number
57114
Wristwatches are relative newcomers among timekeepers. Although no one knows precisely when or where they first appeared, it is likely that the modern wristwatch dates from around 1880.
Description
Wristwatches are relative newcomers among timekeepers. Although no one knows precisely when or where they first appeared, it is likely that the modern wristwatch dates from around 1880. About that time, fashionable women in England and Europe began to wear small watches set in leather bands around their wrists, especially for outdoor activities like hunting, horseback riding and, later, bicycling. Men, for the most part, did not wear wristwatches then. They considered them feminine jewelry.
The Swiss pioneered wristwatch manufacturing, with American firms entering the business only in the second decade of the 20th century. This example – made by the Elgin National Watch Company of Elgin, Illinois, in 1917 just before America entered World War I – features a small mechanical movement with seven jewels. Over the dial is a metal grill to protect the crystal while still permitting a quick read of the time. Such grills acquired the nickname "shrapnel guard" during the war, when wristwatches increased in popularity with men.
The practicality of having time at a glance, the feature that attracted active women to the style in the first place, changed military men's minds about wristwatches. As soldiers entered World War I, they experimented with fastening pocket watches to their sleeves or their legs. As the war progressed, the wristwatch became ubiquitous among male soldiers of all branches of the armed forces and female nurses who cared for the wounded. European manufacturers reportedly worked overtime to convert existing women's watches into military timepieces to meet the demand.
This Elgin wristwatch looks much like today's. But when wristwatches first appeared, it wasn't at all clear what they should look like or how people should wear them. The location of the winding stem, or crown, was particularly puzzling. Some early wristwatches placed the crown in line with 3:00 on the dial, others at 9:00. Also unclear was how the watch dial should be oriented on the strap. Should 12:00 and 6:00 line up with the strap or at a right angle to it? By the 1910s, the position of the crown and the orientation on the strap, for the most part, conformed to the style we know today.
In addition to a variety of appearances, the earliest versions of the newfangled timekeeper had a variety of names. Early advertisements called it "wrist strap watch" or just "strap watch" for men and "watch bracelet," "bracelet watch," "wristlet watch" or simply "wristlet" for women. After World War I, watch manufacturers tried to negate the wristwatch's feminine image by advertising that reassured men of the wristwatch's sturdy masculinity. But even as late as 1943, wristwatches were still called "bracelet watches" or "wristlets," recalling feminine jewelry.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1917
manufacturer
Elgin National Watch Co.
ID Number
ME.333963
catalog number
333963
accession number
304914
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1915
maker
Macbeth-Evans Glass Company
ID Number
CE.915
catalog number
915
accession number
58571
Chicago physician Dr. Frank Blackmarr, a passenger aboard Titanic's rescue ship RMS Carpathia, helped the survivors suffering from hypothermia, exposure, and shock. He collected a Titanic life vest during the voyage as a souvenir.
Description
Chicago physician Dr. Frank Blackmarr, a passenger aboard Titanic's rescue ship RMS Carpathia, helped the survivors suffering from hypothermia, exposure, and shock. He collected a Titanic life vest during the voyage as a souvenir. Five days into its maiden voyage in 1912, the White Star ocean liner Titanic struck an iceberg at full speed in the North Atlantic, en route from England to the United States. For the next few hours, the giant ship took on water and began to nose down into the sea. At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, the gigantic ship sank in 12,500 feet of water 350 miles off the coast of Canada. Within about two hours, Carpathia arrived and rescued the Titanic's 705 surviving crew and passengers. Around 1,500 people aboard were lost.
date made
1912
ID Number
1982.0319.01
catalog number
82.0319.01
accession number
1982.0319
The National Cash Register Company produced this Model 421 cash register around 1914. The register was used in a Marshall Field & Company department store. The register has three columns of keys for entering numbers, and a fourth column of function keys.
Description
The National Cash Register Company produced this Model 421 cash register around 1914. The register was used in a Marshall Field & Company department store. The register has three columns of keys for entering numbers, and a fourth column of function keys. The operating crank is on the right side, the cash drawer is below, and a receipt dispenser on the left side. Pop-up indicators above the keys indicate the total purchase. The register has serial number 1383236.The National Cash Register Company produced this Model 421 cash register around 1914. The register was used in a Marshall Field & Company department store. The register has three columns of keys for entering numbers, and a fourth column of function keys. The operating crank is on the right side, the cash drawer is below, and a receipt dispenser on the left side. Pop-up indicators above the keys indicate the total purchase. The register has serial number 1383236.
date made
1914
ID Number
2014.0062.13
accession number
2014.0062
catalog number
2014.0062.13
serial number
1383236
model number
421
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1917
maker
Associated Press
ID Number
2013.0327.0916
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0916
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1915
maker
Macbeth-Evans Glass Company
ID Number
CE.817
catalog number
817
accession number
58456
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
est. 1899
1914
ID Number
CE.231
catalog number
231
accession number
57114

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