Industry & Manufacturing - Overview
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.
"Industry & Manufacturing - Overview" showing 1 items.
Gould Shaper, 1860
- Description (Brief)
- This shaper was built by Ezra Gould in his Newark, New Jersey shop, the shop later became Gould and Eberhardt, a major builder of machine tools. This shaper was used to machine flat surfaces in metal. On a shaper the cutting tool moves and the workpiece stays stationary. Conversely, in a planer the workpiece moves and the cutting tool stays stationary. This design difference allows for precise work on small pieces. This shaper could plane 6 inches long and 14 inches wide.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1860
- manufacturer
- Gould, Ezra
- ID Number
- MC*329218
- catalog number
- 329218
- accession number
- 280595
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center