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 2 items.
Lowe Press No. 2, patented 1856
- Description
- Samuel W. Lowe of Philadelphia invented the Lowe printing press, an unusual conical cylinder press patented in 1856. Like Adams's Cottage printing press, it did not include a frisket and included an automatic tympan. The rights for the press were sold in 1858 to Joseph Watson, who marketed both presses in Boston and Philadelphia.
- The Lowe printing press does not appear to have been as heavily advertised as the Adams, although the company notes that we have sold many presses … to druggists … in this country and in other lands. Every boy and business man seems to be having one.
- As for portability, the Lowe was more than a third lighter than the Adams, ranging from between 12 and 120 pounds as compared to Adams's press at between 100 and 400 pounds. The Lowe used a simpler frame and relatively thin castings.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1860
- patent date
- 1856
- maker
- Lowe, Samuel W.
- ID Number
- 1988.0650.03
- accession number
- 1988.0650
- catalog number
- 1988.0650.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Advertising brochure for the Lowe Press from the Lowe Printing Company, Boston, about 1860
- Description
- Five sizes of the Lowe printing press with kits were sold, with printing beds of between five by six inches and thirteen by seventeen inches. These dimensions reflect the range of sizes for completed printed documents.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1860
- maker
- Lowe, Samuel W.
- manufacturer
- Watson, Joseph
- ID Number
- 2007.0162.013
- accession number
- 2007.0162
- catalog number
- 2007.0162.013
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center