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 8 items.
Whaler's Allen's Gun Harpoon
- Description
- In the later 19th century, guns with explosive charges shooting the harpoons took the place of hand tools for catching and killing whales. They were much safer, for they could be shot at a whale from greater distances than a hand lance could be applied. They also penetrated the whale’s skin deeper and were harder for the animal to dislodge.
- Gun harpoons were also far more efficient, for the steam whalers could approach the prey directly and did not need labor-intensive whaleboats and their highly trained crews any longer.
- Designed to be fired from a shoulder gun, this nonexplosive style of harpoon was invented by Oliver Allen of Norwich, Conn. to fasten to whales prior to killing.
- date made
- mid-1800s
- harpoons replaced hand tools
- late 19th century
- patentee
- Allen, Oliver
- inventor
- Allen, Oliver
- ID Number
- AG*056230
- catalog number
- 056230
- accession number
- 012333
- patent number
- 5949
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Whaler's Harpoon with Toggle Head
- Description
- The first step in catching a whale was throwing at least two sharp harpoons into its back, to ensure that the whaleboat was securely fastened to its prey. Harpoon shafts were made of soft wrought iron, so that they would bend and not break off when twisted, which risked losing the wounded whale.
- A line at the bottom of the harpoon’s wooden handle attached it to the whaleboat. Once in the whale’s flesh, the sharp toggle tip swiveled sideways, making it harder for the tip of the weapon to pull out. Whales normally dove deep after the first prick, to try and escape the sharp jab from the surface of the ocean. This harpoon shaft was twisted by a descending whale.
- date made
- 1882
- maker
- D. & D.
- ID Number
- AG*056237
- catalog number
- 056237
- accession number
- 012284
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Whaler's Hand Lance
- Description
- After harpoons fastened the whale and whaleboat together, a whale was given plenty of time and rope to dive, try to swim away, and otherwise wear itself out. Once the exhausted animal returned to the surface to breathe, the whaleboat approached it, and a hand lance, also known as a killing iron, was used to actually dispatch the animal.
- Hand lances had long shafts, to allow the point to penetrate deep into the whale’s body in search of the thick neck arteries. The tips of the killing irons were leaf or oval shaped and extremely sharp, so that they cut on the way in and on the way out, and were easier to remove and stab repeatedly. Cutting the neck arteries prevented the animal from deep diving and hastened its bleeding to death.
- This nickel-plated example was manufactured and donated by Luther Cole of Fairhaven, Mass.
- Date made
- 1880s
- maker
- Cole, Luther
- ID Number
- AG*056357
- accession number
- 012326
- catalog number
- 056357
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Whaler's Fluke Lance
- Description
- The most dangerous act in the dangerous business of whaling was “spading flukes.” The whaleboat drew up close alongside a desperate, unpredictable whale on the water surface, and a crewman used a boat spade or fluke lance to sever the whale’s tail tendons. This effectively immobilized the prey, for the whale couldn’t swim without its tail.
- According to James Temple Brown, who wrote the 1883 catalog of the Smithsonian’s whaling collection, the fluke lance was exceedingly rare and was regarded as “a monstrosity by all the fraternity”. This rare inscribed example was used aboard the starboard whaleboat of the bark Sea Fox.
- Date made
- ca 1880-1889
- authored whaling reference material
- Brown, James Temple
- maker
- Driggs, James D.
- ID Number
- TR*056358
- catalog number
- 056358
- accession number
- 012298
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Wooden-handled Harpoon
- Description
- In the 18th and early 19th centuries, simple sharp-barbed harpoons on long wooden shafts were used to “dart” or fasten to the whales from whaleboats. Two darts were thrown, in case one broke loose. Then, sometime in the early 19th century, the toggle iron was developed, possibly by African American blacksmith Lewis Temple in New Bedford, MA.
- Once embedded in the whale’s flesh, the sharp point of a toggle iron rotated, or toggled sideways, making it harder to pull out. Normally, at least six sharp darting irons were carried aboard individual whaleboats to ensure that lost or broken ones could be replaced without returning to the mother ship.
- ID Number
- TR*072824
- catalog number
- 072824
- accession number
- 10616
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Harpoon
- Description
- In the 18th and early 19th centuries, simple sharp-barbed harpoons on long wooden shafts were used to “dart” or fasten to the whales from whaleboats. Two darts were thrown, in case one broke loose. Then, sometime in the early 19th century, the toggle iron was developed, possibly by African American blacksmith Lewis Temple in New Bedford, MA.
- Once embedded in the whale’s flesh, the sharp point of a toggle iron rotated, or toggled sideways, making it harder to pull out. Normally, at least six sharp darting irons were carried aboard individual whaleboats to ensure that lost or broken ones could be replaced without returning to the mother ship.
- ID Number
- TR*072824B
- catalog number
- 072824B
- accession number
- 10616
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Shipbuilder's Half Hull Model, Whaleship Jireh Swift
- Description
- Half hull ship models were carved by shipwrights to a shape negotiated with the future owners of the ship. Once finished, the builder lifted the curved shape of the outer hull off the model and scaled it up to the dimensions of the full-sized ship on the floor of the molding loft. Then the ship’s timbers were cut to fit the lines drawn on the floor and lifted into position in the ship’s framework.
- African American shipwright and former slave John Mashow built the whaler Jireh Swift in 1853 at Dartmouth, Mass. near New Bedford. The vessel measured 122 feet in length and 454 tons. Its first voyage was to the northern Pacific and lasted nearly four years. The ship collected 45 barrels of sperm oil, 2,719 barrels of whale oil and 14,900 lbs of whalebone. Swift’s second voyage, to the same grounds, lasted more than four years and netted much more oil and bone for her owners. Nearly three years into her third voyage, on 22 June 1865 she was captured in the Arctic by the Confederate raider Shenandoah and burned, for a loss of more than $40,000.
- Date made
- 1853
- maker
- Mashow, John
- ID Number
- TR*076323
- catalog number
- 076323
- accession number
- 015358
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Whalebone and Bone Umbrella
- Description
- The bony substance from the mouths of whales known as baleen is formed of keratin, like human hair and nails. It hangs in long, parallel sheets from the upper jaws of the blue, right, and minke whales, as well as other lesser-known species. Its hairy fringe filters food from seawater.
- Dried out, baleen’s strength and flexibility made it ideal for buggy whips, corset busks, and umbrella ribs before the advent of plastic. A whale’s bone could actually be worth more than its oil. This man’s large umbrella has a wooden shaft, heavy hinged baleen ribs made in short sections, and an ivory handle. Marked “G. Hobbs, Barre,” it belonged to the donor’s grandfather, who lived in Barre, Massachusetts, until around the end of the Civil War.
- Date made
- ca 1835-1865
- user
- Hobbs, George
- ID Number
- AG*169283.01
- accession number
- 169283
- catalog number
- 169283.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center