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 36 items.
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Multiblade Folding Knife
- Description
- This knife could be described as the Mother of all Swiss Army knives. If you count the miniatures inside the tortoise shell handle covers, it has 100 “blades.” They include pocket knife blades of every style imaginable, a serrated blade, two dagger blades, several different types of shears and scissors, an auger, a corkscrew, two saws, a lancet, button hook, cigar cutter, tuning fork, pens and mechanical pencils, mirror, straight razor, and a functional .22-caliber five-shot pinfire revolver. The one modern convenience it doesn’t seem to have is a bottle opener, but the bottle cap as we know it wasn’t invented until 1892.
- This knife wasn’t really meant to be carried. Knives like this were made exclusively for exhibition to highlight the cutlers’ art. They were so difficult to make they were only attempted by the most notable firms with the most talented artisans. They could be seen at various fairs and industrial expositions during the nineteenth century. This particular knife was made in Solingen, Germany about 1880 for J. S. Holler & Co.’s cutlery store in New York City. It was used it to display the fine craftsmanship available to their customers. At the time, German cutlery firms were attempting to establish themselves in the American market, which was dominated by the firms of Sheffield, England. The workmanship and complexity of this knife make it one of the finest examples of the cutlers’ art in America.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- date made
- ca 1880
- associated dates
- 1867-1906
- owner
- Holler, John S.
- ID Number
- 1986.0101.03
- catalog number
- 1986.0101.03
- accession number
- 1986.0101
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental electrodeless compact fluorescent lamp
- Description
- As energy prices soared in the 1970s, General Electric, like other lamp makers, focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps. One research program conducted by John Anderson at the GE Corporate Research and Development Laboratory in Schenectady, New York, sought to make a small fluorescent lamp that might replace a regular incandescent lamp.
- Most fluorescent lamps, large and small, operate by passing an electric current through a gas between two electrodes. The current energizes the gas that in turn radiates ultraviolet (UV) light. The UV is converted to visible light by a coating of phosphors inside the glass envelope of the lamp. Electrodes are responsible for much of the energy lost in a fluorescent lamp and are usually the part of the lamp that fails. Instead of electrodes, Anderson's design used a donut-shaped, ferrite (an iron oxide compound) to generate an electric field. The field energized the gas.
- He called his design a Solenoidal Electric Field (SEF) lamp. The one seen here is an experimental unit made around 1978. While the lamp worked in the lab, the electronics to control it were expensive and generated heat that needed to be dissipated. As with other electrodeless lamps, radio-frequency interference was a concern. By the early 1980s GE decided to shelve the SEF lamp and market a miniature metal-halide lamp instead. In the late 1990s, however, GE took advantage of the lower cost and higher capability of electronic components and marketed an electrodeless lamp that built on prior work—including the SEF lamp.
- Lamp characteristics: No base. A 1.5" (outside dia.) toroid-shaped ferrite is mounted vertically inside the lamp and held in place by a wire cradle. The conducting wire is insulated with woven nylon and wrapped ten turns around the top of the ferrite. A woven nylon mat is wrapped around the ferrite under the conductor, and another is placed between the conductor and the top-plate of the mount-cradle. A metal lead extends from the bottom of the ferrite into the exhaust-tip where it spirals around a metal cylinder. Tipless, AT-shaped envelope.
- Date made
- ca 1978
- date made
- ca. 1978
- maker
- General Electric Corporate Research & Development Laboratory
- ID Number
- 1998.0050.07
- accession number
- 1998.0050
- catalog number
- 1998.0050.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Experimental integral compact fluorescent lamp
- Description
- As energy prices soared in the 1970s, lamp makers focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps. A great deal of effort by many researchers went into designing small fluorescent lamps that might replace a regular incandescent lamp. These efforts led to modern compact fluorescent lamps that use bent or connected tubes, but many other designs were tried. This experimental "partition lamp" from 1978 shows one such design.
- Soon after the 1939 introduction of linear fluorescent lamps, inventors began receiving patents for smaller lamps. But they found that the small designs suffered from low energy efficiency and a short life-span. Further research revealed that energy efficiency in fluorescent lamps depends in part on the distance the electric current travels between the two electrodes, called the arc path. A long arc path is more efficient than a short arc path. That's why fluorescent tubes in stores and factories are usually 8 feet (almost 3 meters) long.
- Inventors in the 1970s tried many ways of putting a long arc path into a small lamp. In this case there are thin glass walls inside the lamp, dividing it into four chambers. Each chamber is connected in such a way that the electric current travels the length of the lamp four times when moving from one electrode to the other. So the arc path is actually four times longer than the lamp itself, raising the energy efficiency of the lamp. This unit was made by General Electric for experiments on the concept, though other makers were also working on partition lamps.
- While the partition design works, it proved to be expensive to manufacture and most lamp makers decided to use thin tubes that could be easily bent and folded while being made.
- Lamp characteristics: No base. Two stem assemblies each have tungsten electrodes in a CCC-6 configuration with emitter. Welded connectors, 3-piece leads with lower leads made of stranded wire. Bottom-tipped, T-shaped envelope with internal glass partition that separates the internal space into four connected chambers. Partition is made of two pieces of interlocked glass and is not sealed into the envelope. All glass is clear. No phosphors were used since the experimenter wanted to study the arc path.
- Date made
- ca 1978
- date made
- ca. 1978
- maker
- General Electric Corporate Research & Development Laboratory
- ID Number
- 1998.0050.16
- accession number
- 1998.0050
- catalog number
- 1998.0050.16
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Triple Chocolate Liquor Mill
- Description
- There are many stages in the process of making a luscious bar of milk chocolate from dried and roasted cocoa beans. This machine, a chocolate liquor mill used in the Hershey chocolate factory from about 1920 to the late 1970s, was critical in the early stages of the process. Between heated stones, the mill ground the "nibs," or cracked cores of the cocoa beans, melting the cocoa butter contained inside. The resulting liquefied cocoa butter and ground nibs produced a mixture called "chocolate liquor," (a liquor with no alcoholic content). Unsweetened chocolate liquor is very bitter, and, while normally it isn't eaten as is, it can be used in the production of certain food products or sold as baking chocolate. To make "eating chocolate," like that in candy bars, the chocolate liquor requires many more additives, as well as the processes of mixing, refining, and conching.
- Milton Snavely Hershey's (1857-1945) road to becoming the most recognized name in the American chocolate industry was neither smooth nor entirely sweet. After failing at the confectionary business in Philadelphia, Denver, and New York, Hershey moved back to his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and began a business making caramel candies. While the company enjoyed modest success, Hershey was continually experimenting with new products.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1918
- maker
- J. M. Lehmann Machine Works
- ID Number
- 1980.0021.01
- accession number
- 1980.0021
- catalog number
- 1980.0021.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stoneware jug
- Description
- The Remmey family began producing pottery in New York City in 1735, when John Remmey I emigrated from Germany. His grandson, John Remmey III, took over the family business in 1793, continuing to produce some of the finest stoneware made in the United States at the time. The somewhat lopsided incised leaf design on this jug reminds us that each piece was made and decorated by hand.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1791-1831
- maker
- Remmey III, John
- ID Number
- 1977.0803.105
- accession number
- 1977.0803
- catalog number
- 1977.0803.105
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stoneware jar
- Description
- David Morgan worked for New York City potter John Crolius Jr., beginning in 1795. In 1798 he temporarily took over Thomas H. Commeraw’s kiln on Cherry Street near Corlear’s Hook in Manhattan. The mark “CORLEARS HOOK” can be found on many of the well-formed jars, jugs and pitchers attributed to Morgan.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1795-1803
- maker
- Morgan, David
- ID Number
- 1977.0803.108
- accession number
- 1977.0803
- catalog number
- 1977.0803.108
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stoneware jar
- Description
- While this jar is unmarked, it may be one of several in the Museum's collection made by Thomas Commeraw, a free black potter. Thomas Commeraw established his pottery in the Corlears Hook neighborhood of lower Manhattan in 1797, successfully competing with well known stoneware makers from the Crolious and Remmey families.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1797-1819
- maker
- Commeraw, Thomas
- ID Number
- 1977.0803.115
- accession number
- 1977.0803
- catalog number
- 1977.0803.115
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stoneware jug
- Description
- Made by William Lundy in Troy, New York, the unusual decoration on this jug features two American flags and an anchor. An Irish immigrant, Lundy worked at a number of Troy potteries in the 1820s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- about 1826
- maker
- Lundy, William
- Church, Jr., Nathan
- ID Number
- 1977.0803.139
- accession number
- 1977.0803
- catalog number
- 1977.0803.139
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stoneware chamber pot
- Description
- Chamber pots were found in many homes in the United States before the advent of modern indoor plumbing. While some chamber pots were elaborately decorated, this example, made by Paul Cushman of Albany, New York, is strictly utilitarian. The piece is incised only with the name of the potter.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1806-1833
- maker
- Cushman, Paul
- ID Number
- 1977.0803.50
- accession number
- 1977.0803
- catalog number
- 1977.0803.50
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stoneware butter jar
- Description
- This salt-glazed stoneware butter jar is decorated with hand applied cobalt, and is one of the earliest pieces made at the Athens, New York pottery established in 1805 by Nathan Clark and his brother-in-law, Thomas Howe. Howe died in 1813 leaving Clark to run and expand the company. He established subsidiaries in Kingston, Lyons, Rochester and Mt. Morris, New York between 1813 and 1838. The firm prospered until the end of the 1800s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1805-1813
- maker
- Clark, Nathan
- Howe, Thomas
- ID Number
- 1977.0803.53
- accession number
- 1977.0803
- catalog number
- 1977.0803.53
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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