Industry & Manufacturing

Eli Terry Mass-Produced Clock

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.

Place: Rochester

Woodbury’s Patent Model of an Automatic Cut-Off for a Steam Engine – ca 1870

This model was filed with the application to the U.S. Patent Office for Patent Number 107,746 issued to Daniel A. Woodbury of Rochester, New York, on September 27, 1870.
Description
This model was filed with the application to the U.S. Patent Office for Patent Number 107,746 issued to Daniel A. Woodbury of Rochester, New York, on September 27, 1870. The patent was for an improved design for a governor which could control the cut-off valve for a steam engine. His design, instead of being based on fly balls and mounted on the steam valves, included a system of springs and weights placed directly on the engine's shaft. While more complicated and needing to be specifically designed for a particular engine, it had the advantage of accuracy and economy of operation. Mr. Woodbury's design became one of the first industrially successful shaft governors, and such governors became increasingly popular after this invention.
The patent model is constructed of metal and mounted on a wood base. All of the key elements of the patent are illustrated by the model. A full description of the workings of the governor and diagrams showing the complete design of the patent can be found in the patent document online at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, www.uspto.gov.
date made
1870
ca 1870
patent date
1870-09-27
inventor
Woodbury, Daniel A.
ID Number
MC.251290
catalog number
251290
accession number
48865
patent number
107,746

Judson and Cogswell Governor, Patent Model

This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Junius Judson and William A. Cogswell, of Rochester, New York, November 9, 1875, no.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Junius Judson and William A. Cogswell, of Rochester, New York, November 9, 1875, no. 169815.
The model represents a flyball governor in which the driving pulley is fitted loosely to the driving shaft and connected to it by a spiral spring, which allows a free turning of the pulley on the shaft to an extent sufficient to counteract the jerks or impulses, which are transmitted to the governor by the uneven operation of the engine.
The inventor states that the ordinary crank motion of a steam engine results in an unequal operation that is not always equalized by the flywheel of the engine. This irregularity, though not always perceptible, is transmitted to the governor, which, when operated unevenly, would exaggerate the variations. This device is designed to prevent the jerks being transmitted to the governor.
Reference:
This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1875
patent date
1875-11-09
inventor
Judson, Junius
Cogswell, William A.
ID Number
MC.309244
catalog number
309244
accession number
89797
patent number
169,815

Stoneware Crock

This stoneware butter crock was made by John Burger, who operated a pottery in Rochester, New York, between 1839 and 1870. It is one gallon in capacity with a maker’s mark just below the rim.
Description
This stoneware butter crock was made by John Burger, who operated a pottery in Rochester, New York, between 1839 and 1870. It is one gallon in capacity with a maker’s mark just below the rim. Its floral design is rendered in cobalt blue, and the interior is brown glazed.
John Burger came from Alsace-Lorraine in France, and first worked at a pottery in Lyons on the Erie Canal. In 1839 he moved to Rochester and joined Nathan Clark and Company as manager of the pottery. In 1855 Burger became the owner of the pottery and continued in the business of making stoneware for domestic uses—preserve jars, churns, pitchers and batter pitchers, cream pots, jugs, molasses jugs, water fountains, beer bottles, stove tubes, and the butter pot seen here. He was joined in the business by his sons in the 1860s. Decorative floral motifs of this kind were common by the 1850s.
Early in the 19th century, the potters themselves executed the designs, but later they employed women to paint the pottery’s motifs onto the vessels. Women’s skills in writing and in decorative techniques expressed in the home prepared them to execute designs with fluency and without any formal art education.
date made
1854-1867
maker
Burger, John
ID Number
CE.319884.161
catalog number
319884.161
accession number
319884

Selden Automobile Patent Model, 1879

George Selden's dubious claim that he invented the automobile cast a shadow on the early auto manufacturing industry. His claim rested on a patent application for a "road-engine" that he had filed in 1879.
Description
George Selden's dubious claim that he invented the automobile cast a shadow on the early auto manufacturing industry. His claim rested on a patent application for a "road-engine" that he had filed in 1879. A lawyer schooled in science, Selden was intrigued by the challenge of devising an engine light enough to propel a road vehicle. He designed a small, improved version of George Brayton's compression engine of 1872 and filed a patent application for "a liquid-hydrocarbon engine of the compression type" combined with broadly defined chassis components. Selden deliberately delayed issuance of the patent until 1895, when automobiles were attracting more attention. Soon a patent-pooling association of auto manufacturing companies demanded and received royalties from other manufacturers for the right to produce Selden's "invention." Henry Ford, then just entering the automobile industry, became locked in a highly-publicized legal battle with the Selden interests when his application for a license was turned down in 1903. Ford blasted monopolistic control and exploitation by the "automobile trust" and forever fixed his image as an independent businessman fighting a corporate Goliath for the good of all. Ford's victory in court raised his standing in the automotive industry and made him one of the best known businessmen in America. In 1911 the Selden patent was limited to vehicles with Brayton-type engines as modified by Selden, and his influence quickly faded.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1879
patent date
1895-11-05
inventor
Selden, George B.
ID Number
TR.252678
catalog number
252678
accession number
49064
patent number
549,160

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