Industry & Manufacturing

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.

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.
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
The Remmey and Crolius families dominated the New York stoneware industry from the early 1700s through the early 1800s. Both families emigrated from Germany, bringing with them the stoneware traditions of their homeland.
Description
The Remmey and Crolius families dominated the New York stoneware industry from the early 1700s through the early 1800s. Both families emigrated from Germany, bringing with them the stoneware traditions of their homeland. Sometimes business associates, the two families also inter-married. Remmey family members went on to establish stoneware factories in Philadelphia and Baltimore, as well.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1795-1830
maker
Remmey III, John
ID Number
1980.0614.363
accession number
1980.0614
catalog number
1980.0614.363
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Model with the application for the patent issued to Philander Rexford, of Syracuse, New York, August 14, 1883, no.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Model with the application for the patent issued to Philander Rexford, of Syracuse, New York, August 14, 1883, no. 283144.
The model represents a furnace grate made up of long grate bars, which are pivoted midway of their depth and have projecting from the upper part of one side of each bar a series of teeth or ribs. When in their normal positions the bars stand obliquely and the smooth solid back of one bar and the ribbed face of the next form the two sides of a trough across the grate. The solid portion is designed to support very fine coal, while the ribbed portion permits the passage of air for combustion.
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
1883
patent date
1883-08-14
inventor
Rexford, Philander
ID Number
MC.309218
catalog number
309218
accession number
89797
patent number
283,144
Date made
1885
ID Number
EM.314917
catalog number
314917
accession number
212336
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Silas C. Salisbury, June 24, 1879, no. 216898.The model represents a burner in which two concentric annular chambers are framed around a central hollow tube.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Silas C. Salisbury, June 24, 1879, no. 216898.
The model represents a burner in which two concentric annular chambers are framed around a central hollow tube. The chambers are connected to pipes so that the fuel is fed to the outer chamber, steam to the inner one, while air for combustion is supplied through the central tube. The shells forming the annular chambers, and the positions of the parts to be varied for the purpose of controlling the combustion. The inventor described a burner with the forward ends of the shells and tube flared outward as well as one with the ends curved inward, wither of which would be used depending upon the shape of the flame desired.
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
1879
patent date
1879-06-24
inventor
Salisbury, Silas C.
ID Number
MC.308764
catalog number
308764
accession number
89797
patent number
216,898
Stoneware maker Nathan Clark partnered with Ethan S. Fox, a relative by marriage, in 1829.
Description
Stoneware maker Nathan Clark partnered with Ethan S. Fox, a relative by marriage, in 1829. In response to increasing competition they began selling more elaborately decorated “Fancy Ware made to order.” The names on this inkwell, LYON & ASHLEY, may refer to the people or firm that placed the order.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1829-1838
maker
Clark, Nathan
Fox, Ethan
ID Number
CE.300894.029
accession number
300894
catalog number
300894.029
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Horatio Allen, of New York, New York, August 29, 1848, no.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Horatio Allen, of New York, New York, August 29, 1848, no. 5745.
This is an adjustable drop cut-off valve gear in which a poppet valve is raised by a lift rod but is permitted to return to its seat sooner or more rapidly than the lift rod returns.
The model represents a poppet steam valve raised from its seat by an arm fixed at right angles to a lift rod, which works vertically and parallel to the valve stem. Upon the face of the arm is a moveable block a part of the upper surface of which is parallel to the face of the arm and a part of which is a steep curve. All the movement of the valve is transmitted to it through a roller on its stem, which rolls on the surface of this block. The block is so linked with a vibratory rod, which receives its motion from the cross head of the engine, that the block will move along the face of the lift rod arm and bring different points of its surface under the roller of the valve stem. By proper adjustment the roller will rest upon the flat part of the block and move with the lift rod as it is rising and the valve is opening, then the block moves so that the roller comes to the edge of the inclined portion and rolls down the incline permitting the valve to drop more quickly than the lift rod. The movement of the block on the arm and consequently the point of cut-off are fully adjustable.
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
1848
patent date
1848-08-29
ID Number
MC.308643
catalog number
308643
accession number
89797
patent number
5,745
This sheet music is for the composition “The Sparkling Polka,” by Thomas Baker. It was published by Horace Waters in New York, New York in 1855.
Description
This sheet music is for the composition “The Sparkling Polka,” by Thomas Baker. It was published by Horace Waters in New York, New York in 1855. The cover features a “view of the interior of the Publisher’s Great Piano and Music Establishment.” Horace Waters (1812-1893) was a hymn book and sheet music publisher and keyboard manufacturer and dealer. Waters began his "Piano and Music Establishment" in 1845 selling organs, pianos, sheet music and melodeons. His sons, Leeds Water and Horace Waters, Jr. took over the company in 1864.
Location
Currently not on view
publishing date
1855
publisher
Horace Waters
ID Number
1983.0694.13
accession number
1983.0694
catalog number
1983.0694.13
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Horatio Allen, of New York, New York, April 30, 1842, no.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Horatio Allen, of New York, New York, April 30, 1842, no. 2597.
This model represents a valve gear in which separate steam chests are employed for the head-end and crank-end main steam valves. The supply of steam to each of these steam chests is controlled by additional cut-off valves, the movement of which is adjustable. The inventor refers to this invention as an improvement in the valve gear patented by him August 21, 1841 (patent number 2227).
The model shows a portion of the cylinder of a horizontal engine with only the piston rod and cross head represented. A steam chest in which are located the ports leading to the inner or main steam chests is shown in section, revealing the cut-off valves on their seats. These cut-off valves are plain flat plates connected to opposite ends of a beam, which receives a vibratory motion from the cross head of the engine. The beam and its rock shaft are picoted in a lever by which the pivot can be moved and the time of cut-of varied. This the inventor calls “cut-off with movable rock shaft.” He suggests that a similar result can be obtained by constructing the cut-off ports in a movable plate which he calls “cut-off with single adjustable seat.”
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
1842
patent date
1842-04-30
inventor
Allen, Horatio
ID Number
MC.308640
catalog number
308640
accession number
89797
patent number
2,597
In March 1856, the University of Michigan named a committee “to contract for the construction of a suitable microscope for the University.” Within a year or so, this committee had spent $469 for a microscope made by Charles Achilles Spencer, America’s first successful microscope
Description
In March 1856, the University of Michigan named a committee “to contract for the construction of a suitable microscope for the University.” Within a year or so, this committee had spent $469 for a microscope made by Charles Achilles Spencer, America’s first successful microscope maker. This enormous sum was charged to the account of "Natural History" and the microscope was placed in the hands of Alexander Winchell, a professor of geology who would soon be named Geologist of the State. Twenty years later, after Winchell had left the University, the costly microscope was transferred to the Physiological Laboratory in the Medical School. The transfer was arranged by Charles Stowell, a young doctor who would spend his career teaching physiology and microscopy, and who was clearly aware of the historic importance of the instrument. In an obituary notice penned shortly after Spencer’s death in 1881, Stowell explained that the objective was a 1/16 of “as near 180°as can be obtained.” That is, it had a very short focal length and a very wide angular aperture. When Stowell got his hands on this objective, he saw a crack “running across about 1/3 of the field,” and so returned it to the firm. Spencer replied that he could make a new objective nearly as cheap as he could remedy this, “for it is one of my first glasses.” Accepting the inevitable, Stowell ordered a new 1/18. We have not yet measure the objective, but note that it does not appear to have a crack.
Spencer referred to the stand of this microscope as a Pritchard, recognizing that the form had been popularized by Andrew Pritchard, an important London naturalist and optician. The “C. A. & H. Spencer / Canastota, N.Y.” inscription on the tube refers to the partnership between Charles A. Spencer and his cousin Hamilton, a partnership that began around 1848 and ended around 1854.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1849-1859
associated dates
1990-04-10
maker
C. A. & H. Spencer
ID Number
1990.0183.01
catalog number
1990.0183.01
accession number
1990.0183
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with application for Patent no. 4800, issued October 7, 1846.This engine is very similar to the Perry engine of 1844 (US National Museum accession number 309253).
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with application for Patent no. 4800, issued October 7, 1846.
This engine is very similar to the Perry engine of 1844 (US National Museum accession number 309253). It differs in that the cylinder is water-jacketed and the hot cooling water is used to heat the fuel retort. Ignition is effected by heated platinum exposed to or separated from the explosive mixture by a valve.
The model shows a horizontal double-acting engine completely water-jacketed. Beside the cylinder is the retort for generating the vapors. Air is mixed with the vapor in a valve box above the retort, and valves operated by cams from a lay shaft admit the explosive mixture to passages leading to the cylinder. The gas is ignited by incandescent platinum, and combustion continues during about one-third of the stroke, the expansion of the products of combustion forcing the piston to the end of the stroke.
To start the engine it was necessary to heat the water about the retort to generate the vapor and to heat the igniter. When running, the engine developed sufficient heat for both purposes.
Perry designed this engine so that the water served not only to cool the cylinder but also to lubricate the piston and piston rod.
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
1846
patent date
1846-10-07
inventor
Perry, Stuart
ID Number
ER.251278
accession number
48865
catalog number
251278
patent number
4,800
date made
1855
patent date
1855-07-31
inventor
Ericsson, John
ID Number
MC.251279
catalog number
251279
accession number
48865
patent number
13,348
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for Patent no. 111088, issued to Alexander K. Rider, of New York, New York, January 17, 1871, reissued August 24, 188-, no.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for Patent no. 111088, issued to Alexander K. Rider, of New York, New York, January 17, 1871, reissued August 24, 188-, no. 9353.
This engine consists of a power piston and a transfer piston so connected with valves and passages that the cold air is received and compressed in the same cylinder in which the hot air performs its work. Its simple construction is an improvement on the John Ericsson hot-air engines of 1855-1858.
A vertical cylinder contains two independent pistons with suitable valves that permit cold air to be drawn into the cylinder, compressed, circulated between heated furnace walls, expanded under a power piston and then exhausted. The upper piston is equipped with two spring-closed intake valves that open on the upstroke of the piston allowing air to fill the cylinder between the upper and lower pistons. This air is then compressed on the downstroke of the upper piston until the pressure is sufficient to open a valve in a passage leading to a heated space surrounding the furnace. The heated and compressed air then passes into the cylinder below the lower piston where it expands, performing work against the piston.
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
1871
patent date
1871-01-17
inventor
Rider, Alexander K.
ID Number
ER.308714
accession number
89797
catalog number
308714
patent number
111,088
This rectangular wooden box features two wood and metal strips along its upper edges, indicating its use for carrying packaged cold cheeses, bottles of milk, and other dairy products.
Description
This rectangular wooden box features two wood and metal strips along its upper edges, indicating its use for carrying packaged cold cheeses, bottles of milk, and other dairy products. Both sides of the crate are marked in black with the name 'POLLY-O' written over the Pollio Dairy Corporation’s logo, an image of a parrot wearing a chef’s hat and carrying a fork. The numbers “4-65” in the lower right-hand corner indicate the box was manufactured in April 1965. The telephone number, “MI 7-3600,” is stamped on the upper right-hand corner, confirming the dairy’s location in Midwood, Brooklyn, in the mid-1960s. In addition to the dairy’s name and location, the crate is stamped with the words “Deposit Box.” While the box would have been used to carry filled bottles of milk, it was also a deposit box or transport pack, into which consumers would place their empty milk bottles to be returned to the dairy for washing and reuse.
Giuseppe Pollio, founder of the Pollio Dairy Company, immigrated to America at age 19 and arrived at Ellis Island in 1879. He settled in the Coney Island area of Brooklyn, New York, a popular location for other immigrants from Italy. Pollio established his company in 1899, just four years after machines for the commercial pasteurization of milk were introduced to the U.S. dairy industry. Over the following two decades, as almost 3 million Italians emigrated to America, there was a substantial new audience for traditional Italian products such as fresh cheese. Pollio was the first entrepreneur to manufacture and distribute mozzarella and ricotta on a large scale in the United States. Although mozzarella and ricotta are considered the most important types of Italian cheese, having been enjoyed in Italy since the 15th century, such fresh cheeses were uncommon in America prior to the 20th century. Polly-O became a significant distributor and helped turn American palates toward the newly available cheese, and to Italian cuisine in general.
During the first boom of the dairy industry, from 1875-1940, milk was transported from farms to processing plants or industrial dairies, where it was bottled in glass containers and sealed with a paper cap seal. The filled bottles were packed into wooden crates to be stored over ice. Such crates generally withstood the moisture from melting ice, but dairies switched to hard plastic crates when they became widely available by the 1970s.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1965-04
ID Number
2014.0210.01
accession number
2014.0210
catalog number
2014.0210.01
This jug was probably made by William Lundy and Nathan Church, Jr. at Israel Seymour’s Troy, New York pottery. The potters achieved the distinctive decoration on this piece by using both cobalt and manganese oxides to fill in the incised floral motif.Currently not on view
Description
This jug was probably made by William Lundy and Nathan Church, Jr. at Israel Seymour’s Troy, New York pottery. The potters achieved the distinctive decoration on this piece by using both cobalt and manganese oxides to fill in the incised floral motif.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1819-1824
maker
Lundy, William
Church, Jr., Nathan
ID Number
1979.0577.08
accession number
1979.0577
catalog number
1979.05077.008
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Francis B. Stevens, November 3, 1863, no.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Francis B. Stevens, November 3, 1863, no. 40510.
The condenser represented in the model consists of a large vertical cylinder and pump plunger with various connected chambers designed to function as a condenser, a condenser air pump, and feed-water hot well and heater.
The invention “consists in simplifying the apparatus that condenses the steam discharged by the first eduction from the cylinder of a condensing steam engine by closing the hot well of the engine against the atmosphere and by keeping a portion of the space of the hot well free from water, and by delivering the steam discharged from the cylinder by the first eduction into the hot well, so that it may be condensed or partially condensed by the water delivered by the air-pump into the hot well.” The hot well is thus made “to act also as an additional condenser and dispense altogether with an additional air pump to draw the water from the additional condenser.”
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
1863
patent date
1863-11-03
inventor
Stevens, Francis B.
ID Number
MC.309238
catalog number
309238
accession number
89797
patent number
40,510
While this jar is unmarked, it may be one of several in the Museum's collection made by Thomas Commeraw, a free black potter.
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
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Henry R. Worthington, of New York, New York, June 20, 1871, no.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Henry R. Worthington, of New York, New York, June 20, 1871, no. 116131.
The model is a relief panel showing a section through the two steam cylinders of a duplex pump arranged to use steam at boiler pressure in one steam cylinder of small diameter, expand the exhaust steam in a receiver of much larger volume than the small cylinder, and use the steam at low pressure in a second cylinder of larger diameter. This arrangement was devised to permit the use of steam expansively in a duplex pump without the use of two compound cylinders, as was formerly the method.
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
1871
patent date
1871-06-20
inventor
Worthington, Henry R.
ID Number
ER.308681
accession number
89797
catalog number
308681
patent number
116,131
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 contributed to the establishment of numerous stoneware factories in towns such as Utica, New York.
Description
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 contributed to the establishment of numerous stoneware factories in towns such as Utica, New York. The White family first began making utilitarian pottery in Utica in 1834, and started using molds and steam-powered pottery wheels in the 1870s, expanding the types of wares they could produce. By the late 1800s, they were known for their relief molded wares, such as this stein.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890-1907
maker
White's Pottery
ID Number
1992.0278.03
catalog number
1992.0278.03
accession number
1992.0278
Midtown Hudston Tunnel - excavation for New York Plaza, gelatin silver printCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
Midtown Hudston Tunnel - excavation for New York Plaza, gelatin silver print
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1936
ID Number
2013.0327.0258
catalog number
2013.0327.0258
accession number
2013.0327
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Joseph Wotapek, of New York, New York, May 6, 1884, no.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Joseph Wotapek, of New York, New York, May 6, 1884, no. 298329; assigned to the Nation Manufacturing Co.
The improvement involved in this injector is the use of a nozzle holder by which the scale-incrusted nozzle or tube of the injector may be easily removed to permit cleaning. The holder is threaded into the shell of the injector from which it and the tube are drawn by unscrewing the bolder. The holder turns independently of the tube so that the tube itself is not subjected to torsion when being withdrawn from the shell.
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
1884
patent date
1884-05-06
inventor
Wotapek, Joseph
ID Number
MC.309181
catalog number
309181
patent number
298,329
accession number
89797
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Adam S. Cameron, of New York, New York, November 10, 1874, no.
Description
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Adam S. Cameron, of New York, New York, November 10, 1874, no. 156769.
This invention relates to a design of pump valves so controlled by spindles and guides that the necessity of central bearings in the valve seat is avoided, leaving a clear circular opening for the passage of the fluid being pumped.
The model represents a valve chest of a pump cylinder equipped with four valves arranged in pairs, in which one valve is located above the other. In each pair the valve stem of the upper valve projects upward into a hollow plug in the top of the valve chest and downward into a socket in the lower valve. The socket of the lower valve extends downward into a hollow plug or guide in the bottom of the valve chest. Both valves are spring closed and the lower valve is free to move independently of the upper valve.
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
1874
patent date
1874-11-10
inventor
Cameron, Adam S.
ID Number
ER.308686
accession number
89797
catalog number
308686
patent number
156,769
associated institution
Faesch & Piccard
ID Number
EM.315850
catalog number
315850
accession number
221414
In 1844 Charles Goodyear of New York, New York received a patent for a machine used for the manufacturing of corrugated or shirred rubber fabrics.
Description (Brief)
In 1844 Charles Goodyear of New York, New York received a patent for a machine used for the manufacturing of corrugated or shirred rubber fabrics. Rubber strips were sandwiched between fabric, stretched and pressed between two rollers, one calendared, creating a rubber impregnated cloth.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1844
patent date
1844-03-09
inventor
Goodyear, Charles
ID Number
AG.003462
catalog number
003462
accession number
89797
patent number
3,462

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