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 11 items.
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Creeping Baby Doll Patent Model
- Description
- This model demonstrates the invention of a mechanical crawling doll. It accompanied the patent submission of George Pemberton Clarke, who received U.S. patent No. 118,435 on 29 August 1871 for his “Natural Creeping Baby Doll.” The original patent office tag is still attached with red tape. Clarke’s patent was an improvement on the crawling baby doll patent of his associate Robert J. Clay (No. 112,550 granted 14 March 1871).
- The doll’s head, two arms and two legs are made of painted plaster. The arms and legs are hinged to a brass clockwork body that actuates the arms and legs in imitation of crawling, but the doll moves forward by rolling along on two toothed wheels. A flat piece of wood is attached to top of the movement.
- A commercial version of the doll is also in the collection. See also Cat. 2011.0204.01
- This mechanical toy is part of a fascinating continuum of figures built to imitate human life. This long Western tradition stretches from ancient Greece through the mechanical automatons of the Enlightenment, through wind-up toys to contemporary robots and other machines with artificial intelligence.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1871
- patent date
- 1871-08-29
- inventor
- Clarke, George P.
- ID Number
- 1984.0923.01
- accession number
- 1984.0923
- catalog number
- 1984.0923.01
- patent number
- 118,435
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model for a Flatbed Cylinder Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a flatbed cylinder printing press which was granted patent number 108785. The patent details methods of controlling the motion of the type bed. The model is broken.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1870
- date made
- ca 1870
- patent date
- 1870-11-01
- maker
- Tucker, Stephen D.
- Hoe, Richard March
- ID Number
- GA*89797.108785
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 108785
- catalog number
- GA*89797.108785
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model for Flatbed Cylinder Printing Presses
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a flatbed printing press; the invention was granted patent number 173295. The patent describes improvements to the movement of the bed, the sheet fly, and the inking table of cylinder presses.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1876
- date made
- ca 1876
- patent date
- 1876-02-08
- maker
- Hoe, Richard March
- Tucker, Stephen D.
- ID Number
- GA*89797.173295
- patent number
- 173295
- catalog number
- GA*89797.173295
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Selden Automobile Patent Model, 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
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
G. H. Crosby Indicator, Patent Model
- Description
- This indicator was filed to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for patent no. 219149 issued to G. H. Crosby, September 2, 1879.
- The model cannot be disassembled and the piston is stuck in the cylinder. It consists of a large drum with spiral spring and single record, but the linkage is different from the other Crosby indicators in the collection: a spring releases to move the drum back away from the pencil print.
- The improvements claimed for this design are a jacket about the steam cylinder to prevent radiation or loss of heat from the cylinder; a method of supporting the cylinder and jacket so that each might expand freely when heated; the carrying of the rotary drum on a lever so that it could be moved up to and away from the marker; and a peculiar parallel motion for effecting the straight line motion of the marker in which “the lever is connected with the piston-rod by a join, and not indirectly by a link, as in the Richards indicator.”*
- An engine indicator is an instrument for graphically recording the pressure versus piston displacement through an engine stroke cycle. Engineers use the resulting diagram to check the design and performance of the engine.
- A mechanical indicator consists of a piston, spring, stylus, and recording system. The gas pressure of the cylinder deflects the piston and pushes against the spring, creating a linear relationship between the gas pressure and the deflection of the piston against the spring. The deflection is recorded by the stylus on a rotating drum that is connected to the piston. Most indicators incorporate a mechanical linkage to amplify the movement of the piston to increase the scale of the record.
- When the ratio of the frequency of the pressure variation to the natural frequency of the system is small, then the dynamic deflection is equal to the static deflection. To design a system with a high natural frequency, the mass of the piston, spring, stylus, and mechanical linkage must be small, but the stiffness of the spring must be high. The indicator is subjected to high temperatures and pressures and rapid oscillations, imposing a limitation on the reduction in mass. Too stiff a spring will result in a small displacement of the indicator piston and a record too small to measure with accuracy. Multiplication of the displacement will introduce mechanical ad dynamic errors.
- The parameters of the problem for designing an accurate and trouble free recorder are such that there is no easy or simple solution. Studying the variety of indicators in the collection shows how different inventors made different compromises in their designs.
- *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
- 1879-09-02
- inventor
- Crosby, George H.
- ID Number
- MC*308701
- catalog number
- 308701
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 219,149
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model for the Improvement in Stem-winding Watches
- Description (Brief)
- Pauline Hortense Gontard, of Cortébert, Switzerland, submitted this brass model with her patent application for an improvement in the winding mechanism in a stem winding watch or keyless watch. By the time, she applied for the patent in the United States in 1879, American watchmakers were mass producing watches and competing with European watch makers.
- Stem winding watches were invented by a French clock maker in 1842 and patented in Europe in 1845. Before this time a key was necessary to wind a watch mechanism.
- date made
- 1879
- patent date
- 1879-10-07
- licensee
- Gontard, P. H.
- inventor
- Gontard, Pauline H.
- ID Number
- ME*309088
- catalog number
- 309088
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 220,233
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Invention for Improvement in Sewing Machines
- Description (Brief)
- Blanchard’s improvement in “Sewing-Machines” used the buttonhole stitch. She is best remembered for another overstitch sewing invention, the “zig zag.”
- date made
- 1873
- patent date
- 1873-08-19
- maker
- Blanchard, Helen A.
- ID Number
- TE*T06433.000
- catalog number
- T06433.000
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
"The Battle of the Sewing Machines" Sheet Music
- Description
- "The Battle of the Sewing Machines" was composed and arranged by F. Hyde for the piano, and was published in 1874 by Wm. A. Pond & Co. of 547 Broadway, N.Y., N.Y. The lithograph by R. Teller of 120 Wooster St., N.Y., N.Y., illustrates a "battle" of sewing machines. The Remington "army" is marching towards the fleeing Singer, Howe, Succor, Weed, and Willcox & Gibbs sewing machines. The soldiers are riding the Remington treadle machines like horses and are carrying Remington rifles. The Remington No. 2 sewing machine had just come out to market in June 1874. The family treadle machine with a drop-leaf table and two drawers would have cost $75.00.
- On the top left of the sheet music, a woman is pictured sewing on a Remington machine in the Remington office at Madison Square, New York. In the right box is featured the Remington Works of Ilion, N.Y. The music consists of 11 pages, with such subtitles as: "Howe the battle began"; "Advent of all the best machines"; "Song of the Sewing Machine Man: 'How Can I Leave Thee'"; "Triumph of the Remington Sewing Machine," and "Home Sweet Home."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1874
- referenced
- Remington Sewing Machine Company
- composer
- Hyde, F.
- publisher
- William A. Pond and Company
- lithographer
- Teller, R.
- ID Number
- 1991.0130.01
- catalog number
- 1991.0130.01
- accession number
- 1991.0130
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
USS Alaska Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth
- Description
- The wooden screw sloop of war USS Alaska was built in 1868 and spent much of her career in the southern Pacific and Far East representing the American nation in foreign ports. In June 1878, she cleared New York for San Francisco and stopped at several South American ports on the way.
- One of Alaska's port calls from 20-29 September 1878 was to Talcahuano, in the center of Chile's coast and that nation's main naval port. It also was one the principal stops for American whalers in the Pacific seeking fresh supplies and entertainment. This massive sperm whale's tooth was probably purchased there and engraved by one of Alaska's crew to commemorate his visit. While the carver of this tooth is unknown, it may have been one of the officers who kept the official ship's logbooks, because the calligraphy on the covers of the logs for this voyage is exceptionally elaborate and colorful.
- As this tooth indicates, the Talcahuano visit and liberty calls were memorable. Sent ashore on liberty, 54 of Alaska's crew went AWOL (Absent WithOut Leave), and three more were confined to double irons (feet and hand cuffs) for drunk and boisterous behavior or fighting.
- Date made
- 1878
- USS Alaska port call to Chile, Talcahuano
- 1878-09
- ID Number
- DL*374477
- catalog number
- 374477
- accession number
- 136263
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Edison "New Year's Eve" Lamp
- Description
- Thomas Edison used this carbon-filament bulb in the first public demonstration of his most famous invention, the first practical electric incandescent lamp, which took place at his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory on New Year's Eve, 1879.
- As the quintessential American inventor-hero, Edison personified the ideal of the hardworking self-made man. He received a record 1,093 patents and became a skilled entrepreneur. Though occasionally unsuccessful, Edison and his team developed many practical devices in his "invention factory," and fostered faith in technological progress.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1879
- used date
- 1879-12-31
- user
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- maker
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- ID Number
- EM*181797
- catalog number
- 181797
- accession number
- 33407
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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