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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Pennsylvania/Kentucky Pistol
- Description
- Physical Description:
- This .54 caliber smoothbore “Kentucky” pistol was assembled by Melchior Fordney. The stock is curly maple, stained with a piano finish. The curved grip has a brass butt cap with a rear extension towards the tang. The brass trigger guard has an English acorn finial with a French front bar. It has two brass ramrod thimbles with two brass side plates.
- It is stamped “C.Arb” on the barrel. “J/Holland” is stamped on the lock. There is a stamp of “IB” possibly for J. Bonewitz.
- History:
- Melchior Fordney made pistols and rifles in Lancaster, Pennsylvania from 1807 to 1843. He was famous for his Kentucky rifles. His life and career were cut short in 1843 when he was killed with an ax by a Baptist Preacher named John Haggerty. Apparently, Haggerty he did not approve of the fact that Fordney lived with a woman outside of wedlock.
- Fordney’s work often had very elaborate detailing and was made one at a time when he was not contracted by the government. This pistol, because of its large size and lack of “C” stamp, is believed to be one of the later pistols of Fordney’s work.
- References:
- Flayderman, Norm. Flayderman’s Guide to Antique American Firearms…and their Values, Gun Digest Books, Iola, 2007. 9th edition
- Gardner, Robert E. Col. Small Arms Makers: A Directory of Fabricators of Firearms, Edged Weapons, Crossbows and Polearms, Crown Publishers Inc, New York: 1963, p. 66
- Smith, Samuel E. and Edwin W. Bitter. Historic Pistols: The American Martial Flintlock 1760-1845, Scalamandre Publications, New York: 1986, p. 308.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1815
- maker
- Fordney, Melchior
- ID Number
- 1986.0024.16
- accession number
- 1986.0024
- catalog number
- 1986.0024.16
- collector/donor number
- P88L
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Faber Steam Engine, 1827
- Description (Brief)
- The F. & W. M. Faber stationary steam engine was built in Pittsburgh during the 1850’s. Stationary steam engines such as this one could be used to power multiple machines in a shop or factory.
- Description
- The F. & W. M. Faber stationary steam engine is a rare survivor of pre-1860 American steam power. With a horizontal cylinder and separate bases for the flywheel and engine, the Faber displays features from the dawn of steam usage inside American factories.
- Although exceedingly rare today, this engine was offered as an "off-the-shelf" stock engine in 1850s Pittsburgh, where it was built. The engine features exceptional refinement in the degree of ornamentation on the flywheel and the flyball governor, evoking the novelty and wonder of early steam power.
- The physical beauty of the Faber engine masks its relative energy inefficiency compared with engines of the period of more robust construction. In addition, records indicate this pretty engine performed the bulk of its actual service inside tanneries in Ohio and Kentucky, where the smells and wet hides and dank darkness would have belied the visions that inspired this engine's elegant design and fabrication.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- F. and W. M. Faber
- ID Number
- 1980.0227.01
- catalog number
- 1980.0227.01
- accession number
- 1980.0227
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tall Case Clock
- Description
- The earliest domestic clocks in the American colonies were English-made "lantern" clocks, with brass gear trains held between pillars. Along with fully furnished "best" beds, looking glasses, sofas, silver, and case furniture, such clocks were the household objects consistently assigned the highest monetary value in inventories of possessions.
- By the 18th century, the most common style of domestic clock came to look more like a piece of household furniture. A wooden case enclosed the movement, weights, and pendulum. Through a glass window the dial was visible.
- In 1769, Pennsylvania clockmaker and millwright Joseph Ellicott completed this complicated tall case clock. On three separate dials, it tells the time and shows the phases of the moon; depicts on an orrery the motions of the sun, moon, and planets; and plays selected twenty-four musical tunes on the hour.
- The musical dial on the Ellicott clock allows the listener to choose from twelve pairs of tunes. Each pair includes a short tune and a long one. On the hour only the short tune plays, but every third hour, both play. During a tune, automaton figures at the top of the dial appear to tap their feet in time to the music, and a small dog between them jumps up and down.
- Joseph Ellicott moved from the Philadelphia area to Maryland in 1772 and, with his brothers Andrew and John, set up a flour-milling operation in what is now Ellicott City. The clock was a centerpiece in Ellicott family homes for generations.
- Who else owned clocks in early America? Clock owners, like the American colonists themselves, were not a homogeneous group. Where a person lived influenced the probability of owning a timepiece. In 1774, for example, New Englanders and Middle Atlantic colonials were equally likely to own a timepiece. In those regions, roughly 13 or 14 adults out of 100 had a clock in their possessions when they died. Among Southern colonists at that time, only about 6 in 100 had a clock.
- Date made
- 1769
- user
- Ellicott, Joseph
- maker
- Ellicott, Joseph
- ID Number
- 1999.0276.01
- accession number
- 1999.0276
- catalog number
- 1999.0276.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Penn'A State Convention
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1894
- ID Number
- 2006.0098.0688
- accession number
- 2006.0098
- catalog number
- 2006.0098.0688
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
High Water Mark Monument, Gettysburg, PA
- Description (Brief)
- Souvenir metal match safe with hinged lid from Gettysburg, Pa. A wrap-around celluloid label shows a color image of the High Water Mark Monument on one side, and the house where Jennie Wade was shot, on the reverse. Jennie Wade was the only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1908
- ID Number
- 2006.0098.0996
- accession number
- 2006.0098
- catalog number
- 2006.0098.0996
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mousetrap
- Description
- This mousetrap was manufactured by the Oneida Community, Ltd., know for producing silverware. It is a mouse-sized version of the company’s larger steel animal traps. Since the U.S. Patent Office was formally established in 1838, it has granted more than forty-four hundred mousetrap patents, more than any other invention. John Mast heeded Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice to, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door” and in 1899 built the more familiar snap trap which received its patent in 1903. Simple and effective, Mast’s trap is the best-selling mousetrap of all time. However, inventors are still attempting to improve upon Mast’s design—the Patent Office grants about 40 patents for mousetraps a year, and it receives almost ten times as many patent requests!
- The simple mousetrap is a testament to American ingenuity. Inventors and innovators have sought to deal with the mice in different ways - some traps are “beheaders,” some “imprisoners,” and some are “mashers.” No matter the design, the mousetrap has an undeniable grasp on the American imagination, with board games, gambling apparatus, and even movies being based on this pervasive mammal and the attempts to capture it.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- early 20th century
- maker
- Animal Trap Company
- ID Number
- DL*210336
- catalog number
- 210336
- accession number
- 38088
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mousetrap
- Description
- The Animal Trap Company of Lititz, Pennsylvania manufactured the “Victor Choker Mouse Trap” with four trap mechanisms around 1925. Since the U.S. Patent Office was formally established in 1838, it has granted more than forty-four hundred mousetrap patents, more than any other invention. John Mast heeded Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice to, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door” and in 1899 built the more familiar snap trap which received its patent in 1903. Simple and effective, Mast’s trap is the best-selling mousetrap of all time. However, inventors are still attempting to improve upon Mast’s design—the Patent Office grants about 40 patents for mousetraps a year, and it receives almost ten times as many patent requests!
- The simple mousetrap is a testament to American ingenuity. Inventors and innovators have sought to deal with the mice in different ways - some traps are “beheaders,” some “imprisoners,” and some are “mashers.” No matter the design, the mousetrap has an undeniable grasp on the American imagination, with board games, gambling apparatus, and even movies being based on this pervasive mammal and the attempts to capture it.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1925
- maker
- Animal Trap Company
- ID Number
- DL*318955.0001
- catalog number
- 318955.0001
- accession number
- 318955
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Niagara Falls Original Turbines
- Description
- Using this extremely fine wood model as part of its technical proposal, the Swiss firm Faesch & Piccard won the contract to design the original turbines for the Niagara Falls power station. The actual turbines were built by the I. P. Morris Company of Philadelphia and were installed in 1895, the year the Adams Station went on line. The hydroelectric power generation facility at Niagara Falls gained international acclaim for its ability to efficiently convert a portion of the Falls' awe-inspiring natural energy into electricity. This was the world's first large-scale central electric power station, demonstrating how falling water (or other power sources) could be used successfully to supply electricity over an extended geographical area.
- For additional information
- date made
- 1895
- ID Number
- 315850
- accession number
- 221414
- catalog number
- 315850
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ship Model, Steamboat Buckeye State
- Description
- The Buckeye State was built at Shousetown, Pa., south of Pittsburgh. In 1849 the hull was completed and hauled up the Ohio River to Pittsburgh to be finished. Under the supervision of David Holmes, the Buckeye State was completed in February 1850. It was owned and operated by the Pittsburgh & Cincinnati Packet Line, which ran it regularly on the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The company owned six or seven steamers at a time, and ran daily departures between the two cities. By the mid-1840s the Pittsburgh & Cincinnati Packet Line was praised by a Pittsburgh newspaper editor as “the greatest convenience . . . ever afforded the citizens on the banks of the Upper Ohio.”
- On May 1, 1850 the Buckeye State left Cincinnati for Pittsburgh and completed the trip in a record 43 hours. Under Capt. Sam Dean, the steamer made 24 stops along the route, needing coal once and wood three times. One hundred years later, the Buckeye State still held the record for the fastest trip ever made by a steamboat between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
- In 1851, showman P. T. Barnum organized a race between the Buckeye State and the Messenger No. 2 as a publicity stunt to advertise Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind’s American tour. Steamboat racing was growing in popularity, and so a race was the perfect promotion. Although Lind and Barnum were aboard the Messenger No. 2, the Buckeye State won the race. The Buckeye State continued its service up and down the Ohio for six more years until it was retired and dismantled in 1857.
- date made
- 1963
- construction completed on Buckeye State
- 1850-02
- Buckeye State retired
- 1857
- participated in a steamboat race
- 1857
- owned and operated by
- Pittsburgh & Cincinnati Packet Line
- supervised construction of Buckeye State
- Holmes, David
- captain of the Buckeye State
- Dean, Sam
- maker
- Boucher-Lewis Precision Models, Inc.
- ID Number
- TR*322425
- catalog number
- 322425
- accession number
- 247839
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Union type chest Headquarters Army of Potomac, Printing Department, No. 6, about 1863
- Description
- This type chest, measuring roughly 1’H x 2.5’W x 1.5’D, was purchased from L. Johnson & Company for the Printing Department of the Union Army of the Potomac. At least five other type chests were made for that unit. The top of the chest reads Headquarters Army of Potomac, Printing Department, No. 6. A virtually identical chest markedNo. 5 is displayed at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1863
- maker
- L. Johnson & Company
- issuing authority
- Army of the Potomac
- ID Number
- 1982.0203.2739
- accession number
- 1982.0203
- catalog number
- 1982.203.2739
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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