Transportation

Americans have always been a people on the move—on rails, roads, and waterways (for travel through the air, visit the National Air and Space Museum). In the transportation collections, railroad objects range from tools, tracks, and many train models to the massive 1401, a 280-ton locomotive built in 1926. Road vehicles include coaches, buggies, wagons, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and automobiles—from the days before the Model T to modern race cars. The accessories of travel are part of the collections, too, from streetlights, gas pumps, and traffic signals to goggles and overcoats.

In the maritime collections, more than 7,000 design plans and scores of ship models show the evolution of sailing ships and other vessels. Other items range from scrimshaw, photographs, and marine paintings to life jackets from the Titanic.

In 1940, the American Bantam Car Company of Butler, Pennsylvania constructed 62 quarter-ton, four-wheel-drive trucks. This is one of the prototypes of the famous army vehicle known as the Jeep.
Description
In 1940, the American Bantam Car Company of Butler, Pennsylvania constructed 62 quarter-ton, four-wheel-drive trucks. This is one of the prototypes of the famous army vehicle known as the Jeep. During World War II, when the army was looking for a vehicle to replace the motorcycle as a mechanized form of transportation, it came up with the Jeep. Willys-Overland Motors, the Ford Motor Company, and the Bantam firm produced jeeps in large numbers. According to one newspaper account, about 660,000 were made. Jeeps were incredibly important to the war effort and became for many a symbol of American ingenuity. The museum's Bantam, bearing serial number 1007, was number 7 of the 62. It was delivered to the Army on November 29, 1940, and transferred to the museum in 1944.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
1940
maker
American Bantam Car Company
ID Number
TR.312822
catalog number
312822
accession number
167398
This gasoline-powered tricycle was built by Louis S. Clarke in 1897. The vehicle is a conventional tricycle equipped with a one- cylinder, air-cooled engine that drives the rear wheels.
Description
This gasoline-powered tricycle was built by Louis S. Clarke in 1897. The vehicle is a conventional tricycle equipped with a one- cylinder, air-cooled engine that drives the rear wheels. The frame consists of standard bicycle parts with additional custom parts designed and fabricated by Clarke. In 1897 Clarke founded the Pittsburg Motor Vehicle Company in Pittsburgh, Pa., and served as president and engineer. The next year the company built its first 4-wheel automobile. In 1899 Clarke changed the company’s name to the Autocar Company, a brand that survives today. This tricycle is often called “Autocar No. 1” due to this history.
The one-cylinder engine has a mechanically operated exhaust valve and an automatic intake valve. On its crankshaft extension is a gear that meshes directly with the ring gear of the differential. No gear changes are provided. A single lever operates both the clutch (located on the crankshaft extension between the engine and the driving gear) and a band brake on the drum of the clutch. There is no throttle, but the engine speed can be varied by means of a spark-advance lever, and there is a fuel-flow regulator on the exhaust-heated, gasoline vaporizer. The main exhaust pipe leads into a small muffler. The gasoline tank is in the frame beneath the saddle, and the batteries and high-tension coil are in a box farther forward in the frame. Bicycle pedals, with the usual sprockets and chain, enable the rider to start the engine and, in event of a breakdown, to propel the vehicle. An overrunning clutch is built into this gearing so that the pedals are not driven by the engine while the tricycle is in motion.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1897
maker
Clarke, Louis S.
ID Number
TR.313142
catalog number
313142
accession number
175802
Ira Wertman, a farmer in Andreas, Pennsylvania, raised fruits and vegetables and peddled them with this truck to retired coal miners near Allentown. He also used the truck to take produce to market and haul supplies from town to the farm.
Description
Ira Wertman, a farmer in Andreas, Pennsylvania, raised fruits and vegetables and peddled them with this truck to retired coal miners near Allentown. He also used the truck to take produce to market and haul supplies from town to the farm. Pickup trucks have been versatile aids to a wide range of agricultural, personal, and business activities. Early pickup trucks were modified automobiles, but postwar models were larger, more powerful, and able to carry heavier loads. Some postwar pickups were used in building suburban communities. Others were used for recreational purposes such as camping, hunting, and fishing. By the 1990s, many people purchased pickups for everyday driving.
date made
1949
maker
General Motors Corporation
ID Number
1999.0057.01
accession number
1999.0057
catalog number
1999.0057.01
Founded in 1904 by wealthy financier Andrew Carnegie in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission (CHFC) exists to honor acts of individual civilian heroism in the United States and Canada.
Description
Founded in 1904 by wealthy financier Andrew Carnegie in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission (CHFC) exists to honor acts of individual civilian heroism in the United States and Canada. It is still active today; recipients include both the living, the dead, and persons directly affected by the loss of a heroic relative.
The emotional impact on the general public of the April 1912 loss of the ocean liner Titanic was astonishing, and the continually updated story lasted for months in the contemporary newspapers. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Commission felt inspired to honor all the heroes who had risked their lives in the rescue of the 700 passengers, so at their April 26, 1912 meeting they authorized a nine-oz. 22-k gold medal to be struck, mounted in an elaborate bronze base, inscribed and presented to the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian accepted the gift and displayed it before adding it to the National Numismatic Collection in the National Museum of American History.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1912
maker
Flanagan, John
ID Number
NU.13650
accession number
54893
catalog number
13650
In the 1960s, George Hurst designed a 350-pound hydraulic spreader tool to help remove race car drivers from wrecks. He hired Mike Brick to market the device nationwide.
Description
In the 1960s, George Hurst designed a 350-pound hydraulic spreader tool to help remove race car drivers from wrecks. He hired Mike Brick to market the device nationwide. Brick downsized it to 65 pounds and pitched the Hurst Power Rescue Tool to fire departments in the early 1970s as a way to free accident victims from cars. The tool was an instant success because it was faster, safer, more powerful, and easier to use than power saws, pry bars, and blow torches. It acquired the nickname “The Jaws of Life” because of a line in a promotional film. The Carlsbad, New Mexico fire department bought this tool in 1977 and used it until 2012.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
1977
maker
Hurst
ID Number
2012.0110.01
accession number
2012.0110
catalog number
2012.0110.01
Versatile, sturdy, and dependable, horse-drawn farm wagons were common in rural America well into the 1920s. They carried crops, goods, and supplies and served as passenger vehicles for families.
Description
Versatile, sturdy, and dependable, horse-drawn farm wagons were common in rural America well into the 1920s. They carried crops, goods, and supplies and served as passenger vehicles for families. Guy McCartney of Simpson, West Virginia used this wagon to deliver coal to area homes for furnaces and stoves. Built by the Kramer Wagon Company in Oil City, Pennsylvania, it is believed to date from the 1920s. During America’s first oil drilling boom in the late nineteenth century, Kramer also built wagons that hauled oil and carriages for wealthy oil businessmen.
date made
ca 1925
maker
Kramer Wagon Company
ID Number
1984.0743.01
catalog number
84.0743.01
accession number
1984.0743
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.
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
In the spring of 1803, Meriwether Lewis began to purchase scientific and mathematical instruments for a pending expedition into the northwestern region of North America.
Description
In the spring of 1803, Meriwether Lewis began to purchase scientific and mathematical instruments for a pending expedition into the northwestern region of North America. Among the items he purchased from Philadelphia instrument maker Thomas Whitney were three pocket compasses for $2.50 each, and this silver-plated pocket compass for $5. It has a mahogany box, a silver-plated brass rim that is graduated to degrees and numbered in quadrants from north and south, a paper dial, two small brass sight vanes, and a leather carrying case. Whether Lewis purchased the silver compass for himself or intended it as a special gesture for William Clark is not known.
Following the instructions of President Thomas Jefferson, the Corps of Discovery, under the leadership of Lewis and Clark, ascended the Missouri River in May 1804 to obtain detailed information on the natural resources of the region, to search for a northwest passage, and to make official diplomatic contact with Indian leaders.
By the time they returned to St. Louis in September 1806, few of the instruments that were purchased for the trip had survived the journey. The pocket compass, however, was kept by Clark as a memento. He later gave the compass to his friend, Capt. Robert A. McCabe, whose heirs donated it in 1933 to the Smithsonian Institution.
Date made
ca 1804
user
Clark, William
maker
Whitney, Thomas
ID Number
PL.038366
catalog number
38366
accession number
122864
Mechanical engineer Isaac Dripps donated this propeller model to the U.S. National Museum in February 1886. This model shows Dripps's six-bladed propeller design, where each blade has a turned flange at its tip to help grip the water.
Description
Mechanical engineer Isaac Dripps donated this propeller model to the U.S. National Museum in February 1886. This model shows Dripps's six-bladed propeller design, where each blade has a turned flange at its tip to help grip the water. The blades are separate castings bolted to the central hub. Such construction was the most common way to make large propellers in the nineteenth century, as it allowed ready replacement of the easily damaged blades. Etched on one of the blades is the declaration, "This Screw Propeller was designed by and made under the directions of Isaac Dripps at Bordentown New Jersey in the Year 1840." He did not patent this propeller.
Isaac Dripps (1810-92) was a prominent railroad engineer. Born in Ireland, he arrived in the U.S. with his parents in infancy. He apprenticed to Philadelphia steamboat-engine builder Thomas Holloway in 1826 and in 1831 was hired by Robert L. Stevens to assemble the John Bull locomotive, newly delivered from England for the Camden & Amboy Railroad, although he had never seen such a machine before. He also acted as engineer for the John Bull's first trip. Dripps continued as an engineer for the Camden & Amboy until 1854, during which time he and Stevens developed the cowcatcher and the bonnet spark arrester, among other early locomotive improvements. After a short time as partner in a locomotive works, he returned to superintending motive power for railroads, ending his career with the Pennsylvania Railroad. One biography says, "In the course of his career he devised innumerable mechanisms, tools, and the like for use in the construction of locomotives, freight and passenger cars, and steamboat machinery, but never patented any of them."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840
ID Number
TR.180007
catalog number
180007
accession number
17193
From the 1920s to the 1950s, motorists in the Northeast drove on U. S. 1 between New England and Florida. Overnight accommodations were limited to big-city hotels, tourist homes, and family-owned tourist cabins beside the road.
Description
From the 1920s to the 1950s, motorists in the Northeast drove on U. S. 1 between New England and Florida. Overnight accommodations were limited to big-city hotels, tourist homes, and family-owned tourist cabins beside the road. Typical of smaller cabins was Ring’s Rest, located half way between Washington and Baltimore near Muirkirk, Maryland. Built in about 1930, the wooden cabins were named Lone Pine Inn until 1934, when Fred E. Ringe, Sr. purchased the establishment and renamed it Ring’s Rest. Each cabin was painted white with green trim and was furnished with a twin bed, two wooden chairs, washbasin on a stand, wall lamp, wall mirror, space heater, and linoleum rug. Guests could use an outhouse or the bathroom and shower inside the Ringe home, which stood on the premises. House trailer owners parked out back, and a grocery store with gasoline pumps at the entrance beside the highway offered a few essentials and services. The cabins were last occupied in the 1960s. In 1981, one cabin was disassembled and moved to the National Museum of American History along with its furnishings.
ID Number
1983.0179.01
accession number
1983.0179
catalog number
1983.0179.01
The packet ship Shenandoah was built in 1840 by John Vaugn & Son at Philadelphia, Pa. for Thomas P. Cope & Son, better known as the Cope Line.
Description
The packet ship Shenandoah was built in 1840 by John Vaugn & Son at Philadelphia, Pa. for Thomas P. Cope & Son, better known as the Cope Line. Wealthy Philadelphia Quakers, the Copes transported about 60,000 passengers—mostly Irish immigrants—from Liverpool to Philadelphia from 1820-1870.
Measuring 143’ long and 738 tons, the Shenandoah spent nearly its entire career on the Philadelphia–Liverpool passage. It made 14 voyages for the Cope Line from 1839-44. In 1845 it sailed for the Dunham & Dimon Liverpool Line out of NY, but the following year it returned to Philadelphia for the Black Diamond Line. By 1847 it served the New Line, clearing Philadelphia on the 1st of the month and leaving Liverpool five weeks later, on the 8th of the following month. In the late 1840s, it lost its popular captain to the new Collins ocean steamship Atlantic. Many of the old sailing packet companies lost their captains to the newer and faster transatlantic steamship lines. The Shenandoah was abandoned at sea in August 1854.
Date made
1963
original ship built
1840
Cope Line operated
1820-1870
sailed with the Cope Line
1839-1844
sailed for the Dunham & Dimon Liverpool Line out of New York
1845
sailed for the Black Diamond Line out of Philadelphia
1846
sailed for the New LIne out of Philadelphia
1847
abandoned at sea
1854-08
shipbuilders
John Vaugn & Son
ship owners
Thomas P. Cope & Son
ID Number
TR.322426
catalog number
322426
accession number
247838
This tinted lithograph of “Fort Massachusetts at the Foot of the Sierra Blanca Valley of San Luis" was produced by Thomas Sinclair (1805-1881), Philadelphia, after a sketch by John Mix Stanley (1814-1872) and an original sketch by expedition artist R. H. Kern (1821-1853).
Description
This tinted lithograph of “Fort Massachusetts at the Foot of the Sierra Blanca Valley of San Luis" was produced by Thomas Sinclair (1805-1881), Philadelphia, after a sketch by John Mix Stanley (1814-1872) and an original sketch by expedition artist R. H. Kern (1821-1853). It was printed as a plate in Volume II following page 38, in the "Report of Explorations for a Route for the Pacific Railroad, by Captain J. W. Gunnison (1812-1853), Topographical Engineers, Near the 38th and 39th Parallels of North Latitude, from the Mouth of the Kansas River, Missouri to the Sevier Lake in the Great Basin" by Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith (1818-1881), Third Artillery.
The volume was printed as part of the "Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean" in 1855 by A. P. O. Nicholson (1808-1876) of Washington, D.C.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1855
engraver
Stanley, John Mix
artist
Kern, Richard H.
printer
Sinclair, T.
publisher
U.S. War Department
author
Beckwith, Edward Griffin
Gunnison, John Williams
printer
Tucker, Beverley
publisher
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Topographic Command
ID Number
GA.10729.27
accession number
62261
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1912
maker
Samuel Gabriel Sons & Company
ID Number
DL.58.0010
catalog number
58.0010
accession number
216084
Color print of a sailing ship with three masts. Information about the ship is below the image.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Color print of a sailing ship with three masts. Information about the ship is below the image.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
Ketterlinus
ID Number
DL.60.3284
catalog number
60.3284
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1964
maker
Plowden, David
ID Number
1986.0711.0697
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0697
This model represents one of the 2,710 Liberty ships built during World War II. The designation EC2-S-C1 was the standard designation of the dry cargo Liberty ships that were used by the United States Merchant Marine to transport nearly anything needed by the Allies.
Description
This model represents one of the 2,710 Liberty ships built during World War II. The designation EC2-S-C1 was the standard designation of the dry cargo Liberty ships that were used by the United States Merchant Marine to transport nearly anything needed by the Allies. Whether in Europe, Africa, or the Pacific, most of the essential supplies arrived on ships, including tanks, ammunition, fuel, food, toilet paper, cigarettes, and even the troops themselves. Manning these vessels was a dangerous task, as the merchant vessels faced tremendous losses from submarines, mines, destroyers, aircraft, kamikaze fighters, and the unpredictable elements of the various destinations. One in 26 merchant mariners died during the war, a higher fatality rate than that of any branch of the armed forces.
Even before the United States was officially involved in World War II, shipyards on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts were building Liberty ships. Drawing from lessons learned at Hog Island in the First World War, Liberty ships were standardized and designed to be built quickly and efficiently. Using new welding technology, workers pieced together prefabricated sections in assembly-line fashion. This largely replaced the labor-intensive method of riveting, while lowering the cost and speeding up production. While it took about 230 days to build one Liberty ship in the first year, the average construction time eventually dropped to 42 days, with three new ships being launched each day in 1943.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attended the launching of the first Liberty ship on September 27, 1941, at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland. The ship was the SS Patrick Henry, named after the Revolutionary War hero whose famous “Give me Liberty or give me Death!” speech inspired the ships’ nickname. At the launching of the first “ugly duckling,” the President’s name for the stout and functional Liberty ships, he praised the shipyard workers: “With every new ship, they are striking a telling blow at the menace to our nation and the liberty of the free peoples of the world.” President Roosevelt proclaimed that these ships would help to bring a new kind of liberty to people around the world.
date made
early 1940s
launching of first Liberty Ship, SS Patrick Henry
1941-09-27
attended first launching
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
ID Number
TR.313022
accession number
170015
catalog number
313022
The Pioneer is a steam locomotive made in 1851 by Seth Wilmarth, owner of a large machine shop in Boston who made few locomotives. Pioneer is an early type of steam locomotive on U.S. railroads and used only on a very few of them.
Description
The Pioneer is a steam locomotive made in 1851 by Seth Wilmarth, owner of a large machine shop in Boston who made few locomotives. Pioneer is an early type of steam locomotive on U.S. railroads and used only on a very few of them. This locomotive is significant only because of that rarity. Its age is also unusual among preserved locomotives; Pioneer was built just two decades after America’s first domestically made locomotive. Its general type was obsolete on almost all railroads in the U.S. by 1850.
Pioneer served the Cumberland Valley RR, connecting Harrisburg, Pa. with Hagerstown, Md. and Winchester, Va. The locomotive was designed specifically to pull two-car passenger trains. Pioneer was one of several locomotives badly damaged by fire during the Civil War, during a Confederate raid on the CVRR roundhouse at Chambersburg, Pa. The CVRR rebuilt the engine, operated it on light, one- and two-car passenger trains till the mid 1880s, and then saved and exhibited it as an historic relic. The Pennsylvania RR (then one of the nation’s largest) absorbed the CVRR soon after. The PRR entirely repainted Pioneer in 1947 for the 1947-48 Chicago Railroad Fair. The lettering on the fenders, “PIONEER,” is inauthentic. A replica headlight was added by NMAH (then NMHT) in Dec 1965.
In the standard type nomenclature for steam locomotives, Pioneer is a “2-2-2T” type, meaning that it has an unpowered leading pair of wheels; a single powered axle (the larger-diameter wheels, driven by the steam cylinders via connecting (or “main”) rods; and another unpowered pair of wheels at the rear. The “T” stands for “tank engine,” meaning one that has no separate tender for carrying its fuel (wood) and water for the boiler; fuel and water is carried on the same single chassis as the boiler, cab, and running gear.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
1851
ca. 1851
used date
1851-1948
maker
Seth Wilmarth
Union Works
ID Number
TR.317547.01
accession number
230385
catalog number
317547.01
This is a 1/2" scale model of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad’s Lancaster. Steam locomotives are often classified by wheel arrangement, in the order of leading, driving, and trailing wheels.
Description
This is a 1/2" scale model of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad’s Lancaster. Steam locomotives are often classified by wheel arrangement, in the order of leading, driving, and trailing wheels. This locomotive had four leading wheels, two driving wheels, and no trailing wheels. It is therefore classified as a 4-2-0 locomotive.
Built in 1834, the Lancaster was the third locomotive constructed by M. W. Baldwin of Philadelphia. A jeweler turned machinist, Baldwin completed his first locomotive in 1832. The proliferation of new railroads encouraged many small machine shops, like Baldwin’s, to enter the locomotive business. Most of these firms built only a few machines and went out of business. Baldwin’s shop, however, became the largest steam locomotive builder in the world. By 1868, the firm had produced 2000 engines and employed over 1,600 workers. When the company closed its doors in 1956, it had produced over 70,000 locomotives for North American railroads and lines overseas.
On the Lancaster, Baldwin employed the four-wheel leading truck devised by John B. Jervis, which allowed the engine to negotiate sharp curves with ease. Designed for both passenger and freight service, the Lancaster performed well; on one occasion, the locomotive pulled a 75-ton, sixteen-car train at an average speed of 12 to 14 miles per hour. The engine proved so successful that Baldwin built over one hundred locomotives on the same general design from 1834 to 1842. After operating for sixteen years, the Lancaster was retired in 1850, and dismantled the following year.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1834
Lancaster locomotive constructed
1834
ID Number
TR.325994
catalog number
325994
accession number
257974
This model was filed with the application to the U.S. Patent Office for Patent Number 2,759 issued to Matthias W. Baldwin on August 25, 1842. Baldwin’s invention was a design for a flexible beam truck for the driving wheels of a locomotive.
Description
This model was filed with the application to the U.S. Patent Office for Patent Number 2,759 issued to Matthias W. Baldwin on August 25, 1842. Baldwin’s invention was a design for a flexible beam truck for the driving wheels of a locomotive. The goal of the design was to increase the proportion of the engine’s total weight resting on driven wheels thus improving traction and thereby the ability of the engine to pull heavier loads. While then existing locomotives had multiple driven axles, their designs made them unsuitable for use on the tight curves that were common on American railroads at the time. Baldwin’s design allowed for multiple driving wheel axles to be coupled together in a manner that would allow each axle to move independently so as to conform to both to sharp curves and to vertical irregularities in the tracks. The “flexible beam” referred to heavy iron beams that were connected to each side of the engine’s frame with a vertical, spherical pin so that they could pivot horizontally and vertically in relation to the frame. The beams on each side of the frame moved independently of each other. At each end of the beams were journal boxes for the axles, and these boxes were constructed to an earlier Baldwin patent with cylindrical pedestals that allowed them to rotate vertically inside the beam. The result was that when rounding a curve one driving axle could move laterally in one direction while the other axle could move independently in the other direction thus adapting the wheels to the curve while at the same time keeping the axles parallel to each other. The coupling rods were made with ball-and-socket joints to allow them to adapt to the varying geometry due to lateral axle motion. While this geometry would also result in the coupling rod lengths varying as the axles moved laterally, in actual use the variation was very small – on the order of 1/32 of an inch – and was allowed for via a designed-in slackness in the bearings. The patent was applied by Baldwin to a large number of engines manufactured up until 1859 when the design was superseded by heavier and more advanced engines.
The patent model is constructed of wood and metal and is mounted on rails attached to a wooden base. A brass plate attached to the boiler is inscribed with “M.W. Baldwin Philadelphia.” The boiler is painted wood as are the cylinders and coupling rods. The engine frame is steel, and the wheel rims are made of brass. The key element of the patent, the flexible beams are present on the front two axles. The beams and leaf springs are made of wood. The vertical pins appear to be made of steel. While the axle journal boxes are shown it appears the details of the cylindrical pedestals and other moving parts are not modelled.
date made
ca 1842
ca. 1842
patent date
1842-08-25
inventor
Baldwin, Matthias W.
ID Number
TR.251274
catalog number
251274
patent number
2,759
accession number
48865
Pittsburgh steamboat owner and builder James Rees developed a way to reduce the amount of force needed to steer riverboats, an idea he patented in 1882.
Description
Pittsburgh steamboat owner and builder James Rees developed a way to reduce the amount of force needed to steer riverboats, an idea he patented in 1882. In place of the usual practice-attaching a tiller directly to the top of the boat's rudder-he moved the tiller's pivot point forward and its connecting point to the rudder aft, which improved the tiller's leverage and eased steering. This model demonstrates his invention applied to a three-rudder system.
This model was found in the Smithsonian collections in the 1970s. It matches the drawings and specifications for James Rees's 1882 steering apparatus patent, but no information has yet been found to indicate how it came to the museum. Patent Office records state that no model was received for this invention. (And none was required: its application was submitted after models were generally no longer accepted.) Either the patent records are in error, or this was a demonstration model that came to the Smithsonian through Rees's descendants or associates.
It is very likely the tiller arrangement demonstrated in this model was used commercially, as James Rees (1821-89) was an active owner and builder of river steamers, and his firm supplied engines for many vessels on the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri river systems. As he described the problem he hoped to solve through this invention, "The ordinary method of connecting the tiller involves the necessity of applying great force to the tiller for the purpose of manipulating the rudder, and often requires the pilot to throw the rudder into the desired position prior to any back movement of the vessel, otherwise it would be almost impossible to manipulate it when backing the vessel." His apparatus, by contrast, worked "with ease in either a backing or forward movement of the vessel."
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1882
patent date
1882-02-07
patentee
Rees, James
ID Number
TR.337075
catalog number
337075
accession number
1978.2282
patent number
253226
The Olomana was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, for the Waimanolo Sugar Company of Oahu, then part of the Kindom of Hawaii. It was the third locomotive to arrive on the island and was originally named the Puaalii.
Description
The Olomana was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, for the Waimanolo Sugar Company of Oahu, then part of the Kindom of Hawaii. It was the third locomotive to arrive on the island and was originally named the Puaalii. This narrow gauge tank engine worked for 62 seasons, pulling cars of sugar cane from the fields to the processing plant located in northeastern Oahu. During this time few mechanical changes were made; however, the boiler was replaced twice and the fuel was changed from coal to oil in 1928.
During its service life the Olomana hauled or pushed small four wheel cars piled with sugar cane. The sticky juice from the cane lubricated the tracks so that extra sand was needed to improve the engine's traction. The Olomana and other two locomotives were outfitted with extra sand boxes during their service. Traction, not speed, was the Olomana's chief concern. She was designed for slow speed pulling, with 20 mph an optimum, and normal running speeds far below that pace.
The Olomana was retired in 1944 when the 'sugar railroad' was abandoned in favor of motor trucks. Four years later the engine was purchased by Gerald M. Best of California. Mr. Best and his wife, Harriet B. Best, restored the engine and operated it on a private railroad in Los Angeles area before presenting it to the Smithsonian in 1977.
Location
Currently on loan
Date made
1883
used date
1883-1944
user
Waimanalo Sugar Company
maker
Baldwin Locomotive Works
ID Number
TR.336162
accession number
1977.0647
catalog number
336162
James Kerr, William Grant, and John Potter of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, used this two-part model to demonstrate their 1842 method for lining the hulls of iron vessels with watertight chambers.Iron shipbuilding was in its infancy when James Kerr, William Grant, and John Potter cam
Description
James Kerr, William Grant, and John Potter of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, used this two-part model to demonstrate their 1842 method for lining the hulls of iron vessels with watertight chambers.
Iron shipbuilding was in its infancy when James Kerr, William Grant, and John Potter came together to patent their improved iron hull in 1842. American ship owners were particularly slow to adopt iron (and later steel) for their hulls because the nation's abundant forests and wealth of skilled carpenters made wood construction significantly more cost effective. Nevertheless, those few iron vessels that were built in the 1840s and '50s-almost all of them British-tended to receive considerable attention in the press. Even European reporting circulated widely in the United States, brought over by express steamship and transmitted internally by riverboat. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, to find Kerr, Grant, and Potter familiar with "the usual way" of building iron vessels: covering a skeleton of angle-iron ribs with horizontal rows of iron plate, "as is now generally done." Their idea was to line the interior of such a structure with additional plates. The spaces between these inner and outer plates would form watertight chambers between the ship's ribs. The chambers would render "the vessel more buoyant if she sprang a leak, as each chamber was insulated from the others. "It will thus be evident that should the outer sheathing of the vessel be injured between any two or more of the ribs, that chamber only will fill with water, the rest of the vessel continuing to retain its buoyancy." In addition, this inner lining of sheet iron would make the hull more stiff, "and the necessity for bulkheads is entirely superseded."
A reissue of Kerr, Grant, and Potter's patent in October 1842 incorporated a fuller description of their idea. The main revision it outlined called for the interior plates be bolted to the ribs, instead of riveted, in order to facilitate inspection and maintenance.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
1842
patent date
1842-05-07
1842-10-14
inventor
Kerr, James
Grant, William
Potter, John
ID Number
TR.308545
catalog number
308545
accession number
89797
patent number
2,612
This velocipede was donated to the Museum in 1971. It is one of the few departures from conventional velocipede construction that achieved any appreciable popularity. The design was invented by Dr. William H. Laubach, of Philadelphia and assigned U.S.
Description
This velocipede was donated to the Museum in 1971. It is one of the few departures from conventional velocipede construction that achieved any appreciable popularity. The design was invented by Dr. William H. Laubach, of Philadelphia and assigned U.S. Patent 86,235 on 26 January 1869. Laubach's velocipede also came to be known as the Pearsall velocipede after Laubach sold his patent to the Pearsall brothers, who operated New York City's first and most successful velocipede school. The New York Coach-Maker's Magazine, the Coach-Makers' International Journal, and the Eclectic Medical Journal all were profuse in their praise of this "most scientific velocipede." The construction of this velocipede differs from the more common variety in that this one is articulated, being constructed of two separate frames, one for each wheel, pivoted together in the center. Among the claims made for it were the statements that both wheels were always in the same arc when turning and that, due to its peculiar construction, the rider's weight kept it running in a naturally straight line. The many favorable comments made of it seem unwarranted, however, for it proved to be far less manageable than velocipedes of the usual design.
Dr. Laubach is said to have traveled one hundred miles in five hours on one of these velocipedes, seemingly a rather unlikely feat. The Pearsalls were so impressed with the design that they reportedly formed a stock company with a capital of $300,000.00 to manufacture Laubach patent velocipedes, but it is not known to what extent they produced them, or used them in their riding school. Laubach velocipedes cost $125.00.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1869
patent date
1869-01-26
maker
Laubach, W. H.
ID Number
TR.330734
catalog number
330734
accession number
299300
patent number
86235
The Autocar was designed by Louis S. Clarke, president and engineer of the Autocar Company, in 1901. This automobile is believed to be the first shaft-driven car constructed in the United States.
Description
The Autocar was designed by Louis S. Clarke, president and engineer of the Autocar Company, in 1901. This automobile is believed to be the first shaft-driven car constructed in the United States. In November 1901, this car was driven from the factory in Ardmore, Pa., to the auto show in New York City's Madison Square Garden in just over six hours. The 1901 Autocar has a water-cooled shaft-driven two-cylinder horizontal-opposed engine with a selective sliding-gear transmission.
The Autocar Company began life as the Pittsburg Motor Car Company in 1897. In 1899, the company moved to Ardmore, Pa., and changed its name to the Autocar Company. The Autocar Company began to make trucks as well as cars in 1907 and switched over to making trucks exclusively after 1911. In 1953, the White Motor Car Company bought a controlling interest in Autocar and moved the company to Exton, Pennsylvania. In the 1980s, Volvo bought the name, and the company changed hands again in 2001 with the purchase of the brand by the GVW Group. Since 2001 Autocar has produced heavy trucks for severe-service use.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1901
designer
Clarke, Louis S.
contributed
Firestone, Jr., Harvey S.
restoration
Rite-Way Auto Painters
White Motor Company
maker
Autocar Company
ID Number
TR.307257
catalog number
307257
accession number
68520

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