Communications - Overview
Tools of communication have transformed American society time and again over the past two centuries. The Museum has preserved many instruments of these changes, from printing presses to personal digital assistants.
The collections include hundreds of artifacts from the printing trade and related fields, including papermaking equipment, wood and metal type collections, bookbinding tools, and typesetting machines. Benjamin Franklin is said to have used one of the printing presses in the collection in 1726.
More than 7,000 objects chart the evolution of electronic communications, including the original telegraph of Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell's early telephones. Radios, televisions, tape recorders, and the tools of the computer age are part of the collections, along with wireless phones and a satellite tracking system.
"Communications - Overview" showing 123 items.
Page 1 of 13
Invention for Improvement in Processes of Coloring Photographs
- Description (Brief)
- Patent consists of a method of preparing photographs for coloring: first immersing the photo in a "clearing solution of rosin and parrafine, each previously dissolved in turpentine, and then applying to the face a coat of rosin dissolved in alcohol, and to the back a coat of the clearing solution..." Common oil colors are then applied to the back "in the usual way."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1878-07-09
- patent date
- 1878-07-09
- maker
- Pennington, Susan M. H.
- ID Number
- PG*000848
- catalog number
- PG*000848
- patent number
- 205,807
- accession number
- 48866
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent model for printers' quoins
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for quoins whose two sides were opened or closed by wedges governed by a central double-threaded screw; the invention was granted patent number 139351.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1873
- patent date
- 1873-05-27
- maker
- Ames, Chauncey W.
- Sprague, E. H.
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.01
- patent number
- 139351
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent model for printers' shooting sticks
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a shooting stick, used for driving in quoins, or wedges, to tighten a form in its chase; the invention was granted patent number 107154. These sticks had different-sized notches to fit different quoins, and two wings to help open spaces for the quoins among the furniture.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1870
- patent date
- 1870-09-06
- maker
- Blackwell, Benjamin B.
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.03
- patent number
- 107154
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.03
- patent number
- 107154
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent model for loose leaf binder
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a loose leaf binder with adjustable sides; the invention was granted patent number 787353.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1905
- patent date
- 1905-04-18
- maker
- Carlson, Charles A.
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.05
- patent number
- 787353
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.05
- patent number
- 787353
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model for a Type Mold
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a type mold which was granted patent number 5846. The Universal Hand Type-Mold cast type of any size.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1848
- Date made
- 1848
- patent date
- 1848-10-10
- maker
- Day, Hartley W.
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.06
- patent number
- 005846
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.06
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model for Stencil Frames for Autographic Writing.
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a stencil-printing frame which was granted patent number 219665. The frame is adjustable to take stencil sheets of different sizes.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1879
- patent date
- 1879-09-16
- maker
- De Zuccato, Eugenio
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.07
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.07
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- patent number
- 219665
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent model for sidesticks and quoins
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a combination of quoins and sidesticks which was granted patent number 218518. The quoins swiveled on the ends of wide screws that turned into the sides of the metal sidesticks. A guage in the center of each sidestick told the compositor how far the quoin could be extended.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1879
- patent date
- 1879-08-12
- maker
- Gosorn, George T.
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.09
- patent number
- 218518
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.09
- patent number
- 218518
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent model for printers' sidesticks and quoins
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for sidesticks with several tapering sections, and grooves or steps to guide the quoins on their path; the invention was granted patent number 145574.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1873
- patent date
- 1873-12-16
- maker
- Keehn, Francis
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.10
- patent number
- 145574
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.10
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent model for printers' quoins
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a three-part quoin, the parts being held together by a key passing through a slot in the central wedge; the invention was granted patent number 148308. Roughened sides of the quoin prevented slippage on other furniture.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1874
- patent date
- 1874-03-10
- maker
- Lame, Samuel C.
- Briggs, Ferdinand Sherwin
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.11
- patent number
- 148308
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.11
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent model for printers' sidesticks and quoins
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for sidesticks made with two symmetrical series of inclined surfaces; the invention was granted patent number 133948. Matching quoins were adjusted by turning a double-threaded screw.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1872
- patent date
- 1872-12-17
- maker
- McGrath, Thomas
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.12
- patent number
- 133948
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.12
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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