Energy & Power - Overview
The Museum's collections on energy and power illuminate the role of fire, steam, wind, water, electricity, and the atom in the nation's history. The artifacts include wood-burning stoves, water turbines, and windmills, as well as steam, gas, and diesel engines. Oil-exploration and coal-mining equipment form part of these collections, along with a computer that controlled a power plant and even bubble chambers—a tool of physicists to study protons, electrons, and other charged particles.
A special strength of the collections lies in objects related to the history of electrical power, including generators, batteries, cables, transformers, and early photovoltaic cells. A group of Thomas Edison's earliest light bulbs are a precious treasure. Hundreds of other objects represent the innumerable uses of electricity, from streetlights and railway signals to microwave ovens and satellite equipment.
"Energy & Power - Overview" showing 9 items.
Ship Tools from the Propeller Indiana, Shovel
- Description
- All the hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space below decks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery. The crew used the shovel to add coal to the fires.
- date made
- mid-1800s
- when the Indiana was found
- 1972
- ID Number
- 1979.1030.58
- catalog number
- 1979.1030.58
- accession number
- 1979.1030
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Propeller Indiana’s Capstan
- Description
- The capstan, most commonly found on the decks of early steamboats, was used as a vertical winch for raising or lowering anchors, hoisting sails and cargo, hauling heavy lines, or other jobs where individual manpower was not enough.
- It was operated manually, by putting timbers into the holes and using the resulting leverage to wind a line wrapped around the center of the device more easily. Sea chanties, or rhythmic songs, were often employed by ship crews to ensure that everyone hauled at the same time. Later in the 19th century, steam capstans and donkey engines replaced human muscle on the larger vessels.
- date made
- mid-1800s
- ID Number
- 1984.0359.02
- accession number
- 1984.0359
- catalog number
- 1984.0359.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ship Tools from the Propeller Indiana, Hand Truck
- Description
- These hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space belowdecks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery. The crew used the shovel to add coal to the fires.
- The hand truck—virtually identical to modern examples—is one of four found aboard Indiana and used for moving cargo into, out of, and around the cargo hold of the ship. This hand truck was the artifact that actually identified the vessel when it was located in 1972, for the words “PROPR INDIANA” were stamped into its handle. The other three had different ships’ names stamped on them, indicating that they were secondhand or borrowed equipment.
- Date made
- ca 1858
- when the Indiana was found
- 1972
- ID Number
- 1994.0033.01
- catalog number
- 1994.0033.01
- accession number
- 1994.0033
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Abraham Lincoln Patent Model Replica
- Description
- Abraham Lincoln had considerable maritime background, although it is usually eclipsed by his political heritage. At the age of 19 in Anderson Creek, Ind., he built a flatboat for $24, loaded it with a local farmer’s produce, and floated it 1,000 miles down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, where he sold both the boat and its cargo. When he was 22, he was hired by an Illinois store owner to take some goods down the Mississippi and sell them in New Orleans. Lincoln built another flatboat and successfully piloted it from New Salem, Ill. to New Orleans over a three-month period.
- In the mid-1840s, as a lawyer in Springfield, Ill., his law partner William Herndon recalled watching Lincoln working on a large boat model with a local craftsman. A Springfield resident recalled Lincoln demonstrating the idea for his model in public. His model embodies an idea Lincoln had for raising vessels over shoal waters by increasing their buoyancy. That idea became patent #6,469 in May 1849—the only patent ever obtained by an American president. After he became president in 1860 and moved to Washington, he visited his model in the nearby Patent Office at least once. He also enjoyed reviewing naval vessels and ideas, and he personally approved inventor John Ericsson’s idea for the ironclad warship Monitor.
- Lincoln’s original patent model was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1908 and has left the Mall only once since then, for an exhibit at the US Patent Office. This replica was built by the Smithsonian in 1978 for long-term display to preserve the fragile original.
- date made
- 1978
- ID Number
- TR*336769
- accession number
- 1978.2284
- catalog number
- 336769
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
The Propeller Indiana’s “Philadelphia Wheel”
- Description
- Indiana's propeller was manufactured by Spang & Co. of Pittsburgh, PA, as stamped on one of the blades. This firm, a large iron manufacturing company centered in Pittsburgh, PA, was founded in 1828 and was one of the earliest and largest manufacturers of iron products in the United States.
- The hub of the propeller is cast iron; the blades are rolled iron. One of the intact blades is chipped and dented, suggesting a collision. Another blade is missing outside the yellow line, which marks where a large section broke loose, probably from hitting an object in the water. This piece struck the Indiana's sternpost, literally “shivered her timbers,” and started the leak that sank the ship. The blade broke off completely when the ship struck the lakebed and was found at the wreck site, buried in the sand under the stern post. It is reproduced here in fiberglass.
- The closest design is by Richard Loper of Philadelphia, who registered three propeller-related patents in 1844 and 1845 and licensed his ideas to shipbuilders Reany, Neafie & Co., also of Philadelphia. Contemporary accounts state that Loper’s design was the most popular in the Great Lakes region, and some Lakes propeller manufacturers even advertised his design as the “Philadelphia Wheel.”
- Date made
- 1848
- possible patentee
- Loper, Richard
- maker
- Spang & Company
- ID Number
- 1979.1030.05
- catalog number
- 1979.1030.05
- accession number
- 1979.1030
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Coal from Propeller Indiana
- Description
- The abundance of timber along the shores of the Great Lakes gave steamboats a ready supply of fuel. Partly burned logs from Indiana's boiler grate indicate that the boiler had been stoked just before the steamboat sank.
- Pound for pound, coal provides more energy than wood. Coal was found in the vicinity of the boiler in the hold, and historical sources indicate that it was a common fuel on upbound (northerly) voyages, while wood was the principal downbound fuel.
- ID Number
- 1979.1030.07
- catalog number
- 1979.1030.07
- accession number
- 1979.1030
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Propeller Indiana’s Cargo of Iron Ore
- Description
- On 6 June 1858, the propeller Indiana sank in Lake Superior transporting its owner, three passengers and 280 tons of iron ore from Marquette, MI to Sault Ste. Marie, MI. The ship was insured for $9,000; the ore was insured separately for an undisclosed amount. One contemporary newspaper stated that it was the “first cargo of Lake Superior iron ore ever lost on the lakes.”
- The ship landed upright and slightly bow down on the lakebed in 120 feet of water; the bow split open and ore spilled out onto the sandy bottom. The deck of the shipwreck remains covered with iron ore today, and the cargo hold is filled about three feet deep with ore as well.
- Samples of the ore were recovered in 1979; upon analysis, they revealed that a high percentage of pure iron.
- date propeller Indiana sank
- 1858-06-06
- samples of the ore were collected
- 1979
- ID Number
- 1979.1030.12
- catalog number
- 1979.1030.12
- accession number
- 1979.1030
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Wood from Propeller Indiana
- Description
- The abundance of timber along the shores of the Great Lakes gave steamboats a ready supply of fuel. Partly burned logs from Indiana’s boiler grate indicate that the boiler had been stoked just before the steamboat sank.
- Pound for pound, coal provides more energy than wood. Coal was found in the vicinity of the boiler in the hold, and historical sources indicate that it was a common fuel on upbound (northerly) voyages, while wood was the principal downbound fuel.
- ID Number
- 1979.1030.64
- catalog number
- 1979.1030.64
- accession number
- 1979.1030
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Propeller Indiana’s Steam Whistle
- Description
- The ship’s steam whistle was powered by a steam line from the boiler. It was used to signal other ships or the shore, to let them know of its presence or its intentions. It was especially useful when approaching or leaving port, or in foggy or dark waters.
- Date made
- 1848
- ID Number
- 1982.0241.01
- accession number
- 1982.0241
- catalog number
- 82.0241.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center