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 76 items.
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Modular compact fluorescent lamp
- Description
- After the withdrawal from the market of their miniature metal-halide lamp, General Electric began offering compact fluorescent lamps as replacements for energy-efficient incandescent lamps. This 1995 "Biax" compact fluorescent lamp is designed for both commercial and residential markets.
- The unit has a modular design. When the electrodes fail in the tubes, the tube assembly can be replaced without having to also replace the ballast and electronics housed in the adapter unit. Unlike the Philips PL design that uses a thin bridge weld to connect the two tubes, the Biax lamp folds the tube at the top. The connecting section sags a little, creating a space at the top of each tube-leg for mercury to condense.
- The screw-in adapter unit is a feature of Biax lamps sold to consumers. Commercial users typically buy lighting fixtures that come equipped with the ballast and control electronics, as well as the special plug-in sockets.
- Lamp characteristics: Unit consists of a 5 watt, twin-tube lamp with a base adapter that contains a ballast, starter, and screw-base. Lamp: S plastic G23 single-end base with two brass pins. Two tungsten electrodes, mercury fill. Two parallel, phosphor-coated tubes with "sagging bridge" connection. RE 827 phosphor. There is a seam around outside of the tube. Tips of tubes (above bridge) allow areas away from the arc where mercury can condense. Adapter: A nickel-plated brass medium-screw base with glass insulator and plastic housing. Socket for G23 base on top and a magnetic ballast inside housing. 1993 GE catalog notes that the starter is in the lamp base--not the adapter.
- Date made
- ca 1995
- date made
- ca. 1995
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- 2003.0030.07
- accession number
- 2003.0030
- catalog number
- 2003.0030.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mercury vapor lamp, type H1
- Description
- The type H-1 mercury vapor lamp represented a significant advance in commercial-industrial light sources. Prior to the H-1, mercury lamps contained large amounts of the toxic metal, and most were large and awkward to use. The H-1 featured a small amount of mercury contained in an internal hard-glass "arc-tube" mounted inside the lamp. Compared to previous mercury lamps, the H-1 was a compact and convenient device.
- This particular unit is a first generation model from about 1934. A wire grid seen wrapped around the arc-tube helps the unit to start. Later models used a special small electrode for that task. Use of the internal arc-tube allowed the lamp to operate at high internal pressure, resulting in better energy efficiency. While not the first high-pressure mercury vapor lamp, mass production of the H-1 and its ease of use led to its wide adoption. Today's mercury vapor and metal halide lamps can be considered refinements of the H-1.
- Lamp characteristics: A brass mogul-screw base with glass insulator. Hard-glass arc-tube with mercury drops visible on the inner wall. Two mandrel and re-coiled tungsten electrodes. Dumet and stranded wire leads connect the base to the electrodes. Starting electrode-grid wrapped around arc-tube and connected to frame. There is no starting resistor in this lamp. Welded connectors. Tipless, T-shape envelope. 400-watt rating.
- Mercury vapor lamps are one type of discharge lamp. Other types are fluorescent and neon tubes. They make light by passing an electric current through a gas, and require additional devices called ballasts to operate properly (not seen in the pictures). More information about how discharge lamps operate is on our website Lighting A Revolution.
- Date made
- ca 1934
- date made
- ca. 1934
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- EM*318195
- catalog number
- 318195
- accession number
- 232822
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
General Electric Demonstration Fluorescent Lamp
- Description
- In the late 1920s and early 1930s, reports began reaching GE and Westinghouse of French experiments with neon tubes coated with phosphors. A phosphor is a material that absorbs one type of light and radiates another. American scientist Arthur Compton, a consultant to GE, reported seeing a green French lamp giving 30 lumens per watt in 1934, and his report sparked an intensive, cooperative research program to make a fluorescent lamp. In 1936, this tube using low pressure mercury vapor and a coating of phosphors was quietly demonstrated to the Illuminating Engineering Society and the U.S. Navy.
- In 1939, GE and Westinghouse publicly introduced fluorescent lamps at both the New York World's Fair and the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco. Other lamp makers like Sylvania and Duro-Test soon followed. The need for efficient lighting in wartime factories brought rapid adoption of fluorescent lighting and by 1951 industry sources reported that more light in the United States was being produced by fluorescent lamps than by incandescent lamps.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1936
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- EM*318197
- catalog number
- 318197
- accession number
- 232822
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Prototype Reflector Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Reportedly the first ellipsoidal reflector lamp. See U.S. patent #4,041,344 issued to Frank LaGuisa.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1976
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- 1985.0410.01
- accession number
- 1985.0410
- catalog number
- 1985.0410.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Standard Tungsten Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- First generation tungsten lamp tested at the National Bureau of Standards. Filament is sintered tungsten.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1908
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- 1992.0342.17
- accession number
- 1992.0342
- catalog number
- 1992.0342.17
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Standard Tungsten Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- First generation tungsten lamp tested at the National Bureau of Standards. Filament is sintered tungsten.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1908
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- 1992.0342.18
- accession number
- 1992.0342
- catalog number
- 1992.0342.18
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Electronic Halarc Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- GE metal halide lamp for indoor use, production unit. Failed competitor to compact fluorescent lamp.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1981
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- 1992.0428.01
- catalog number
- 1992.0428.01
- accession number
- 1992.0428
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tungsten Lamp with Reflective Coating
- Description (Brief)
- GE tungsten lamp tested by the Department of Energy. An infrared-reflecting coat raised the filament temperature.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1985
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- 1992.0466.02
- catalog number
- 1992.0466.02
- accession number
- 1992.0466
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Eleectronic Halarc Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- GE metal halide lamp for indoor use, production unit. Failed competitor to compact fluorescent lamp.
- date made
- ca 1981
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0084.01
- accession number
- 1996.0084
- catalog number
- 1996.0084.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Capacitor Cap
- Description (Brief)
- Aluminum caps for high-temperature capacitor for Halarc metal halide and filament lamp.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1980
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0147.35
- accession number
- 1996.0147
- catalog number
- 1996.0147.35
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center