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 2256 items.
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Patent Model of a Sheet-delivery Apparatus for Presses
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for an apparatus that delivers sheets printed side up, without risk of smudging when fresh ink came into contact with delivery tapes; the invention was granted patent number 221458.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1879
- patent date
- 1879-11-11
- maker
- Hawkins, John T.
- ID Number
- GA*89797.221458
- accession number
- 089797
- patent number
- 221458
- catalog number
- GA*89797.221458
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model of a Flatbed Cylinder Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a flatbed cylinder press which was granted patent number 221459. The patent describes a means of lifting the cylinder of a press by springs, rather than by the usual counterweights, so that the full weight of the cylinder could be used for the impression.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1879
- patent date
- 1879-11-11
- maker
- Hawkins, John T.
- ID Number
- GA*89797.221459
- accession number
- 089797
- patent number
- 221459
- catalog number
- GA*89797.221459
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model of a Rotary Printing Press and Folding Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for improvements to a web perfecting rotary press, with cutters and folding apparatus. The patent model was granted patent number 221704.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1879
- patent date
- 1879-11-18
- maker
- Scott, Walter
- ID Number
- GA*89797.221704
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 221704
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model of a Pantograph
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a pantograph which was granted patent number 222798. The patent details the arrangement of scales and adjustment devices on a pantograph, particularly intended for use by tailors and dressmakers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1879
- patent date
- 1879-12-23
- maker
- Schnoor, John J. F.
- ID Number
- GA*89797.222798
- patent number
- 222798
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.222798
- 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 that were adjusted by means of concentric projecting spirals on one half, working on concentric grooves in the other. The invention was granted patent number 223192.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1879
- patent date
- 1879-12-30
- patentee
- Torsch, Edward L.
- Lee, James R.
- ID Number
- GA*89797.223192
- patent number
- 223192
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.223192
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model of a Paper-cutting Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a guillotine paper cutter which was granted patent number 223744.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- patent date
- 1880-01-20
- maker
- Malm, Alexander
- ID Number
- GA*89797.223744
- patent number
- 223744
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.223744
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent model for autographic printing
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a method of making printed copies from handwriting on paper. Sulphate of iron was added to ordinary writing ink. The completed writing was pressed onto a plate coated with sensitized gelatine, which received the image in a form that could be printed like a lithograph. The invention was granted patent number 223873. The patent model consists of a coated plate with an image. Both coating and image have deteriorated badly.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- patent date
- 1880-01-27
- maker
- Bardwell, John Jex
- ID Number
- GA*89797.223873
- accession number
- 089797
- patent number
- 223873
- catalog number
- GA*89797.223873
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model of a Plate-printing Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a D-cylinder press with improved movement which was granted patent number 224132.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- patent date
- 1880-02-03
- maker
- Bogart, Albert H.
- ID Number
- GA*89797.224132
- patent number
- 224132
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- GA*879797.224132
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model of a Type-composing Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a type composing apparatus which was granted patent number 224166. Patentee Alexander Fraser's composer was designed to work with his type-distributing machine. Type, stored in horizontal trays at the top of the machine, was nudged forward at the touch of a key to fall down assembling channels and into a continuous line. The operator would break off line lengths manually and space out the words as needed. Alexander Fraser was from Edinburgh, Scotland, where his composers were used successfully for several years. Elements of his typesetting and distributing machines were patented in Britain in 1872, 1875, and 1877, before the American patents were taken out.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- patent date
- 1880-02-03
- maker
- Fraser, Alexander
- ID Number
- GA*89797.224166
- patent number
- 224166
- catalog number
- GA*89797.224166
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model of a Type-distributing Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a type distributing machine which was granted patent number 224167. Fraser's distributer worked like his composer, but in reverse. Lines of dead type, held at the top of the machine, were read off by the operator who keyed in the letters. The action of the keys pushed the type down channels and back into storage trays, to be returned to the composing machine.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- patent date
- 1880-02-03
- maker
- Fraser, Alexander
- ID Number
- GA*89797.224167
- patent number
- 224167
- catalog number
- GA*89797.224167
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center