Natural Resources - Overview
The natural resources collections offer centuries of evidence about how Americans have used the bounty of the American continent and coastal waters. Artifacts related to flood control, dam construction, and irrigation illustrate the nation's attempts to manage the natural world. Oil-drilling, iron-mining, and steel-making artifacts show the connection between natural resources and industrial strength.
Forestry is represented by saws, axes, a smokejumper's suit, and many other objects. Hooks, nets, and other gear from New England fisheries of the late 1800s are among the fishing artifacts, as well as more recent acquisitions from the Pacific Northwest and Chesapeake Bay. Whaling artifacts include harpoons, lances, scrimshaw etchings in whalebone, and several paintings of a whaler's work at sea. The modern environmental movement has contributed buttons and other protest artifacts on issues from scenic rivers to biodiversity.
"Natural Resources - Overview" showing 11 items.
Page 1 of 2
- No Image Available
Trident Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with frost proof bottom and serial number 60,777 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made in the late 1890s by the Neptune Meter Company. The bronze case is marked “TRIDENT” and “60777.” The top of the cap is marked “NEPTUNE METER COMPANY NEW YORK 39291.” The inside of the cap is marked “PATENTED MAY 21, NOV. 1, 1892, FEB 6, MAY 22, 1894, MAR 12, 1895, SEP 29 ‘96” and “60777.” The firm was founded in 1892. Its original product, the Trident, was based on designs patented by John Thomson, a prolific inventor and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Neptune boasted in 1903 that “Nearly 165,000 Tridents” were then in use.
- Ref: Neptune Meter Company, The Trident Water Meter (New York, 1895, 1901, 1903).
- date made
- late 1890s
- maker
- Neptune Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325873
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325873
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Trident Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with a frost proof bottom and serial number 79,850 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made around 1900 by the Neptune Meter Company. The bronze case is marked “TRIDENT.” The top of the cap is marked “NEPTUNE METER COMPANY NEW YORK 79850.” The inside of the cap is marked “PATENTED MAY 21, NOV. 1, 92 FEB 6 MAY 22 94 MAR 12 95 SEP 29 96 APR. 12 98 JAN 24 99.” The firm was founded in 1892. Its original product, the Trident water meter, was based on designs patented by John Thomson, a prolific inventor and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Neptune boasted in 1903 that “Nearly 165,000 Tridents” were then in use.
- Ref: Neptune Meter Company, The Trident Water Meter (New York, 1895, 1901, 1903).
- date made
- ca 1900
- maker
- Neptune Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325874
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325874
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Trident Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with split case and serial number 366,654 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made by the Neptune Meter Company in Long Island City, New York, in the first decade of the twentieth century. The firm was founded in 1892. Its original product, the Trident water meter, was based on designs patented by John Thomson, a prolific inventor and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Neptune boasted in 1909 that “A record of over 600,000 Trident Meters made and sold give to us the pre-eminent position among water meter manufacturers.”
- Ref: Neptune Meter Company, The Trident Water Meter (New York, 1895, 1901, 1903).
- date made
- ca 1900-ca 1910
- maker
- Neptune Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325875
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325875
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Trident Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with split case and serial number 992,671 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made around 1913 by the Neptune Meter Company in Long Island City, New York. The firm was founded in 1892. Its original product, the Trident water meter, was based on designs patented by John Thomson, a prolific inventor and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- Ref: Neptune Meter Company, The Trident Water Meter (New York, 1895, 1901, 1903).
- date made
- ca 1913
- maker
- Neptune Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325876
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325876
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Trident Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with split case and serial number 5,507,307 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made by the Neptune Meter Company in Long Island City, New York, around 1939. The Trident was based on designs patented by John Thomson, a prolific inventor and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- Ref: Neptune Meter Company, The Trident Water Meter (New York, 1895, 1901, 1903).
- date made
- ca 1939
- maker
- Neptune Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325877
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325877
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Trident Victor Water Meter
- Description
- This water meter, serial number 1,302,284, fit a ⅝” pipe, and was made by the Neptune Meter Company in Long Island City, New York. Neptune introduced the Victor model around 1915, noting that it had an oscillating piston, a cast iron bottom, and precision machining of the parts.
- Ref: “A New Oscillating Piston Water Meter,” Engineering and Construction 44 (1915): 96-97.
- Neptune Meter Company, A Quarter Century of Trident Success, 1892-1917 (1917), pp. 56-57.
- date made
- ca 1915-ca 1940
- maker
- Neptune Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325878
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325878
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Trident Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc meter with frost proof bottom and serial number 3,908,357 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made by the Neptune Meter Company in Long Island City, New York, around 1929. The Trident was based on designs patented by John Thomson, a prolific inventor and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- Ref: Neptune Meter Company, The Trident Water Meter>/i> (New York, 1895, 1901, 1903).
- date made
- ca 1929
- maker
- Neptune Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325879
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325879
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Trident Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc meter with split case and serial number 6,611,329 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made by the Neptune Meter Company in Long Island City, New York, around 1943. The Trident was based on designs patented by John Thomson, a prolific inventor and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- Ref: Neptune Meter Company, The Trident Water Meter (New York, 1895, 1901, 1903).
- date made
- ca 1943
- maker
- Neptune Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325880
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325880
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Trident Water Meter
- Description
- This is a cutaway model of a disc meter with frost proof bottom and serial number 901,271 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made by the Neptune Meter Company in Long Island City, New York, around 1912. The Trident was based on designs patented by John Thomson, a prolific inventor and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- Ref: Neptune Meter Company, The Trident Water Meter (New York, 1895, 1901, 1903).
- date made
- ca 1912
- maker
- Neptune Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325881
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325881
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Trident Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc meter marked “TRIDENT COMPANY 2 INCH” and “NEPTUNE METER COMPANY NEW YORK.” The Trident was based on designs patented by John Thomson, a prolific inventor and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- date made
- 1892-1945
- maker
- Neptune Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*329736
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 329736
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center