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 13 items.
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- No Image Available
Crown Water Meter
- Description
- This is a rotary piston water meter signed “Nat’l Meter Co. N.Y. AA-X Crown Meter.” It has a split case and no serial number. It fit a ⅝” pipe, and was made by the National Meter Company of New York-whether in Manhattan or in Brooklyn remains to be determined. AA-X designates a linear register.
- Lewis Hallock Nash, a student at the Stevens Institute of Technology, patented the first rotary-piston water meter and assigned his rights to the National Meter Company in New York City. Joining the firm after graduation, Nash developed a rotary piston meter that was accurate, durable, simple, compact, and inexpensive. National termed it the Crown, introduced it to market in 1882, and was soon boasting that this model was “used and adopted by no less than 400 Cities and Towns in the United States, the Dominion of Canada, and abroad.” National was still manufacturing the Crown some forty years later.
- Ref: Lewis H. Nash, “Rotary Water-Meter,” U.S. Patent #211,852 (1879).
- National Meter Co., Statistics, Tables and Water Meters (New York, 1887).
- date made
- ca 1882-ca 1925
- maker
- National Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325826
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325826
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Empire Magnoseal Water Meter
- Description
- This is an oscillating piston water meter with a frost-proof bottom and serial numbers 912,409 (on the lid) and 912,413 (on the side). It fit a ⅝” pipe, and was made by the National Meter Company in Brooklyn, N. Y. The Magnoseal, introduced in 1912, was apparently a magnetic drive designed to eliminate the stuffing box, a device that prevents leakage along a moving part passing through a hole in a vessel containing steam, water or oil.
- Ref: National Meter Company, Water-Meter Evolution, Magno-Seal Meters (May 1912); this is listed in Catalogue of Copyright Entries (1912), p. 11073.
- date made
- ca 1912
- maker
- National Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325827
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325827
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Empire Type 7-AAX-H.W. Water Meter
- Description
- This is an oscillating piston water meter with split case and serial numbers 1,580,254 (on the lid) and 1,666,207 (on the side). It fit a ⅝” pipe, and was made by the National Meter Company in Brooklyn, N. Y., around 1922. It has a deep base made of iron designed to neutralize the galvanic action of chemical-laden waters. AAX designates a linear register.
- date made
- ca 1922
- maker
- National Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325828
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325828
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Empire Type 9-AX Water Meter
- Description
- This is an oscillating piston water meter with frost-proof bottom and serial number 2,034,810. The meter fit a ⅝” or ¾” pipe, and was made by the National Meter Company in Brooklyn, N. Y. Type-9 designates a shallow base. AX designates a round register.
- date made
- ca 1900-ca 1941
- maker
- National Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325829
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325829
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Empire Type 9-AX Water Meter
- Description
- This is an oscillating piston water meter with frost-proof bottom and serial number 2,833,610. The meter fit a ⅝” or ¾” pipe, and was made by the National Meter Company in Brooklyn, N. Y., around 1941. Type-9 designates a shallow base. AX designates a round register.
- date made
- ca 1941
- maker
- National Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325830
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Empire Type 11 Water Meter
- Description
- This is an oscillating piston water meter with split case and serial number 2,194,232. It fit a ⅝” or ¾” pipe, and was made by the National Meter Company in Brooklyn, N. Y., around 1930. National introduced the Type 11 meter in 1927, noting that the composition of the bronze case was their "own special mixture" and "highly resistant to corrosion."
- Ref: National Meter Company, The Empire Oscillating Piston Water Meter (1930).
- date made
- ca 1930
- maker
- National Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325831
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325831
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Empire Type 9-AAX Water Meter
- Description
- This is an oscillating piston water meter with frost proof bottom and serial number 845,247. It fit a ⅝” pipe, and was made by the National Meter Company in Brooklyn, N. Y., probably around 1910. Type-9 designates a shallow base. AAX designates a straight-reading register.
- date made
- ca 1910
- maker
- National Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325836
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325836
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Nash Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with frost-proof flanges on the bottom and serial number 2,060,039 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made by the National Meter Company in Brooklyn, New York, probably in the 1930s. The name refers to Lewis H. Nash, the man who served as chief engineer of National Meter for over thirty-five years and who, in the late 1880s, designed the first disc meter made in the United States.
- National Meter began in business in Manhattan in 1870, broke ground for a larger factory in Brooklyn in 1891, and announced in 1893 that it was “the largest establishment for the manufacture of water meters in the world.” It became the National Meter Division of the Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company in the early 1940s. National Meter and Pittsburgh Equitable Meter became divisions of the Rockwell Manufacturing Company in 1947; and Rockwell became part of SENSUS in 2003.
- date made
- ca 1930s
- maker
- National Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325863
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325863
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Nash Type K Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with split case and serial number 1,215,590 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made by the National Meter Company in Brooklyn, New York, probably in the 1920s. The case is marked “5/8 NASH TYPE K NATIONAL METER CO” and “1215590.” The cap is marked: “NASH METER PAT’S APRIL 1 1902, JULY 15 1914, FEB 9 1915” and “1215590.” The name refers to Lewis H. Nash, the man who served as chief engineer of National Meter for over thirty-five years and who, in the late 1880s, designed the first disc meter made in the United States.
- Ref: Nash Water Meter Type “K” (Dixie Model); this is National Meter Company Circular 201.
- date made
- ca 1915-ca 1947
- maker
- National Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325864
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325864
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Nash Type 9 Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with frost-proof flanges on the bottom and serial number 775,872 that fit a ⅝” pipe, and that was made by the National Meter Company in Brooklyn, New York. The case is marked “NATIONAL METER CO. 5/8 AA-X NASH” and “TYPE 9” and “1114” and “775872.” The rectangular top is marked “NATIONAL METER CO. NEW YORK 775872” AND “1114.” The name refers to Lewis H. Nash, the man who served as chief engineer of National Meter for over thirty-five years and who, in the late 1880s, designed the first disc meter made in the United States. AA-X designates a linear register.
- Ref: National Meter Co., Type “9” Nash Water Meter.
- date made
- ca 1910-ca 1947
- maker
- National Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325865
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325865
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center