Energy & Power
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.
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Experimental Incandescent Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental incandescent lamp, U.S. Patent # 317676. The radiator consists of two corrugated copper ribbons.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1885
- 1880
- maker
- Sawyer, William E.
- ID Number
- EM.308596
- catalog number
- 308596
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 317676
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Ruby Crystal from Maiman Laser
- Description
- This is a ruby crystal from Theodore Maiman's experiments of May 1960, and may be the first crystal to generate laser light. The synthetic crystal was mounted in a small holder that also contained a spiral flashlamp of the type photographers used. When the lamp flashed, the light pulse stimulated the atoms within the crystal. The atoms released that energy in the form of a laser light pulse.
- Maiman earned a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford in 1955 and went to work at Hughes Research Laboratories the following year where he worked on masers. After attending a conference in September 1959, Maiman ran experiments investigating the possibility that a ruby crystal might be capable of emitting laser light. The experiments proved successful when, on 16 May 1960, he and assistant Irnee D’Haenes demonstrated the first operating laser. Rather than producing a continuous beam, their ruby laser operated in pulses. Their success caught the scientific community by surprise and was a pivotal moment in the history of lasers.
- This crystal was one of several in the laboratory at the time of the experiments. No one knows with certainly which crystal actually generated the first laser light, though when the crystal was donated to the Smithsonian in 1967, officials at Hughes reported that this crystal was indeed the first.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1960
- associated date
- 1960-07
- associated institution
- Hughes Research Laboratories
- maker
- Maiman, Theodore H.
- Hughes Aircraft Company
- ID Number
- EM.330048
- catalog number
- 330048
- accession number
- 288813
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Early experimental tungsten halogen lamp made in mid 1955 by co-inventor Elmer Fridrich.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1955
- maker
- Fridrich, Elmer G.
- ID Number
- 1996.0147.01
- catalog number
- 1996.0147.01
- accession number
- 1996.0147
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Experimental Lead-in Wires
- Description (Brief)
- Hammered molybdenum foil leads with tungsten electrodes mounted to the foils for use as arc lamp electrode.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1965
- maker
- General Electric Lighting Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0147.46
- catalog number
- 1996.0147.46
- accession number
- 1996.0147
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Phosphor sample
- Description (Brief)
- Sample of YOX (Yttrium Oxide Europium) phosphor. Glows red when exposed to ultraviolet light.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1995
- Maker
- Philips Lighting BV
- ID Number
- 1996.0166.07
- catalog number
- 1996.0166.07
- accession number
- 1996.0166
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Environmental Button
- Description
- This button produced by the California Department of Water and Power advocates prudent energy usage.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0367
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0367
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental lamp made by co-inventor Edward Zubler.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1975
- maker
- General Electric Lighting Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0082.05
- catalog number
- 1996.0082.05
- accession number
- 1996.0082
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Survey boat GRAND
- Description
- Grand is one of four boats used to survey the "ruggedest" 300 miles of the Colorado River's Grand Canyon during the 1923 expedition by the U.S. Geological Survey. Led by Col. Claude Birdseye, the expedition's primary purpose was to survey potential dam sites for the development of hydroelectric power. Indeed, the survey party mapped twenty-one new sites.
- Grand is eighteen feet long, with a beam of four feet, eleven inches. Heavily built of oak, spruce, and cedar, the boat weighs about 900 pounds. Grand is one of three boats ordered in 1921 by the survey's sponsors, the Edison Electric Company, and built at the Fellows and Stewart Shipbuilding Works in San Pedro. The vessels were patterned after those designed by the Kolb brothers, who had based their boats on vessels used by trappers in the upper Colorado River canyons.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1921
- associated date
- 1923
- associated institution
- US Geological Survey
- maker
- Fellows and Stewart Shipbuilding Works
- ID Number
- TR.034381
- catalog number
- 034381
- 34381
- accession number
- 71541
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
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
-
Tungsten Stereoptican Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- A coiled-tungsten filament stereoptican projection lamp with a globe-shaped envelope.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1914
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- EM.307577
- catalog number
- 307577
- accession number
- 68492
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Experimental Tungsten Halogen Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Experimental LEAP (Linear Exhaust And Processing) tungsten halogen lamp for a production method that used a laser.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1972
- maker
- General Electric Lighting Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0082.04
- catalog number
- 1996.0082.04
- accession number
- 1996.0082
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Carbon Filament Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Carbon lamp. A typical commercial incandescent lamp of the early 1890s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1892
- ID Number
- EM.181812
- catalog number
- 181812
- accession number
- 33407
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Tungsten Filament Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- A third generation tungsten filament lamp with pear-shaped envelope. For use in street lighting on a parallel-circuit.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1920
- maker
- General Electric Company
- ID Number
- EM.307592
- catalog number
- 307592
- accession number
- 68492
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Carbon Filament Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Typical carbon filament lamp from the late 1800s made with a Thomson-Houston Company base.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1895
- ca. 1895
- maker
- Thomson-Houston Electric Company
- ID Number
- EM.333032
- accession number
- 294351
- catalog number
- 333032
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Standard Carbon Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Typical carbon filament lamp tested at the National Bureau of Standards.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1905
- ID Number
- 1992.0342.02
- catalog number
- 1992.0342.02
- accession number
- 1992.0342
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Laser Level
- Description
- Lasers have proven very useful in the construction industry. One example is this Spectra-Physics model 910 "LaserLevel" made in the early 1980s. In use, a construction worker attached the unit to a tripod and adjusted it so that it was nearly parallel to the ground. The level automatically completed the adjustment process when activated, and then emitted a beam of infrared light from a rotating head. The worker then moved to where-ever a measurement was needed and used a special laser detector to complete the task.
- The "LaserLevel" self-adjusted if bumped slightly and completely shut off if bumped too much. The level operated automatically so it allowed one person to do work of two, resulting in cost savings since fewer assistants were needed.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1985
- maker
- Spectra-Physics Scanning Systems, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1985.0417.01
- accession number
- 1985.0417
- catalog number
- 1985.0417.01
- model number
- 910
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Preampliier for multiwire proportional chamber from J-particle experiment of S. Ting at Brookhaven
- Description
- One signal amplifier on rectangular plastic circuit board. Apparently one of these preamplifiers would have been plugged into one corresponding socket of Mulitwire Proportional Chamber 1989.0050.01.1. A sticker accompanying this object reads "8 wire signals [from associated socket on chamber] get amplified .0002V to .8V" (to output to the computer). Similarly for all sockets of all four chambers in each of the two arms of the spectrometer setup at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, which was used to measure electrons and positrons resulting from decay of a hypothesized massive "J" particle.
- Rectangular green plastic circuit board, with electronic components soldered on upper surface. As viewed from front of board: at left end of bottom edge are 12 contact strips, only 8 of which are connected to the circuits. Near the right end of the bottom edge are 10 such contact strips. Protruding from right edge are 10 pairs of short wires, which are inserted into a green plastic connector fitting, which has 9 contact sockets on the other side.
- For background on the multiwire proportional chamber from J-particle experiment of S. Ting at Brookhaven see description for object ID no. 1989.0050.01.1
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1972-1973
- designer
- Becker, Ulrich
- ID Number
- 1989.0050.01.2
- accession number
- 1989.0050
- catalog number
- 1989.0050.01.2
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Oak Ridge 60 Inch Vertical Heavy-ion Cyclotron Dees
- Description
- This object is the dee assembly from the Oak Ridge 63-inch cyclotron, as adapted for the Atom Smashers exhibition at the National Museum of American History.
- The object consists of copper hollow D-shaped electrodes (dees) mounted on heavy stems placed through a steel plate. The dee assembly is positioned vertically, rather than the common practice of being positioned horizontally as in most cyclotrons. The assembly is mounted on a flat painted rectangular base, constructed with unspecified construction board material. After the assembly was received at NMAH, the metal casing enclosing the dee stems was removed and discarded, and prior to being exhibited in the Atom Smashers exhibition, the stems were truncated in length by approximately two feet.
- History and basic principles of the Oak Ridge 63-inch cyclotron
- In 1951 the Oak Ridge National Laboratory was authorized by the Atomic Energy Commission to construct a heavy-particle cyclotron. An accelerator, designated the OREL 63-Inch Heavy-Particle Cyclotron, was then designed and built by the Electronuclear Research Division of the Laboratory. The first beam was obtained on May 20, 1952 and a productive research program was initiated shortly afterwards. The past usefulness of this cyclotron is indicated by the amount of nuclear data derived from its operation.
- This cyclotron was the first built expressly to accelerate ions heavier than hydrogen and helium. Designed by Alexander Zucker, this cyclotron helped open a very active field of atomic and nuclear research, which is now pursued with much larger and costlier accelerators. It constructed was constructed to determine whether the explosion of a very powerful thermonuclear bomb might trigger a chain reaction of nitrogen nuclei, igniting the earth’s atmosphere; experiments with this cyclotron, colliding nitrogen ions with nitrogen ions, established that this fear was unwarranted.
- The basic design of the 63-inch is that of a conventional, fixed-frequency cyclotron. In operation, triply charged nitrogen ions were produced by the ion source and were accelerated in a magnetic field of 15,500 gauss. The ions were then electrostatically deflected at the radius of 25.6 inches yielding an external beam of nitrogen ions with a mean energy of about 28 MeV. The accelerating system operated at a frequency of 5.1 MHz/sec and employed dee-to-earth voltages between 35 and 50 kV.
- The vertical position of the dees is characteristic of cyclotrons designed at Oak Ridge. This departure from common practice at the time originally arose from parasitical use of the Calutrons, the large, ganged electromagnetic mass separators built during the Second World War to produce uranium-235 for the first atomic bombs. This and earlier Oak Ridge cyclotrons were “plugged into” Calutron magnets, in place of one of the scores of uranium isotope separation units.
- Basic principles of the cyclotron
- The cyclotron is the simplest of circular particle accelerators. (Go to https://www.physics.rutgers.edu/cyclotron/theory_of_oper.shtml to see a diagram of a typical cyclotron.) At its center is a vacuum chamber which is placed between the pole pieces of a large electromagnet. Within the chamber is a pair “dees” - two flat D-shaped hollow metallic shells - positioned back-to-back forming a cylindrical space, with a uniform gap between the straight sides of the two dees. The plane of the dees is parallel to the faces of the magnet pole pieces. An alternating voltage is applied across the gap between the dees, creating an associated time-varying electric field in that space.
- Electrically charged particles, such as protons, alpha particles or heavier ions, are introduced into the chamber from an ion source at the center. The charged particles are constrained to travel in a circular path inside the dees in a plane perpendicular to the direction of the static uniform magnetic field produced by the electromagnet. The electric field accelerates the particles across the gap between the dees. The electric field is made to alternate with the “cyclotron period” of the particle (determined by magnetic field strength and the particle’s mass and charge). Thus, when the particles complete a semi-circle and arrive at the gap again, the electric field has reversed, so that the particles are again accelerated across the gap. Due to their increased speed in the constant magnetic field, the particles now move in a larger circle.
- The increasing speed of the particles causes them to move in a larger radius with each half-rotation, resulting in a spiral path outward from the center to the outer rim of the dees. When they reach the rim the particles are pulled out by a deflecting electrode, and hit a target located at the exit point at the rim of the chamber, or leave the cyclotron through an evacuated beam tube to hit a remote target. Nuclear reactions due to the collisions of the particle beam and the target atoms will create secondary particles which may be guided outside of the cyclotron and into instruments for analysis.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- May 20, 1952
- maker
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- ID Number
- 1977.0359.41.1
- accession number
- 1977.0359
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Standard Carbon Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Typical carbon filament lamp tested at the National Bureau of Standards.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1905
- ID Number
- 1992.0342.03
- catalog number
- 1992.0342.03
- accession number
- 1992.0342
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Electronic Halarc Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- The Halarc lamp was an attempt by General Electric to produce an energy-efficient replacement for the common, incandescent A-lamp. While other makers focused on developing reliable compact fluorescent lamps, GE decided to miniaturize its metal halide technology. Already successful for street lighting, large metal halide lamps provided good color and excellent energy efficiency. Unfortunately the miniaturized lamps had undesirable performance characteristics such as taking several minutes to come to full-power and changing color emissions. These issues combined with high cost made the lamp a commercial failure.
- date made
- ca 1981
- ID Number
- 1992.0428.01
- catalog number
- 1992.0428.01
- accession number
- 1992.0428
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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- Work and Industry: Electricity 539
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