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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Side Chair
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1875 - 1880
- ID Number
- 1977.0734.02
- accession number
- 1977.0734
- catalog number
- 1977.0734.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Side Chair
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1875 - 1880
- ID Number
- 1977.0734.01
- accession number
- 1977.0734
- catalog number
- 1977.0734.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Doll's Chair
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1872
- Date made
- ca 1872
- patent date
- 1872-05-21
- ID Number
- 1985.0259.3
- accession number
- 1985.0259
- catalog number
- 1985.0259.3
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Smith tricycle, ca. 1880
- Description
- The H. B. Smith Machine Co., of Smithville, New Jersey was well-known as the manufacturer of Star bicycles, and apparently offered tricycles such as this one during 1887 and 1888. The wheel size of this one seems to date this tricycle to 1888. According to the donor, Robert Atwater Smith, this vehicle was called the American Lever tricycle, yet there is no evidence in any of the Smith catalogs to substantiate this statement. This tricycle was donated to the Smithsonian in 1901.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- maker
- H. B. Smith Machine Co.
- ID Number
- TR.211501
- catalog number
- 211501
- accession number
- 38279
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Joseph Francis Life-Car
- Description
- As maritime traffic expanded in the early 19th century, especially with the rise in passenger travel, water safety became a top priority for American shipping inventors. This life-car, patented by Joseph Francis in 1845, was one of the most successful life-preserving devices developed at the time. Buoyant and pod-shaped, the metal life-car was used to rescue shipwreck victims when the vessel was foundering near land. While standing on the beach, a person from a lifesaving station used a cannon-like gun to shoot sturdy lines out to the ship, which would then be tied to the ship’s mast. The life-car was attached to, and pulled, along these lines. Up to four people were bolted into the airtight compartment. They laid flat as they were hauled through the rough waters to the safety of the shore.
- This life-car was first used on January 12, 1850, to rescue the stranded British bark Ayrshire. The ship, most likely filled with Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine, ran aground on a sand bar off the New Jersey shore at Squan Beach, now known as Manasquan. A blinding snow storm made the ocean too dangerous to launch a surfboat, the usual method of rescue, so local lifesavers decided to launch the newly installed, experimental life-car. Although never tested in an actual emergency, the Francis life-car performed as envisioned.
- Out of 166 passengers and 36 crew members on the Ayrshire, only one was lost, perhaps needlessly, in the short journey from ship to shore. A male passenger insisted on riding on top of the life-car while his family inside was hauled to safety. He could not hold on and was washed away by the surf. Over the next three years, this device rescued at least 1,400 people on the New Jersey shore alone, as well as countless amounts of valuable cargo. The original, groundbreaking life-car used in the Ayrshire wreck was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by Joseph Francis in 1885.
- date made
- late 1840s
- patented
- 1845
- Life-Car first used to rescue Ayrshire
- 1850-01-12
- Life-Car donated to the Smithsonian Institution
- 1885
- patentee
- Francis, Joseph
- ID Number
- TR.160322
- catalog number
- 160322
- accession number
- 16136
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Smith Star bicycle, ca. 1884
- Description
- This cycle was built by the H. B. Smith Machine Company, of Smithville, New Jersey. It bears the serial number 1200, and patent dates of 1880 and 1884. It was donated to the Smithsonian in 1908. According to the donor, this machine was given to his father, Benjamin F. Wilkins, around 1900. Mr. Wilkins, a member of the Capitol Bicycle Club of Washington, D.C., never rode it, as it was considered a relic when he acquired it.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1884
- ID Number
- TR.248836
- accession number
- 48354
- catalog number
- 248836
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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3rd NJ Forage Cap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- associated date
- 1861
- ID Number
- AF.24929
- accession number
- 64127
- catalog number
- 24929
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
ribbon
- Description
- A ribbon supporting Republican candidates James Garfield and Chester Arthur for President and Vice President in 1880.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- associated date
- 1880
- associated person
- Garfield, James A.
- Arthur, Chester A.
- associated institution
- Republican National Party
- ID Number
- PL.315264.0487
- catalog number
- 315264.0487
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Switch for Edison dynamo
- Date made
- 1881
- maker
- Edison Electric Co.
- ID Number
- EM.180944
- catalog number
- 180944
- accession number
- 24315
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Light switch for Edison installation
- Date made
- 1881
- ID Number
- EM.180942
- catalog number
- 180942
- accession number
- 24315
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Edison fuse block and fuse
- Date made
- 1881
- maker
- Edison Electric Co.
- ID Number
- EM.180943
- catalog number
- 180943
- accession number
- 24315
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Fixture for Edison light bulb
- Date made
- 1881
- ID Number
- EM.180939
- catalog number
- 180939
- accession number
- 24315
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Haff Game Counter, U.S. Patent Office Model
- Description
- This small and incomplete model from the U.S. Patent Office well illustrates the technology used to store information about patent models. Attached to the knob by red tape are two labels. The smaller tag records the entry of the model into the office on March 17, 1881. It indicates in pen the name of the inventor, Leroy B. Haff, the type of the invention (a game counter) and the date received. The front of the tag also is marked in pencil “issued.” The back of this tag also has the pen marks S 28482, 23 Div, and 84/1044.
- A second tag, attached to the model by the same piece of red tape, is the patent tag. It has what appears to be a form number, as well as space for the patent number (242635), the patentee (here spelled Le Roy B. Haff), the subject of the patent (Game-Counter), and the date patented (June 7, 1881). Glued to the back of the tag is a printed summary of the drawing and claims. This is heavily damaged.
- Haff’s invention was a small counter that recorded both points scored in a card game such as whist and the number of games won. Only the upper part of the model has survived.
- The inventor, Leroy (or Le Roy) B. Haff of Englewood, N.J., was no doubt the silversmith Leroy B. Haff (1841-1893) who lived in Engelwood and was a partner in the New York firm of silversmiths, Dominick & Haff. He also took out a patent for a corkscrew in 1889.
- References:
- Le Roy B. Haff, “Game-Counter,” U. S. Patent 242,635, June 7, 1881.
- Le Roy B. Haff, “Pocket-Corkscrew,” U S. Patent 356936, February 1, 1887.
- U. S. Census, 1880.
- “The Death of Leroy B. Haff,” The Jeweler’s Circular and Horological Review, vol. 22, #9, September 27, 1893, p. 13.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- patentee
- Haff, Le Roy B.
- maker
- Haff, Le Roy B.
- ID Number
- 1987.0107.02
- accession number
- 1987.0107
- catalog number
- 1987.0107.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Balance
- Description
- Frederick A. Roeder (1839-1884) was a German chemist who, while studying at the University of Göttingen, learned that the eminent professors, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber, had experimented with torsion wires as substitutes for knife edge pivots in balances. Later, while teaching at the University of Cincinnati, Roeder succeeded in making a torsion balance of the sort that had eluded Gauss and Weber. This instrument, he boasted in 1881, “can be constructed so cheaply that in the near future it will be possible for every druggist to supply himself with scales, closely approaching in sensitiveness those at present used by analytical chemists, this too at a price lower than is now asked for druggists’ scales. Consequently the prescribing physician, or he who dispenses his own medicines, may rest assured that the weight of the ingredients he orders can, with ordinary care, be determined with an exactitude at present impossible.”
- Roeder’s work caught the attention of Alfred Springer (1854-1946), a Cincinnati native with a chemistry Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg, whose prosperous family made flavors for food and beverages. The two men established the Torsion Balance and Scale Co. in 1882. This became the U.S. Torsion Balance Co. & Scale Co. in 1886, the Springer Torsion Balance Co. in 1887, and the Torsion Balance Co. in 1908. In 1891, the Committee on Science and the Arts of the Franklin Institute awarded the John Scott Legacy Premium and Medal to Roeder and Springer for their invention of the torsion balance.
- The frame this example is nickel-plated, with beveled glass sides and top. The base is marked “TORSION BALANCE.” A brass tag on the front reads: THE U.S. TORSION BALANCE & SCALE CO. / STYLE 270 NEW YORK NO. 170 / PATENTED AUG. 15, 1882.”
- Ref: Frederick A. Roeder, “Beam Scale,” U.S. Patent 262,905 (August 15, 1882), one half assigned to Alfred Springer.
- Frederick A. Roeder, “Platform Scale,” U.S. Patent 262,906 (August 15, 1882), one half assigned to Alfred Springer.
- William Kent, “The Torsion Balance,” Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 6 (1885): 636-654.
- Springer Torsion Balance Co., Price List of Fine Scales and Weights (New York, 1900), p. 5.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1886-1887
- maker
- Torsion Balance Company
- ID Number
- MG.311682.0013
- catalog number
- 311682.0013
- accession number
- 311682
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Picture Hook
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- after 1881
- patent date
- 1881-6-14
- ID Number
- 1983.0567.26
- catalog number
- 1983.0567.26
- accession number
- 1983.0567
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Pulley
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1839- 1880
- ID Number
- 1983.0567.18
- catalog number
- 1983.0567.18
- accession number
- 1983.0567
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Communipaw, N.J. Sugar Refineries, Communipaw, N. J.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1884
- graphic artist
- Moran, Thomas
- ID Number
- GA.14562
- catalog number
- 14562
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Brioschi
- Description
- The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are: Indicated as a pleasant, quick acting, effective antacid relieving upset stomach, hyperacidity, fullness, sour stomach, heartburn, and other forms of distress due to over-indulgence in food or drink.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- after 1880
- after 1907
- maker
- A. Brioschi and Company
- ID Number
- 1979.1144.029
- accession number
- 1979.1144
- catalog number
- 1979.1144.029
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Saturday Afternoons
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1889
- inscribed date
- 1889-07-01
- ID Number
- DL.62.0154
- catalog number
- 62.0154
- accession number
- 237889
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patriotic Order Sons of America
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- after 1888
- maker
- Whitehead & Hoag Company
- ID Number
- 2006.0098.1266
- accession number
- 2006.0098
- catalog number
- 2006.0098.1266
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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