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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Abraham Lincoln Campaign Medal
- Description (Brief)
- This presidential campaign medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1860. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer, and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and campaign badges.
- Obverse: Profile image of Abraham Lincoln facing right. Legend reads: HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1860.
- Reverse: Depiction of two men splitting logs with a log cabin in the background. Legend reads: THE RAIL SPLITTER OF THE WEST.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- depicted
- Lincoln, Abraham
- maker
- Scovill Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1981.0296.1074
- accession number
- 1981.0296
- catalog number
- 1981.0296.1074
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model of a Typesetting for Stereotype Plates
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a typesetter for stereotype plates which was granted patent number 52073. The invention included the use of a "perpetual font of type" for impressing letters into a plastic molding material. Type was stored in a permanent holder, each piece tied by a thin strip of metal. At the touch of a key, type fell to casting position, the faces protruding below the holder. After casting, the type was returned to the storage cell.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1866
- patent date
- 1866-01-16
- patentee
- Paulding, John
- ID Number
- GA.89797.052073
- patent number
- 052073
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.052073
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model of a Type Mold
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a mold for casting multiple pieces of type from a strip of matrices; the invention was granted patent number 40076.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1863
- patent date
- 1863-09-22
- maker
- Davis, R. W.
- Davis, D.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.040076
- patent number
- 040076
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.040076
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model of a Typesetting and Distributing Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a typesetting and distributing machine which was granted patent number 28463. Typing at the keyboard perforated a paper tape to produce a complete "registry" of the keystrokes, including all spacing and leading. This record could be used to set several identical pages of type or, fed in reverse, to redistribute the type to its cases. The keyboard is missing from the model.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1860
- patent date
- 1860-05-29
- maker
- Felt, Charles W.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.028463
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 028463
- catalog number
- GA*89797.028463
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model of a Typesetting Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a typesetting machine which was granted patent number 57034. Type was held in cases arranged radially around a rotating "receiver." As each letter was selected at a keyboard it was released to the receiver, lined up, and passed to a galley.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1866
- patent date
- 1866-08-07
- maker
- Baer, Charles
- ID Number
- GA.89797.057034
- patent number
- 057034
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.057034
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model for a Press for Printing Railroad Tickets in Two or More Colors
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a printing press for printing railroad tickets which was granted patent number 38781. The press carried two or more reciprocating "heads," each with a form of type, and an inking apparatus capable of inking each form in a different color. Printing was on a roll of paper or card, which was cut into strips after printing.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1863
- patent date
- 1863-06-02
- maker
- Baker, William H.
- Hill, George J.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.038781
- patent number
- 038781
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.038781
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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John C. Breckinridge Campaign Badge
- Description (Brief)
- This presidential campaign badge was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1860. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer that is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and campaign badges. The rim of this badge has a hole so it could be worn.
- Obverse: Tintype of John Breckinridge. The rim’s legend reads: JOHN. C. BRECKINRIDGE 1860.
- Reverse: Tintype of Joseph Lane. The rim’s legend reads: JOSEPH LANE 1860.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- depicted
- Breckinridge, John C.
- Lane, Joseph
- maker
- Scovill Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1981.0296.1090
- accession number
- 1981.0296
- catalog number
- 1981.0296.1090
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Abraham Lincoln Campaign Badge
- Description (Brief)
- This presidential campaign badge was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1860. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and campaign badges.
- Obverse: Tintype photograph of Abraham Lincoln in metal frame. There is a legend around the rim that reads: ABRAHAM LINCOLN 1860.
- Reverse: Tintype photograph of Hannibal Hamlin in metal frame. There is a legend around the rim that reads: HANNIBAL HAMLIN 1860.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- depicted
- Lincoln, Abraham
- Hamlin, Hannibal
- maker
- Scovill Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1981.0296.1295
- accession number
- 1981.0296
- catalog number
- 1981.0296.1295
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Panbone, mid 19th Century
- Description
- This large panbone, or section of the back of a sperm whale’s jaw, served as the canvas for a whaleman’s freehand drawing on two levels. In the center of the upper level is a three-masted whaleship with painted gun ports along its sides. Merchant vessels often did this, to look like powerful warships from a distance and thus protect themselves from pirates or other predators. The ship’s vertical whaleboat davits are empty, and the ship is sailing towards its little fleet of four whaleboats in various stages of harpooning a pod of five whales. Four of the whales are ‘blowing,’ or exhaling through the blowholes on top of their heads. One of the whales already has two harpoons sticking out of its back and is towing a whaleboat on a ‘Nantucket sleigh ride.' Behind the ship on the left is an old-fashioned two-masted topsail schooner sailing in the opposite direction. The sea in the foreground is calm, and the scene is placed against a shoreline of low, rolling hills. Below is another pair of sailing ships: a two-masted square-rigged brig follows a brigantine with a square-rigged foremast and a fore-and-aft main. Although engraved by the same very talented artist, the two levels of illustrations do not appear to be related. Judging from the extremely detailed and technical rigs and sails of all the ships, the scrimshaw artist may have been a sailmaker or rigger.
- Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
- In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.
- Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
- date made
- mid 1800s
- 1840 - 1860
- ID Number
- DL.057605B
- catalog number
- 57605B
- accession number
- 2009.0206
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Stephen A. Douglas Campaign Medal
- Description (Brief)
- This presidential campaign medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1860. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer that is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and campaign medals.
- Obverse: Bust of Stephen Douglas facing forward. The legend reads: STEPHEN A DOUGLAS.
- Reverse: The legend reads: DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY/THE CHAMPION OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- depicted
- Douglas, Stephen A.
- maker
- Scovill Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1981.0296.1187
- accession number
- 1981.0296
- catalog number
- 1981.0296.1187
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model of a Book Clamp
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a clamp for holding books while they were backed; the invention was granted patent number 50597. Joshua Wiestling Jones (born 1831) was apprenticed to the printing and binding trades. For a time he worked with the binder W. O. Hickok and helped in building Hickok's prototype paper-ruling machine. Later he worked in public printing, particularly at the state printing house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Jones pioneered the use of electric arc lighting in Harrisburg, one of the first American cities to adopt the system.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1865
- patent date
- 1865-10-24
- maker
- Jones, Joshua W.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.050597
- patent number
- 050597
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.050597
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Abraham Lincoln Campaign Badge
- Description (Brief)
- This presidential campaign badge was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1860. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer that is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and campaign badges. There is a hole in the top of the frame so the badge could be worn.
- Obverse: Labeled photograph of Abraham Lincoln. The legend reads: UNION OF THE STATES 1860.
- Reverse: Labeled photograph of Hannibal Hamlin. The legend reads: THE CONSTITUTION 1860.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- depicted
- Lincoln, Abraham
- Hamlin, Hannibal
- maker
- Scovill Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1981.0296.1113
- accession number
- 1981.0296
- catalog number
- 1981.0296.1113
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Paris porcelain vase (one of a pair)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- c. 1867
- ID Number
- CE.P-190
- catalog number
- P-190
- accession number
- 225282
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model of a Machine for Cutting Books in the Round
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a machine to cut books in the round which was granted patent number 35639. The machine includes rocking knives for cutting the fronts of books in the round, an operation normally performed by hand.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1862
- patent date
- 1862-06-17
- maker
- Trinks, Gregor
- Heitkamp, Louis
- ID Number
- GA.89797.035639
- patent number
- 035639
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.035639
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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John Bell Campaign Medal
- Description (Brief)
- This presidential campaign medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1860. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer that is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and campaign medals.
- Obverse: Bust of John A. Bell facing left. The legend reads: FOR PRESIDENT JOHN BELL OF TENNESSEE.
- Reverse: Eagle with shield, holding a laurel branch and a bundle of arrows, and a banner in its beak that reads: E PLURIBUS UNUM.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- depicted
- Bell, John
- maker
- Scovill Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1981.0296.1193
- accession number
- 1981.0296
- catalog number
- 1981.0296.1193
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent model for pantographic carving machine
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for an engraving pantograph, particularly intended for cutting letters from a pattern into stone; the invention was granted patent number 27827. The graver was provided with a rotating and/or a pecking motion.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1860
- patent date
- 1860-04-10
- maker
- Pease, W. H.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.027827
- patent number
- 027827
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.027827
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Abraham Lincoln Campaign Medal
- Description (Brief)
- This presidential campaign medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut around 1860. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and campaign medals.
- Obverse: Profile image of Abraham Lincoln facing right. The legend reads: ABRAHAM LINCOLN 1860.
- Reverse: Image of two men working in tandem to split logs. The legend reads: PROGRESS 1860.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- depicted
- Lincoln, Abraham
- maker
- Scovill Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1981.0296.1296
- accession number
- 1981.0296
- catalog number
- 1981.0296.1296
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
"Gold Washers" Snuff Box
- Description
- This snuff box was made in London and used around 1860. The box’s lid is painted with an image four men—two white, and two African-Americans—working a stream for gold with the text “Gold-washers in California” below. Both slave and free African Americans participated in the gold rush as laborers and gold washers. A snuff box carried a powdered tobacco called snuff that was pinched and inhaled nasally.
- Date made
- ca 1860
- ID Number
- CL.294083.01
- catalog number
- 294083.01
- accession number
- 294083
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Confederate county treasurer's check, Wythe County, Virginia, April 11, 1864
- Description
- This Confederate county court treasurer's check, likely printed in the field, allowed William Smyth's family to receive service benefits. Smyth served in Virginia's Forty-fifth Infantry Regiment.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1864-04-11
- printer
- Confederate States of America
- Wythe County, Virginia
- ID Number
- 2007.0203.02
- catalog number
- 2007.0203.02
- accession number
- 2007.0203
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Whalebone and Bone Umbrella
- Description
- The bony substance from the mouths of whales known as baleen is formed of keratin, like human hair and nails. It hangs in long, parallel sheets from the upper jaws of the blue, right, and minke whales, as well as other lesser-known species. Its hairy fringe filters food from seawater.
- Dried out, baleen’s strength and flexibility made it ideal for buggy whips, corset busks, and umbrella ribs before the advent of plastic. A whale’s bone could actually be worth more than its oil. This man’s large umbrella has a wooden shaft, heavy hinged baleen ribs made in short sections, and an ivory handle. Marked “G. Hobbs, Barre,” it belonged to the donor’s grandfather, who lived in Barre, Massachusetts, until around the end of the Civil War.
- Date made
- ca 1835-1865
- user
- Hobbs, George
- ID Number
- AG.169283.01
- accession number
- 169283
- catalog number
- 169283.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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