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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Rotary electric light switch
- Date made
- 1882
- date made
- 1887
- associated person
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- maker
- Bergmann & Co.
- ID Number
- EM.181754
- catalog number
- 181754
- accession number
- 33261
- 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 electric power switch
- Date made
- c1882
- ca 1882
- ID Number
- EM.318717
- catalog number
- 318717
- accession number
- 232729
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History