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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Gasoline Pump
- Description
- Made in Fort Wayne Indiana, this gasoline pump sold "Red Crown" gasoline, a brand produced by Standard Oil of Indiana. Consumers could see how much gas was pumped as the arrow moved around the face dial.
- As Americans began to drive gasoline-fueled cars in large numbers, oil companies and gasoline stations created technologies and systems to fulfill the demands of consumers. By the 1930s, pumps were the recognizable ancestors of the ones we use today.
- Date made
- 1930
- date made
- 1932
- distributor
- Amoco
- maker
- Wayne Oil Tank & Pump Company
- ID Number
- TR.326809
- accession number
- 265699
- catalog number
- 326809
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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