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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Edison underground power conductor
- Date made
- 1885
- maker
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- ID Number
- EM.314919
- catalog number
- 314919
- accession number
- 212336
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Campaign speeches are useful, at that
- Description (Brief)
- This pen-and-ink comic art drawing by Rube Goldberg from 1924 features the concept of using “windy” political speeches as free energy.
- Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was an engineer before he was a comic artist. After receiving an engineering degree, he started his career designing sewers for the City of San Francisco, but then followed his other interest and took a job as a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. After moving to New York in 1907 Goldberg worked for several newspapers, producing a number of short-lived strips and panels—many of which were inspired by his engineering background, including his renowned invention cartoons. In the late 1930s and 1940s he switched his focus to editorial and political cartoons and in 1945 founded the National Cartoonists Society. The Reuben, comic art’s most prestigious award, is named after him.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1924-10-31
- original artist
- Goldberg, Rube
- ID Number
- GA.23492
- catalog number
- 23492
- accession number
- 299186
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Edison underground electrical junction box
- Date made
- 1885
- ID Number
- EM.314917
- catalog number
- 314917
- accession number
- 212336
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Linolite Incandescent Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Linear incandescent lamp with a carbon filament. Made by the Johns-Manville Company.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1908
- maker
- H. W. Johns-Manville Co.
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.68
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.68
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Environmental Button
- Description
- The group "Bike for a Better City" encouraged New York commuters and lawmakers to view bicycling as a means for everyday transportation. The organization, founded in 1970 by Barry Fishman and Harriet Green, called for the establishment of special bike lanes to make city biking safer.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Fishman, Barry
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0051
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0051
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Alarm Clock
- Description
- Alarm Clock by Rube Goldberg, circa 1970. This non-working, sculpted model signed by Rube Goldberg was crafted [during the 1960s] to replicate a cartoon from the series The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts that he drew for between 1914 and 1964.
- Inscription: At 6 a.m. garbage man picks up ashcan, causing mule to kick over statue of Indian warrior. Arrow punctures bucket and ice cubes fall on false teeth, causing them to chatter and nip elephant's tail. Elephant raises his trunk in pain, pressing lever which starts toy maestro to lead quartet in sad song. Sentimental girl breaks down and cries into flower pot, causing flower to grow and tickle man's feet. He rocks with laughter, starting machine that rings gong and slides sleeper out of bed into slippers on wheels, which propel him into bathroom where cold shower really wakes him up.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- circa 1970
- depicted
- Butts, Lucifer Gorgonzola
- original artist
- Goldberg, Rube
- ID Number
- GA.23502
- accession number
- 1972.289709
- catalog number
- GA*23502
- accession number
- 289709
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Edison ammeter
- Date made
- c1882
- ca 1882
- associated person
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- maker
- Bergmann & Co.
- ID Number
- EM.331146
- accession number
- 294351
- catalog number
- 331146
- collector/donor number
- 20-03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Carbon Filament Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- Carbon filament lamp with tipless envelope. Designed by Herman J. Jaeger, lamp has an angled exhaust tube inside stem.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1910
- maker
- Tipless Lamp Co.
- ID Number
- 1997.0388.63
- catalog number
- 1997.0388.63
- accession number
- 1997.0388
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Colt Carbide Gas Flatiron on Stand
- Description
- Pointed-toe iron with black D-grip handle and removable flexible hose for use with Colt carbide-feed acetylene gas generator; rests on conforming "COLT" trivet or stand with three peg legs and four prongs to hold iron in place. Ignition hole at tip of deflector and screw-valve to regulate heat at its heel. Asbestos lining between deflector and body, which is lined with brass mesh and has semicircular vents at sides and an angled pipe with stop-cock extending from center back. Spiral-pattern, woven cloth-covered hose with spiral springs at both ends. New, unused condition.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1930
- maker
- J. B. Colt & Company
- ID Number
- 1977.0935.10
- catalog number
- 1977.0935.10
- accession number
- 1977.0935
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Model of Edison's Pearl Street power station
- Description
- This scale model of Thomas Edison's Pearl Street power station was made in 1927. It demonstrates the internal arrangement of generating equipment and can be operated by means of a small electric motor in the base.
- The first floor contained the boiler room and coal-handling equipment. Steam created by the boilers operated Porter-Allen horizontal steam engines on the second floor. The engines powered large Edison electrical generators nicknamed "Jumbo" after the famous elephant. Control and switching equipment were housed on the third and fourth floors.
- The site for Edison's generating station had to satisfy both engineering and business needs. Because Edison used 100 volt direct current to power his new light bulbs, customers could be no further than ½ mile from the generator. But he needed a high profile location to promote the system. Edison chose a site in the heart of New York's financial district, 255 and 257 Pearl Street. On 4 September 1882, he threw a switch in the office of one of his main investors, J. Pierpont Morgan, and initiated service to the area.
- A fire damaged the station extensively in 1890 but Edison and his men worked around the clock for 11 days to restore service. The station was taken out of service and dismantled in 1895, the building sold and later demolished. The New York Edison Company placed a commemorative plaque at the site in 1917.
- Date made
- 1927
- maker
- Edison Company
- ID Number
- EM.309605
- catalog number
- 309605
- accession number
- 104795
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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