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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Assay Flask
- Description
- The term "assay" implies an analysis for only a certain constituent (or constituents) of a mixture. A good example is the assay of an ore for gold. That sort of assay would be done using a dry method, i.e. heating the ore in a crucible.
- An assay can also be performed using a wet method. A good example is the extraction of an alkaloid from dried plant material. The plant sample is placed in a vessel into which a solvent is introduced. The active constituent is separated from the sample and extracted by chemical means.
- The flask featured here, with its sloping sides and narrow mouth, is used for the wet assay method. The sample and solvent would be combined in this vessel. Additional apparatus would be used for the separation and extraction of the active constituent.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 1985.0311.064
- catalog number
- 1985.0311.064
- accession number
- 1985.0311
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Environmental Button
- Description
- Several types of renewable energy sources are available as alternatives to non-renewable carbon based energy sources. The button featured here advocates the use of wind power to generate electricity.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0369
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0369
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Environmental Button
- Description
- This button urges people to find alternatives to driving, such as using public transportation, riding bicycles, or walking.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0060
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0060
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- 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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Environmental Button
- Description
- This button was used to encourage students at Kent State University in Ohio to ride the campus bus in order to minimize auto pollution.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0036
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0036
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Environmental Button
- Description
- This button produced by the California Department of Water and Power advocates prudent energy usage.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0367
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0367
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Environmental Button
- Description (Brief)
- Several types of renewable energy sources are available as alternatives to non-renewable, carbon-based fuels. This button advocates the use of solar energy to generate electricity. It was distributed in 1978 by Solar Action, the Washington, D.C.-based organization that helped to organize Sun Day (3 May 1978.) For many people, the 1970s energy crisis was a call to action to change how electricity was generated and used. Making the choice to “go solar”—and encouraging others to do the same—reflected growing optimism about the potential of clean, accessible solar energy.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1978
- maker
- Edward Horn Co.
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0400
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0400
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Environmental Button
- Description
- While many of the buttons in our collections were produced by environmental organizations, the causes they espouse are often advocated by government agencies. This button is a good example. It was made in Canada by the Alberta Energy and Natural Resources.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0362
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0362
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Environmental Button
- Description
- This popular button protests the use of nuclear power as an energy source.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0452
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0452
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Globe-type Electrostatic Machine
- Description (Brief)
- People from ancient times knew that rubbing certain materials and then touching something caused a spark. Studying what is called electrostatics laid the groundwork for understanding electricity and magnetism. Natural philosophers, scientists, and instrument makers created many ingenious devices to generate electrostatic charges starting in the 1600s. These machines varied in size and technique but all involved rotary motion to generate a charge, and a means of transferring the charge to a storage device for use.
- This incomplete machine dates from about 1750 and appears to be Benjamin Franklin’s design. In the late 1740s, Franklin began investigating electricity with instruments supplied by friends in Britain. Scientific instruments of all types were in short supply in colonial America so Franklin supplemented his imported equipment with items of his own design. Early electrostatic machines generated a charge by spinning a globe against a pad. The charge could then be used directly in experiments or transferred from the globe to a Leyden jar. The hollow glass globe on this machine rubs against a leather pad seasoned with a specially formulated grease. The charge collector assembly, missing from this machine, consisted of brass pins that rode against the glass and carried the charge to a brass ball set on an insulating glass rod. Princeton University donated this machine in the 1960s and kept a second machine for display there. The exact origin of the two generators is uncertain but an oral tradition at Princeton associates both machines with Franklin.
- date made
- ca 1750
- ID Number
- EM.325513
- catalog number
- 325513
- accession number
- 2008.0088
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Edison "New Year's Eve" Lamp
- Description
- Thomas Edison used this carbon-filament bulb in the first public demonstration of his most famous invention, the first practical electric incandescent lamp, which took place at his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory on New Year's Eve, 1879.
- As the quintessential American inventor-hero, Edison personified the ideal of the hardworking self-made man. He received a record 1,093 patents and became a skilled entrepreneur. Though occasionally unsuccessful, Edison and his team developed many practical devices in his "invention factory," and fostered faith in technological progress.
- Date made
- 1879
- used date
- 1879-12-31
- user
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- maker
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- ID Number
- EM.181797
- catalog number
- 181797
- accession number
- 33407
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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