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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chromo lithograph of Corliss Centennial steam engine
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- MC.326224
- accession number
- 259741
- 1965.259741
- catalog number
- 326224
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Riedler Pumping Engine, 1901
- Description
- Between 1901 and 1959, this beautiful machine sat in the bowels of an electrical power generating station at Niagara Falls, New York, pumping oil to lubricate the turbines and other machinery. The pump was driven by waterpower, using a massive 26-bucket Pelton wheel.
- Lester Pelton, a millwright in Nevada City, California, improved waterwheels in the 1870s by redesigning their buckets. In the newly patented Pelton wheels built by his company in San Francisco, a jet of high-pressure water would be split by the bucket's dual hemispheres, deflecting each half of the jet back almost 180 degrees and thereby moving the wheel with considerably greater force.
- Date made
- 1901
- maker
- Allis-Chalmers Company
- ID Number
- MC.321404
- catalog number
- 321404
- accession number
- 243295
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Caterpillar Diesel Engine, 1930
- Description
- This is the first mass-produced diesel engine ever made in the United States. The four-cylinder engine uses a variety of fuels, including furnace oil and generates 86.8 horsepower at 700 revolutions per minute.
- "Old Betsy" was employed to drive earth-moving equipment in the construction industry before its retirement in the mid-20th century. The transition from gasoline to diesel was preferred by manufacturers of heavy equipment due in part to the efficiencies available with the heavier classes of motor fuel, in addition to diesel's ability to run cleaner than ordinary gasoline.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1930
- maker
- Caterpillar Tractor Co.
- ID Number
- MC.335000
- catalog number
- 335000
- accession number
- 310685
- serial number
- 1-A-14
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Faber Steam Engine, 1827
- Description (Brief)
- The F. & W. M. Faber stationary steam engine was built in Pittsburgh during the 1850’s. Stationary steam engines such as this one could be used to power multiple machines in a shop or factory.
- Description
- The F. & W. M. Faber stationary steam engine is a rare survivor of pre-1860 American steam power. With a horizontal cylinder and separate bases for the flywheel and engine, the Faber displays features from the dawn of steam usage inside American factories.
- Although exceedingly rare today, this engine was offered as an "off-the-shelf" stock engine in 1850s Pittsburgh, where it was built. The engine features exceptional refinement in the degree of ornamentation on the flywheel and the flyball governor, evoking the novelty and wonder of early steam power.
- The physical beauty of the Faber engine masks its relative energy inefficiency compared with engines of the period of more robust construction. In addition, records indicate this pretty engine performed the bulk of its actual service inside tanneries in Ohio and Kentucky, where the smells and wet hides and dank darkness would have belied the visions that inspired this engine's elegant design and fabrication.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- F. and W. M. Faber
- ID Number
- 1980.0227.01
- catalog number
- 1980.0227.01
- accession number
- 1980.0227
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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H. M. Wood Windmill Patent Model
- Description
- During most of the 19th century, the U.S. Patent Office required inventors seeking patent protection to submit both a written application and a three-dimensional model. This wood and metal patent model of a windmill succeeded in gaining its inventor, H. M. Wood, Patent Number 222,340, which was issued on December 2, 1879. As farms spread into the American heartland, windmills proved an extremely important technology, allowing settlers to use the renewable power of wind to pump groundwater for agricultural and household use. Efficiency and reliability were key attributes for rural windmills, and professional and lay inventors experimented with hundreds of design variations throughout the years.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1879
- patent date
- 1879-12-02
- inventor
- Wood, Harvey M.
- ID Number
- MC.309136
- catalog number
- 309136
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 222,340
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Model of Bucyrus-Erie Stripping Shovel
- Description
- In 1960, the Bucyrus-Erie Company of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, presented this 14-inch-high, scale model of what was to become the world's largest stripping shovel to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Later that year, the President transferred this gift to the Smithsonian Institution. The Bucyrus-Erie Company had custom-designed this monster machine for the Peabody Coal Company. Bucyrus-Erie engineers anticipated that they would need two years to manufacture the behemoth, and an additional six months to assemble it at the site of the open-pit mine. (They planned to ship the machine's parts in over 250 railcars.) When finished, the shovel would weigh 7,000 tons, soar to the roofline of a 20-story building (some 220 feet high), and be able to extend its enormous 115-cubic-yard dipper over 460 feet, or about the length of an average city block. (The dipper's capacity would equal that of about six stand-sized dump trucks.) Fifty electric motors-ranging from 1/4 to 3,000 horsepower-would power the shovel, which was designed to be controlled by a single operator, perched in a cab five stories high. Publicists for Bucyrus-Erie called this the "largest self-powered mobile land vehicle ever built."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960
- recipient
- Eisenhower, Dwight D.
- maker
- Bucyrus-Erie Company
- ID Number
- MC.317688
- catalog number
- 317688
- accession number
- 231557
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Carrier Centrifugal Refrigeration Compressor
- Description
- The first successful mechanical refrigeration equipment was patented soon after the Civil War, but the large size and high cost of these early machines restricted their use to industrial processes. In his effort to improve mechanical air-conditioning systems, Willis Haviland Carrier (1876-1950) introduced the first practical centrifugal refrigeration compressor in 1922 (pictured here). This machine provided the foundation for safer, smaller, and more powerful and efficient large-scale air-conditioning systems.
- Prior to the introduction of the centrifugal compressor--which compressed the refrigerant gas through the centrifugal force created by rotors spinning at high speed—reciprocating compressors compressed the refrigerant by the action of pistons inside cylinders, much like an automobile engine. The centrifugal compressor proved an extremely important advancement and paved the way for "comfort" air conditioning in theaters, department stores, hospitals, banks, offices, and hotels.
- Carrier installed this initial compressor at his company's Newark, N.J., offices, where he gave the first public demonstration of the machine on May 22, 1922. Two years later, he sold the compressor to the Onondaga Pottery Company of Syracuse, N.Y., for the air conditioning of its lithography plant. The machine remained in use there until about 1957, when the Carrier Company repurchased the compressor for donation to the Smithsonian. Earlier, in 1924, the Carrier Company had installed centrifugal refrigeration machines in the J. L. Hudson department store in Detroit and the Palace Theater in Dallas, thereby introducing the phrase "air conditioning" into the public vocabulary.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1922
- maker
- Carrier Corporation
- ID Number
- MC.318219
- catalog number
- 318219
- accession number
- 232896
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Harlan & Hollingsworth Steam Engine, 1851
- Description
- This stationary walking-beam steam engine generated forty horsepower to operate woodworking machines at the Southern Railway's shops in Charleston, South Carolina. The engine ran for 75 years, from 1852 to 1927.
- The engine's vertical cylinder and graceful walking beam recall the pioneering steam engines of British engineer Thomas Newcomen, who found commercial application for the expansive powers of steam, not to power other machines but to pump water out of mines.
- Date made
- 1851
- maker
- Harlan & Hollingsworth Company
- ID Number
- MC.314791
- catalog number
- 314791
- accession number
- 209703
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Mauzey’s Patent Model of a Solar Heater – 1880
- Description
- This model was filed with the application to the U.S. Patent Office for Patent Number 227,028 issued to James P. Mauzey of Blackfoot, Montana Territory on April 27, 1880. His patent was for a new and improved solar heater. Mr. Mauzey’s design provided for a series of reflecting mirrors mounted on a rectangular frame which could be oriented so as to focus the sun’s rays upon an object to be heated. The image of the patent model shows the frame and mirrors. The frame would be oriented to point the central, oval shaped mirror directly at the sun. This mirror was shaped and oriented so as to focus the sun’s rays along a line at some distance behind the mirror frame assembly. Additional mirror elements were mounted within the frame as shown, and these too were designed to focus energy at the same distance behind the frame. The brown colored rod and material at the top of the frame modeled a curtain which could be rolled across the frame to block the mirrors as necessary for repair or adjustment. The frame assembly shown in the image was intended to be mounted on a supporting base which could be used to tilt the frame up or down to track the sun’s position in the sky. The base was in turn mounted on wheels or rollers to allow additional adjustments to track the sun. The object to be heated would be located on the base at the focal point of the mirrors. Additionally, the mirror assembly could be moved up or down relative to the base allowing for an accurate focus on the object to be heated. Diagrams showing the complete design of the heater can be found in the patent document online www.USPTO.gov/patents/process/search/index.jsp). Research of available trade literature and other sources has not revealed any commercial use that may have made use of Mr. Mauzey’s invention. His work was mentioned by Charles H. Pope, a solar heating advocate, in his 1903 book titled Solar Heat: Its Practical Applications. However, Mr. Pope indicated no additional information on Mauzey had been found.
- The patent model is constructed of tin, wood and fabric. It models the mirror assembly and curtain mechanism. Also shown are the side arms that would have attached the assembly to the supporting base.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1880
- patent date
- 1880-04-27
- inventor
- Mauzey, James P.
- ID Number
- MC.251506
- accession number
- 48890
- catalog number
- 251506
- patent number
- 227,028
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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