Engineering, Building, and Architecture
Not many museums collect houses. The National Museum of American History has four, as well as two outbuildings, 11 rooms, an elevator, many building components, and some architectural elements from the White House. Drafting manuals are supplemented by many prints of buildings and other architectural subjects. The breadth of the museum's collections adds some surprising objects to these holdings, such as fans, purses, handkerchiefs, T-shirts, and other objects bearing images of buildings.
The engineering artifacts document the history of civil and mechanical engineering in the United States. So far, the Museum has declined to collect dams, skyscrapers, and bridges, but these and other important engineering achievements are preserved through blueprints, drawings, models, photographs, sketches, paintings, technical reports, and field notes.
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Trade catalogs from Charles Wyle Engineering Corp.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Charles Wyle Engineering Corp.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_39828
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Trade catalogs from Paterson Hughes Engineering Co. Ltd.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Paterson Hughes Engineering Co. Ltd.
- Related companies
- Paterson Hughes Engineering Co. Ltd. SA cc
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_29066
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Trade catalogs from Joseph C. Rah & Co.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Joseph C. Rah & Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_8556
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
-
Bruce Larson's Funny Car, 1988
- Description
- A funny car is a high-powered, computer-controlled dragster with a lightweight, molded body that somewhat resembles a production car. Bruce Larson and his crew designed and assembled this car in Dauphin, Pennsylvania. The body, which is made of carbon composite fiber, resembles an Oldsmobile Cutlass but weighs only 165 pounds. The chassis frame is made of chromoly (chromium molybdenum alloy) tubing. The aluminum engine burned a mix of nitro-methane fuel and alcohol and developed almost 4,000 horsepower. Larson won the National Hot Rod Association’s World Championship with this car in 1989. His top speed in the Finals was 278.55 miles per hour.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1988
- maker
- Oldsmobile Division of General Motors Corporation
- ID Number
- 1989.0755.01
- catalog number
- 1989.0755.01
- accession number
- 1989.0755
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Trade catalogs from F. Reddaway & Co. Ltd.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- F. Reddaway & Co. Ltd.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_9762
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
-
Trade catalogs from Reschke Machine Works Co.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Reschke Machine Works Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_10633
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Trade catalogs from Saul Moskowitz Instrument Engineering
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Saul Moskowitz Instrument Engineering
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_38463
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Trade catalogs from Salem Engineering Co.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Salem Engineering Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_16373
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
-
Trade catalogs from Irrigation & Hydraulic Mining Co.
- Date
- 1800s
- Company Name
- Irrigation & Hydraulic Mining Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_22372
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
-
Trade catalogs from Henry Atterbury Smith, Inc.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Henry Atterbury Smith, Inc.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_20405
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
-
Trade catalogs from Wallace Clark & Co.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Wallace Clark & Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_11565
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
-
Trade catalogs from R. Garrett & Sons
- Date
- 1800s
- Company Name
- R. Garrett & Sons
- Related companies
- Leiston Works
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_17724
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Trade catalogs from Winger Contracting Co.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Winger Contracting Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_28697
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Trade catalogs from Peerless Engineering Co.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Peerless Engineering Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_29640
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
-
Trade catalogs from Penn Controls Inc.
- Date
- 1900s
- Variant company name
- http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/publish/us/en/about/history/1950s-1960s.html
- Company Name
- Penn Controls Inc.
- Related companies
- Penn Electric Switch Co. ; Baso Inc. ; Johnson Service Co. ; Johnson Controls Inc.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_29822
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Trade catalogs from Rathbun Co., Inc.
- Date
- 1900s
- Variant company name
- Established 1911
- Company Name
- Rathbun Co., Inc.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_9317
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
-
Trade catalogs from W. H. & L. D. Betz
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- W. H. & L. D. Betz
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_7524
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
-
Hospitalier-Carpentier Manographe
- Description
- This manographe, or indicator, was purchased by Professor W. H. Kenerson around 1907. He used it in making tests of the Brayton Oil Engine, National Museum of American History catalog number 313.703, at Brown University.
- A pivoted mirror reflects a beam of light to a photosensitive plate or paper. Changes in pressure in the engine cylinder cause the mirror to oscillate up and down; a pin and eccentric actuated by a flexible shaft connected to the engine shaft cause the mirror to oscillate from side to side.
- The indicator is housed in a wooden box that is 5 inches by 6 inches by 14 inches, with a brass pipe fitting and gear box at one end. The opposite end is open to receive a plate holder of a ground glass. A T-shaped tube lets light into one side, and an adjustable prism inside directs the light to the mirror. The flexible shaft is 32 inches long and covered with black fabric. Four plate holders, one ground glass, a steel petcock and a tapered hollow steel plug are included with the instrument. It is marked “Manographe Hospitalier-Carpentier, Brevete, S G D G, J. Carpentier, Paris.”
- An engine indicator is an instrument for graphically recording the pressure versus piston displacement through an engine stroke cycle. Engineers use the resulting diagram to check the design and performance of the engine.
- A mechanical indicator consists of a piston, spring, stylus, and recording system. The gas pressure of the cylinder deflects the piston and pushes against the spring, creating a linear relationship between the gas pressure and the deflection of the piston against the spring. The deflection is recorded by the stylus on a rotating drum that is connected to the piston. Most indicators incorporate a mechanical linkage to amplify the movement of the piston to increase the scale of the record.
- When the ratio of the frequency of the pressure variation to the natural frequency of the system is small, then the dynamic deflection is equal to the static deflection. To design a system with a high natural frequency, the mass of the piston, spring, stylus, and mechanical linkage must be small, but the stiffness of the spring must be high. The indicator is subjected to high temperatures and pressures and rapid oscillations, imposing a limitation on the reduction in mass. Too stiff a spring will result in a small displacement of the indicator piston and a record too small to measure with accuracy. Multiplication of the displacement will introduce mechanical ad dynamic errors.
- The parameters of the problem for designing an accurate and trouble free recorder are such that there is no easy or simple solution. Studying the variety of indicators in the collection shows how different inventors made different compromises in their designs.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 1981.0217.24
- accession number
- 1981.0217
- catalog number
- 1981.0217.24
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Trade catalogs from Lockwood, Greene & Co.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Lockwood, Greene & Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_27352
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Trade catalogs from Pickard & Burns, Inc.
- Date
- 1900s
- Variant company name
- Pickard & Burns was started in 1911 by G.W. Pickard, the inventor of the silicone crystal diode, the forerunner of all transistors.
- Company Name
- Pickard & Burns, Inc.
- Related companies
- Cardwell Condeser Corp., http://www.cardwellcondenser.com/PAGES/history.html
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_32489
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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