Military
The Museum's superb military collections document the history of the men and women of the armed forces of the United States. The collections include ordnance, firearms, and swords; uniforms and insignia; national and military flags and banners; and many other objects.
The strength of the collections lies in their enormous depth. Some 3,000 military small arms and 2,400 civilian firearms document the mechanical and technological history of the infantryman's weapons from the beginning of the gunpowder era to the present. Among the 4,000 swords and knives in the collection are many spectacular presentation pieces. The collections also include Civil War era telegraph equipment, home front artifacts from both world wars, early computers such as ENIAC, Whirlwind, and Sage, and materials carried at antiwar demonstrations.
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Trade catalogs from Colt's Patent Fire Arms Mfg. Co.
- Date
- 1800s
- Variant company name
- Established 1836 ; Incorporated 1855
- Company Name
- Colt's Patent Fire Arms Mfg. Co.
- Related companies
- Colts Patent Fire Arms Mfg. Co. ; Johns-Pratt Co. (div.) ; Electrical Div. ; Mechanical Goods Div. (Dept.) ; Plastics Div. ; Colt Mfg. Co. ; Colt Industries Inc.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_12279
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Trade catalogs from M. Hartley Co.
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- M. Hartley Co.
- Related companies
- Remington Arms Co. ; Union Metallic Cartridge Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_42603
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Trade catalogs from Brick House Shop
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Brick House Shop
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_42609
- Data source
- Smithsonian Libraries
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Keuffel & Esser 1741 Thacher Cylindrical Slide Rule
- Description
- In 1881, Edwin Thacher, a "computing engineer" for the Keystone Bridge Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received a patent for an improvement in slide rules. Thacher, a graduate of Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, spent much of his career designing railway bridges. To assist in his calculations, he designed a cylindrical slide rule. Thacher's rule, though it fit on a desk, was equivalent to a conventional slide rule over 59 feet long. The rule had scales for multiplication and division and another scale, with divisions twice as large, for use in finding squares and square roots. There were no trigonometric scales.
- To produce his "calculating instrument," Thacher turned to the London firm of W. F. Stanley. The company even designed a special dividing engine for preparing the scales for the instrument. These were printed on paper sheets, which were pasted to the drum and the slats. In this example, the paper is also printed in italics on the right side: Patented by Edwin Thatcher [sic], C.E. Nov. 1st 1881. Divided by W. F. Stanley, London, 1882. Made by Keuffel & Esser Co. N.Y. Wayne Feely has suggested that K&E began manufacturing (as opposed to simply distributing) Thacher cylindrical slide rules in 1887, indicating 1887 is the earliest date for this example of the instrument.
- The drum is rotated with wooden handles. The cylinder of slats is held in place with a brass frame, which is affixed to a wooden base. A paper of DIRECTIONS AND RULES FOR OPERATING is glued to the front of the base. A small silver metal tag affixed to the front right of the base is engraved: KEUFFEL & ESSER CO. (/) NEW-YORK (/) 589. A metal extension on the front, screwed to both sides of the frame, bears a fixed holder and thumbscrew that once held a magnifying glass.
- A paper K&E label on the inside lid of the instrument's mahogany case is marked in ink: 1741/589 (/) Thacher's (/) Calculating (/) Instr. The inside of the lid and the bottom of the base are both painted: M59. The back of the base is missing a chip 5 cm in length. The left and right sides of the case both bear labels marked in ink: INSTRUMENT (/) CALCULATING (/) THATCHER. A diagonal line is drawn through the second T in "Thatcher" on the right side.
- Keuffel & Esser Company of New York sold versions of the Thacher cylindrical slide rule from at least 1883 until about 1950. There were two models, one with a magnifying glass (K&E model 1741, K&E model 4013 after 1900), and one without (K&E model 1740, later K&E 4012). This is a model 1741. In 1892, the model 1741 sold for $40.00. The Physics Department of the United States Military Academy transferred this example to the Smithsonian in 1958.
- References: Edwin Thacher, "Slide-Rule" (U.S. Patent 249,117 issued November 1, 1881); Wayne E. Feely, "Thacher Cylindrical Slide Rules," The Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association 50 (1997): 125–127; Peggy Aldrich Kidwell, Amy Ackerberg-Hastings, and David Lindsay Roberts, Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, 1800–2000 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 113–114; Wilfred Scott Downs, ed., "Nickel, Frank F.," Who's Who in Engineering, (New York, 1931), iii:957; Catalogue of Keuffel & Esser (New York, 1892), 131. This was the first K&E catalog to list the model 1741.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1890s
- maker
- Stanley, William Ford
- Keuffel & Esser Co.
- ID Number
- MA.315663
- accession number
- 217544
- catalog number
- 315663
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Quartz Clock
- Description
- This clock was built at the U. S. Naval Observatory about 1936 as part of an experimental program to control time signals transmitted by radio. It is a quartz clock, that is, it depends on a specially cut piece of quartz crystal to keep time. The search for a better timekeeper than the best pendulum clocks led to the development of quartz-crystal clocks, the first of which telecommunications engineers at Bell Telephone Laboratories built in 1927 to monitor and control frequencies.
- date made
- 1936
- ID Number
- ME.319994
- catalog number
- 319994
- accession number
- 240411
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Designating Flag, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 8th Army Corps
- Description
- Wool bunting pennant flag. White field with a blue border on the hoist edge. There is a red six-point star inset in the center of the flag. White cotton hoist is machine-stitched and does not have grommets. Flag seams are flat-felled and machine-stitched. Inscription on hoist reads "2nd Brg. 1st Div. 8 Army Corps".
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AF.25238F
- catalog number
- 25232F
- accession number
- 64127
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Designating Flag, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 19th Army Corps
- Description
- Pre-1863 design. Rectangular wool bunting flag. Horizontal triband design. The top and bottom bands are blue; the middle band is white. In the center of the middle band is a black cotton number "3" applique. White cotton canvas heading with no grommets. Machine stitching; flat-felled seams.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AF.25249D
- catalog number
- 25249D
- accession number
- 64127
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Designating Flag, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 19th Army Corps
- Description
- Wool bunting pennant flag. White field with a red border at the hoist. In the center of the flag is a blue fan-leaved cross with an octagonal center (similar to a Maltese cross). White hoist with no grommets. The inscription on the hoist reads "3rd Div. 2nd Brg. 19 th Army Corps R. C. Toy 49 N. 9th Phila."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1890-1897
- maker
- Robert C. Toy
- ID Number
- AF.25249HH
- catalog number
- 25249HH
- accession number
- 64127
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Designating Flag, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 20th Army Corps, Department of the Cumberland
- Description
- Wool bunting pennant flag. White field with a red five-point star in the center of the flag. White cotton hoist with no grommets. The inscription on the hoist reads "1st Div 1st Brg 20th Army Corps Dept of/Cumberland R.C. Toy 49 N. 9th Phila." The flag is machine-stitched with flat-felled seams using white cotton thread.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1890-1897
- maker
- Robert C. Toy
- ID Number
- AF.25250T
- catalog number
- 25250T
- accession number
- 64127
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Designating Flag, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 22nd Army Corps
- Description
- Wool bunting pennant flag. White field with a red pentagonal cross in the center of the flag. White hoist with no grommets. Inscription on hoist reads "R.C. Toy 49.N.9th Phila 22 Army Corps 1st Brg 1st Div".
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1890-1897
- maker
- Robert C. Toy
- ID Number
- AF.25252E
- catalog number
- 25252E
- accession number
- 64127
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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