Natural Resources
The natural resources collections offer centuries of evidence about how Americans have used the bounty of the American continent and coastal waters. Artifacts related to flood control, dam construction, and irrigation illustrate the nation's attempts to manage the natural world. Oil-drilling, iron-mining, and steel-making artifacts show the connection between natural resources and industrial strength.
Forestry is represented by saws, axes, a smokejumper's suit, and many other objects. Hooks, nets, and other gear from New England fisheries of the late 1800s are among the fishing artifacts, as well as more recent acquisitions from the Pacific Northwest and Chesapeake Bay. Whaling artifacts include harpoons, lances, scrimshaw etchings in whalebone, and several paintings of a whaler's work at sea. The modern environmental movement has contributed buttons and other protest artifacts on issues from scenic rivers to biodiversity.
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Miner’s Safety Lamp Patent Model
- Description (Brief)
- This safety lamp is a patent model constructed by Joseph Defossez of Paris, France that received patent number 36,341 on September 2, 1862. In his patent filing, Defossez claimed as his invention “the pneumatic locking device in combination with the oil reservoir, top plate, and chimney” constructed to avoid the risk of mining explosions.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- patent date
- 09-02-1862
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-9741
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-9741
- accession number
- 088881
- patent number
- 036341
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Safety Lamp Patent Model
- Description (Brief)
- This safety lamp is a patent model constructed by John Harding of Warrington, Lancaster, Great Britain that received patent number 72,196 on December 17, 1867. Harding’s claim in the patent application is the “employment, and use of a soft-metal or other rivet, or other compressible plug, as a fastening for safety-lamps, instead of locks, screws, or other mechanical contrivances now employed.” The locking device can be seen on the base of this Davy-style lamp.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Associated Date
- 12-17-1867
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MT-308736
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- MHI-MT-308736
- patent number
- 72196
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Oil-Wick Miner’s Lamp Patent Model
- Description (Brief)
- This oil-wick lamp is a patent model constructed by W. G. Dowd of Scranton, Pennsylvania that received patent number 90,434, on May 25, 1869. The patent filing is for the wick raiser on this lamp seen on the outside of the spout. Dowd claimed as his invention “a wire bent over the outer edge of the wicktube with its outer portion sliding in the guide, and its inner portion bent to form an eye to which are hung the fork,” so as to raise the wick by the sliding of the wire.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- patent date
- 1869-05-25
- patentee
- Dowd, W. G.
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-9744
- accession number
- 88881
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-9744
- patent number
- 090434
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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