BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Power Machinery

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Power Machinery:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIAHPO_041006_016.JPG: Machining and Machine Tools Machinists were the skilled craftsmen of the machine age. Using a variety of hand and machine tools, they fabricated (and often designed) production machinery. Upon them depended the maintenance and the day-to-day improvement of machines. Machinists were geographically and industrially mobile, learning their skills in one industry and applying them in a second or a third. Their experiences were varied and the demands upon them great -- a situation that promoted inventiveness and novel solutions to mechanical problems. While new factory machinery usually reduced the skills needed by production workers, it increased the skills required of machinists.
2. SIAHPO_041006_043.JPG: Pin Making Pin making was industrialized long before the invention of pin-making machines. By 1650, pin factories in England and France employed 1,500 people. Up to 18 people worked on each pin. This division of labor greatly reduced the time and cost of making a pin. Before about 1840, Americans imported most of their pins from England. Some pins were made in America, mostly in prisons and almshouses. It was at the New York Alms House that Dr. John I. Howe, the resident physician, became familiar with pin making, and began his attempts to mechanize the process. Howe invented the pin-making machine 1832 and in 1835, with the backing of a group of New York merchants, organized the Howe Manufacturing Company to manufacture pins using his machines.
3. SIAHPO_041006_053.JPG: Textile Mills were the first large factories. The first successful American spinning mill was founded in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1793, but the textile industry did not boom until the Embargo of 1807 and the War of 1812 slowed the import of cotton goods and encouraged merchants to abandon trade in hope of better profits in manufacturing. In 1812, Francis Cabot Lowell set up the first mill that produced finished cloth from raw cotton, in Waltham, Massachusetts. Textile mills introduced the Industrial Revolution to Americans. Hundreds of thousands found work there. Whole families, including children, worked at small country mills. Farm girls worked for a few years in the larger New England mills. Skilled English immigrants labored at the Philadelphia mills. Unskilled immigrants, mostly Irish and French-Canadian, worked at mills throughout the Northeast after about 1840. Millions purchased machine-made cloth and stopped spinning and weaving at home. The textile mill stood at the center of the American Industrial Revolution.
4. SIAHPO_041006_073.JPG: Harlan & Hollingsworth Steam Engine This steam engine, built by the Harlan and Hollingsworth Company of Delaware in 1851, powered the shops of the South Carolina Railroad in Charleston. It produced about 70 horsepower.
5. SIAHPO_041006_087.JPG: Baldwin 6-hp steam engine (1829) The design, finish, and perfect operation of this engine -- the first built by Baldwin -- were considered to be exceptional at the time. The engine continued in use until 1873 in the boiler shop of the Baldwin Locomotive Works at Philadelphia. An important invention which Baldwin introduced with this engine was the "forked" or "yoke" connecting rod which saved considerable space by "folding" the engine into about half the length or height of direct-connected engines. The beltwheel and flywheel are conjectural restorations. Matthias W. Baldwin (1795-1866): Baldwin, a manufacturer of textile-printing machinery, designed and built the engine shown here because he was dissatisfied with one bought to power his factory. The success of this engine led him to build others and, eventually, the locomotive for which he became famous.
6. SIAHPO_041006_113.JPG: Porter-Allen Engine (1881) The most successful high-speed steam engine, the Porter-Allen, was manufactured from 1862 until the 1920's, unchanged in basic design. Porter adapted his sensitive but powerful "loaded" governor to control the movable link of Allen's valve gear; the power and speed of the engine were automatically and precisely controlled by the varying quantity of steam admitted in proportion to the load. As the valves were positively moved at all times by the link -- without partial dependence on gravity, as in the Corliss and most other "drop cut-off" engines -- high rotative speeds were possible. Porter also pioneered in scientifically balancing the engine's moving parts to equalize the rotating inertial and steam forces on the bearings. This balance resulted in nonreversal of bearing stresses, essential to high-speed operation. This engine was one of eight installed in Philadelphia's first central generating station, which powered a series of arc lights along Chestnut Street. It was built by the Southwark Foundry and Machine Co. (Philadelphia), which built the Porter-Allen engine after 1881.
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Description of Subject Matter: Power Machinery
1964 – Permanent
By the late 19th century, America's Industrial Revolution was moving full steam ahead. This hall follows the development of the increasingly efficient power machinery that helped the United States become a world leader in industrial production during this time. Full-size engines and models illustrate attempts to harness atmospheric force (1660-1700), the early age of steam power (1700-1770), the development of high-pressure and high-speed engines (1800-1920). The exhibition also shows the evolution of steam boilers and the steam turbine and progress in the techniques of harnessing water power. A number of pumps, waterwheels, and historic internal combustion engines are also on view.
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Power Machinery) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2021_DC_SIAH_Power: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Power Machinery (3 photos from 2021)
- 2016_DC_SIAH_Power: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Power Machinery (182 photos from 2016)
- 2012_DC_SIAH_Power: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Power Machinery (5 photos from 2012)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(Smithsonian) American History Museum (Everything)] [(Smithsonian) American History Museum (Non-Events)] [Museums (History)]
2004 photos: Trips this year: (1) Margot and I went off to Scotland for a few days, my first time overseas. (2) I went to Hawaii on business (such a deal!) and extended it, spending a week in Hawaii and another in California. (3) I went to Tennessee to man a booth and extended it to go to my third Fan Fair country music festival. Equipment this year: I bought two Fujifilm S7000 digital cameras. While they produced excellent images, I found all of the retractable-lens Fuji models had a disturbing tendency to get dust inside the lens. Dark blurs would show up on the images and the camera had to be sent back to the shop in order to get it fixed. I returned one of the cameras when the blurs showed up in the first month. I found myself buying extended warranties on cameras. Number of photos taken this year: 110,000.
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