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

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

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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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_160318_008.JPG: Power Machinery and Industrial Life
2. SIAHPO_160318_015.JPG: Steam-Engine Piston, 1904
3. SIAHPO_160318_023.JPG: Porter-Allen Engine, 1881
4. SIAHPO_160318_033.JPG: Shipman Self-Contained Automatic Steam Engine, about 1886
5. SIAHPO_160318_042.JPG: Double-Deck Inclined-Tube Soiler, 1929
6. SIAHPO_160318_046.JPG: This character had fallen over at some point. I was curious if they'd ever open up the case, clean it, and re-right the character.
7. SIAHPO_160318_067.JPG: Westinghouse Compound Engine, 1896
8. SIAHPO_160318_091.JPG: The Overshot Wheel
9. SIAHPO_160318_095.JPG: Burden's Wheel, 1851 Overshot Wheel for Factory Drive, about 1850
10. SIAHPO_160318_104.JPG: London Bridge Current Wheels, 1581
11. SIAHPO_160318_107.JPG: The Undershot (Current) Wheel
12. SIAHPO_160318_117.JPG: Early Development of the Hydraulic Turbine
13. SIAHPO_160318_119.JPG: Barker's Mill
14. SIAHPO_160318_121.JPG: Flutter Wheel, about 1500
15. SIAHPO_160318_125.JPG: The Waterwheel
16. SIAHPO_160318_131.JPG: Waterpower at Lowell, Mass
17. SIAHPO_160318_136.JPG: The Inward-Flow Turbine Howd Turbine, 1838
18. SIAHPO_160318_146.JPG: Pelton Impulse Turbine, about 1880
19. SIAHPO_160318_151.JPG: "Hurdy-Gurdy" Impulse Wheel, about 1860
20. SIAHPO_160318_154.JPG: The Impulse Turbine
21. SIAHPO_160318_158.JPG: Model of Louisville Pumping Engine
22. SIAHPO_160318_177.JPG: Naylor-Corliss Driving Engine, about 1885
23. SIAHPO_160318_191.JPG: Compound Steam Pumping Engine Louisville, Kentucky, 1893-1961
24. SIAHPO_160707_009.JPG: Ericsson Hot-Air Pumping Engine Patented in 1880
25. SIAHPO_160707_013.JPG: Ericsson Hot-Air Pumping Engine Patented in 1880
26. SIAHPO_160707_016.JPG: Rider Hot-Air Engine About 1910
27. SIAHPO_160707_021.JPG: Rider Hot-Air Engine About 1910
28. SIAHPO_160707_023.JPG: McNaught's System of Compounding 1845
29. SIAHPO_160707_027.JPG: McNaught's System of Compounding 1845
30. SIAHPO_160707_056.JPG: Pump 4 [Something had been removed here]
31. SIAHPO_160707_075.JPG: 1st Commercial "Once-Through" Boiler, 1957 This 120,000-kilowatt boiler was installed at the Philo Plant of the Ohio Power Co. "Once-Through" Boiler for Supercritical Pressures
32. SIAHPO_160707_079.JPG: "Once-Through" Boiler for Supercritical Pressures
33. SIAHPO_160707_088.JPG: The Internal-Combustion Engine
34. SIAHPO_160707_091.JPG: The replacement of the furnace, boiler, and steam engine by a machine in which the fuel was burned within the engine itself was suggested by the cannon. The technical difficulties of harnessing its power proved insurmountable until the development of modern techniques of mechanics and metallurgy.
35. SIAHPO_160707_095.JPG: Gunpowder Engine About 1680
36. SIAHPO_160707_097.JPG: Gunpowder Engine About 1680
37. SIAHPO_160707_099.JPG: Morey's Engine 1826-28
38. SIAHPO_160707_102.JPG: Morey's Engine 1826-28
39. SIAHPO_160707_104.JPG: Samuel Morey From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Samuel Morey (October 23, 1762 – April 17, 1843) was an American inventor, who worked on early internal combustion engines and was a pioneer in steamships who accumulated a total of 20 patents.
40. SIAHPO_160707_108.JPG: Brown's Engine 1823
41. SIAHPO_160707_111.JPG: Brown's Engine 1823
42. SIAHPO_160707_113.JPG: Lenoir Gas Engine 1860
43. SIAHPO_160707_116.JPG: Lenoir Gas Engine 1860
44. SIAHPO_160707_118.JPG: Terry Steam Turbine 1910
45. SIAHPO_160707_123.JPG: Terry Steam Turbine 1910
46. SIAHPO_160707_124.JPG: Fire-Tube Boiler To further increase the heating surface, several inventors routed the fire through the boiler's water space in series of small-diameter tubes, which were proportionally far stronger than the larger flues.
47. SIAHPO_160707_127.JPG: Wilcox Boiler 1856
48. SIAHPO_160707_133.JPG: Vertical-Tube Boiler 1875 Several boilers with more-or-less-vertical water tubes connecting steam drums above to sediment drums (mud drums) below came into use at this time. The most successful, invented by Allan Stirling in 1880, was -- and still is -- widely used.
49. SIAHPO_160707_137.JPG: Babcock & Wilcox Boiler 1867
50. SIAHPO_160707_139.JPG: Rumsey Boiler About 1785
51. SIAHPO_160707_142.JPG: Evans Flue Boiler About 1800
52. SIAHPO_160707_145.JPG: Evans Flue Boiler About 1800
53. SIAHPO_160707_146.JPG: Smeaton's Low-Pressure Boiler 1765 John Smeaton was the first to build an internally fired boiler, for use with the atmospheric engine. Derived from the earlier haycock boiler, it was shaped like a large teakettle; the fire was contained in a cast-iron furnace in the water space.
54. SIAHPO_160707_150.JPG: Curtis-General Electric Steam Turbine
55. SIAHPO_160707_156.JPG: Parsons Turbogenerator 1905
56. SIAHPO_160707_160.JPG: Parsons Turbogenerator 1905
57. SIAHPO_160707_163.JPG: The Steam Engine: Pinwheels, rotated by small steam jets, had been known since the beginning of the Christian era. Later inventors found, however, that such wheels would have to turn at impossibly high speeds to generate significant quantities of power.
58. SIAHPO_160707_167.JPG: The Rotary Steam Engine The reciprocating steam engine had low theoretical efficiency and was large and heavy in relation to its power, because of its low speed. Many inventors, from James Watt to George Westinghouse, attacked the problem of designing an engine to produce continuous high-speed rotary motion.
59. SIAHPO_160707_172.JPG: Bianca's Impulse Turbine 1628 Giovanni Branca, an Italian mathematician, published a report in which he illustrated and described a turbine driven by a steam jet striking a simple bladed rotor.
60. SIAHPO_160707_176.JPG: Heron's Reaction Wheel About AD 50 Heron of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician believed to have lived about the time of Christ, published descriptions of various mechanical devices -- including this steam wheel. Steam, generated in the lower vessel, rushed from the nozzles with great velocity, spinning the wheel. Heron's machines probably were used only for demonstration, or as toys. Their exact appearance is not known.
61. SIAHPO_160707_184.JPG: De Laval Steam Turbogenerator 1893
62. SIAHPO_160707_196.JPG: Generator Nameplate from IRT Subway Engine Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co. Pittsburg, PA USA [Note that the spelling of Pittsburg became "Pittsburgh" after a 1911 decision by the United States Geographic Board.]
63. SIAHPO_160707_202.JPG: Stevens's Steamboat Engine 1804
64. SIAHPO_160707_205.JPG: Stevens's Steamboat Engine 1804
65. SIAHPO_160707_206.JPG: Rumsey's Steamboat Engine 1787-90
66. SIAHPO_160707_209.JPG: Rumsey's Steamboat Engine 1787-90
67. SIAHPO_160707_211.JPG: Fitch's Steamboat Engine 1787
68. SIAHPO_160707_215.JPG: Fitch's Steamboat Engine 1787
69. SIAHPO_160707_218.JPG: The American Pioneers The close of the American Revolution marked the beginning of a period of experiments with steam engines, particularly for propelling boats. Intense competition among steam-engine inventors was a major factor in establishing the U.S. patent system and led, about 1810, to the beginning of factory production of engines.
70. SIAHPO_160707_223.JPG: John Fitch (1743-98) A Philadelphia clockmaker, Fitch built the world's first operative steamboat in 1786. The next year he demonstrated a second steamboat for members of the Constitutional Convention. In the summer of 1790 one of his steamboats was in regular passenger service on the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Trenton. However, continued difficulty in financing his work in subsequent years eventually led to despondency and suicide.
71. SIAHPO_160707_226.JPG: James Rumsey (1943-92) In 1787, while living in Berkeley Springs, Va., (now West Virginia), Ramsey built a workable steam-driven waterjet boat. A year or two earlier he had demonstrated a mechanically powered boat on the Potomac River for George Washington. He died in England 5 years later while trying to raise money to promote his steamboat.
72. SIAHPO_160707_228.JPG: John Stevens (1749-1838) John Stevens of Hoboken, N.J., built his first steamboat between 1802 and 1804. This boat's engine and boiler -- the oldest surviving of U.S. construction -- are on exhibit elsewhere in the museum. In 1808 Stevens built the first oceangoing steamship using an American engine, and in 1825 he built the first American locomotive engine.
73. SIAHPO_160707_230.JPG: Oliver Evans (1755-1819) One of the most prominent machinists in Philadelphia, Evans invented important improvements in steam engines and boilers and became the first large-scale builder of steam engines in the U.S. By 1819 about 100 Evans engines were in use throughout the country.
74. SIAHPO_160707_232.JPG: Baldwin 6-HP. Steam Engine 1829
75. SIAHPO_160707_235.JPG: Baldwin 6-HP. Steam Engine 1829
76. SIAHPO_160707_239.JPG: Newcomen: The Early Period of Application 1700-1770 By a combination of the most useful physical and mechanical concepts then known for obtaining power from steam, a true "steam engine" was evolved. The direct forerunner of the modern engine, it was the most important single influence on the Industrial Revolution. The single-acting engines of Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729), powered solely by the force of the atmosphere, were well-suited for the important work of pumping water from mines but were considerably less suitable for the driving of factory machinery because of the irregularity of the engines' motion.
77. SIAHPO_160707_242.JPG: The Age of Steam 1712
78. SIAHPO_160707_245.JPG: The Atmospheric Engine Comes of Age: Hundreds of Newcomen engines were installed in the coal and metal mines of England, and many found their way to the European continent. Although wasteful of fuel, their simplicity of construction and operation kept many in use in areas where cheap coal was available until well into the 19th Century.
79. SIAHPO_160707_247.JPG: Colliery Engine Stavely, England, 1776
80. SIAHPO_160707_253.JPG: James Watt (1736-1819)
81. SIAHPO_160707_255.JPG: James Watt (1736-1819)
82. SIAHPO_160707_256.JPG: Development of the Steam Engine Papin 1690 Newcomen 1712 Watt 1765
83. SIAHPO_160707_260.JPG: Typical Watt Mill Engine 1800-50
84. SIAHPO_160707_262.JPG: Winding Engines at Kilsby Tunnel London & Birmingham Ry., 1838
85. SIAHPO_160707_269.JPG: The Period of Speculation About AD 100-1660 Since the earliest periods of recorded history, the effects of heat and pressure have been observed, and ways to use and control them have been speculated upon.
86. SIAHPO_160707_274.JPG: Pressure from Heat 1st Century, A.D.
87. SIAHPO_160707_276.JPG: Pressure from Heat 1st Century, A.D. Although ancient Greek scholars made important scientific investigations, there was little interest in machines. One of the few surviving books on mechanics is Heron of Alexandria's Pneumatica, which describes many ingenious machines including this heat-and-pressure device for opening temple doors, intended to mystify the worshippers. The priest lights the flame on the altar; the heat causes the air within the hollow altar to expand, forcing water from the spherical vessel into a bucket which descends when full, opening the doors by unwinding the chains. When the flame is extinguished, the air cools and contracts, causing the water to be siphoned from the bucket, reversing the process.
88. SIAHPO_160707_279.JPG: Torricelli's Demonstration of Atmospheric Pressure 1643
89. SIAHPO_160707_280.JPG: Steam Pumps Early 17th Century Detailed descriptions of apparatuses to raise water by steam were published in 1601 by Italian physicist Giambattista della Porta and in 1615 by the French engineer Salomon de Caus. Their devices first demonstrated that when a liquid is heated, it expands into a gas with far greater volume and the capability of exerting pressure.
90. SIAHPO_160707_282.JPG: Development of the Vacuum Pump 1650-60 The atmosphere exerts tremendous pressure against spaces from which the air has been removed. During this period the vacuum pump was developed by British physicist Robert Boyle, German physicist Otto von Guericke, and others. By exhausting vessels, they demonstrated the force of the atmosphere against a vacuum.
91. SIAHPO_160707_287.JPG: The Savery Engine: Flooding of coal and metal mines became an increasingly severe problem in 17th-century England as mines were driven deeper. Thomas Savery's pump was intended to replace laborious and expensive pumping by animal power. Although Savery's pump was the first commercially manufactured steam engine, the Savery apparatus was not permanently successful. The high boiler pressure required to force water to any great height called for boilers beyond the mechanical capabilities of the day, and explosions were frequent.
92. SIAHPO_160707_290.JPG: Operation of the Savery Engine
93. SIAHPO_160707_295.JPG: Model of Watt's "Lap Engine", 1788
94. SIAHPO_160707_297.JPG: Model of Watt's "Lap Engine", 1788
95. SIAHPO_160707_300.JPG: Double-Deck Inclined-Tube Boiler 1929
96. SIAHPO_160707_304.JPG: Double-Deck Inclined-Tube Boiler 1929
97. SIAHPO_160707_308.JPG: Shipman Self-Contained Automatic Steam Engine About 1886
98. SIAHPO_160707_309.JPG: Shipman Self-Contained Automatic Steam Engine About 1886
99. SIAHPO_160707_313.JPG: The "Subway Engines" Before the contract for the "subway engines" was signed in 1901, the performances of large steam turbine-generators were intensively compared with those of engine-generators. The largest turbogenerator then had a 3500-kilowatt capacity, too small to be economical for subway service; further, turbine efficiency was not yet equivalent to that of the best engines. The "subway engines," installed at the beginning of the steam-turbine era, represent the peak development of the large, slow-speed reciprocating engine. They were the largest, and virtually the last, built in the U.S. for electrical generation -- a field dominated a year or so later by the turbine. Replacement of the units by turbogenerators was begun in about 1950 and completed in 1959.
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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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2016 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Seven relatively short trips this year: two Civil War Trust conference (Gettysburg, PA and West Point, NY, with a side-trip to New York City), my 11th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including sites in Utah, Nevada, and California), a quick trip to Michigan for Uncle Wayne's funeral, two additional trips to New York City, and a Civil Rights site trip to Alabama during the November elections. Being in places where people died to preserve the rights of minority voters made the Trumputin election even more depressing. Number of photos taken this year: just over 610,000.
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