Browse Items (7 total)

These light bulbs were manufactured around 1905. They can be dated by the construction of the filament.  To learn more about antique light bulbs, visit this link to the  SCHENECTADY MUSEUM.

The galvanometer is a current measuring device. Gustav H. Wiedemann's version of the galvanometer was developed in 1874. The coils on either side of the suspended needle could be moved back and forth to change the sensitivity, and a series of coils,…

The telegraph was invented by the artist and scientist Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872), who conceived the idea of the printing telegraph during an ocean voyage to Europe in 1832. The actuation of an electromagnet in the receiver would cause a…

The label of this electric motor notes that it is a 1/6 HP, 130 Volt motor made by the Crocker Wheeler Motor Company of New York. The patent dates are May 5 and September 22, 1891.

NOT YET LOCATED. The effects of electricity on the body can be traced back to 1745 when Pieter van Musschenbroek, testing out the one of the first Leiden jars, stated that "I felt myself struck in my arms, shoulders, and breast. I lost my breath, and…

This late 19th century instrument is often called a Ruhmkorff coil, after the Parisan apparatus manufacturer Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff (1803-1877). Although he did not invent the induction coil, his name is often associated with it (particularly in…

Lightning is the ultimate arc lamp, and so Benjamin Franklin's 1752 experiment of drawing electricity from the clouds and jumping a spark is perhaps the first arc lamp. In 1801 Humphry Davy observed the brilliant spark obtained when the connection…