Brush Electric Company focusing lamp
date: label: date made
content: ca 1881
name: label: maker
content: Brush Electric Company
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Electric arc lighting was demonstrated in England in the early 1800s, soon after the invention of the battery. Commercial arc lamps gained widespread acceptance in the 1870s after development of dynamos capable of generating significant amounts of current. Arc lighting experiments took place in the Smithsonian Castle in the 1870s and '80s, including one test in which the Capitol was illuminated from the Castle. This lamp may be associated with those experiments.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Curator George Maynard noted in 1897 : "This piece of apparatus ... was brought from the upper room in the South Tower of the Smithsonian Institution, July 6, 1897. No record found. Reference: "The Brush Electric Light," Scientific American 44, No. 14 (2 April 1881): 211-212.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: From the Smithsonian Institution
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.181554
label: catalog number
content: 181554
label: accession number
content: 32407
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Arc Light
label: Object Name
content: arc lamp
label: Other Terms
content: Arc Light; Lighting Devices
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: asbestos (insulator material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 26 3/4 in x 4 in x 8 1/4 in; 67.945 cm x 10.16 cm x 20.955 cm