Edison type Z dynamo from SS Columbia
date: label: Date made
content: 1881
name: label: associated person
content: Edison, Thomas Alva
label: maker
content: Edison Electric Co.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Edison bi-polar dynamo, Type Z, used on steamer Columbia. Handwritten on catalog card: One of three 110 volt constant-potential dynamos constructed at Edison laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ. Each dynamo [powered] sixty, 16 candlepower. lamps. A fourth dynamo used to excite others was run at 1/2 speed. Note in Electrical Engineering, March 1941.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Curator George C. Maynard noted: Edison dynamo, 1878. The first dynamo ever used to operate electric Lights on shipboard. Placed on the Steamship Columbia in service for the Oregon Steamship Navigation Company. [Ship] Built by John Roach, Chester, Pennsylvania. Sailed from New York City around Cape Horn, A counterpart of this machine was used in the lithographic establishment of Hinds, Ketcham and Company, New York City, Another was placed on the Arctic exploring steamship Jeanette, in Command of Captain DeLong, and was sunk with the ship. Admiral George W. Melville, Chief Engineer of the Jeanette, has given an account of this dynamo in his book on the history of the expedition.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from General Electric Co., thru Dana S. Greene
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.181830
label: accession number
content: 33703
label: catalog number
content: 181830
label: model number
content: Z
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Generator
label: Other Terms
content: Generator; Motors and Generators
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 58 1/2 in x 24 in x 39 in; 148.59 cm x 60.96 cm x 99.06 cm