Joseph Henry's Yale electromagnet
date: label: Date made
content: 1831
name: label: maker
content: Henry, Joseph
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Joseph Henry pioneered the development of powerful electromagnets in the early 19th century, which turned out to be central to the practical use of electricity. They were essential for the development of motors, generators, the telegraph, the telephone, and many measuring instruments. In 1831, as a professor at Albany Academy in New York, he made a large experimental electromagnet. Professor Benjamin Silliman of Yale heard of that device and asked Henry to make a larger electromagnet for the school. Henry made the Yale magnet the following year, boasting, “With this magnet I can lift a thousand pounds.” And indeed he could. Henry became the first Secretary of the Smithsonian in 1846, a post he held for 33 years.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The Yale magnet come to the Smithsonian in 1893. The unit consists of a horseshoe-shaped iron magnet wound with many turns of copper wire and covered with cloth insulation, mounted on a wooden frame. An iron armature attached to the bottom of the magnet has a heavy eye-bolt from which was suspended a wooden platform to hold weights, and sometimes people. An iron bar served as a lever to lift the armature and platform into contact with the magnet. A battery mounted on the side of the frame provided electricity to energize the magnet through the copper plates and wires that extend from the magnet’s top.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, New Haven
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
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content: Energy & Power
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content: Science & Mathematics
label: Exhibition
content: Lighting a Revolution
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Yale College, thru E.S. Dana
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.181343
label: catalog number
content: 181343
label: accession number
content: 26705
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Electromagnet
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: frame: 78 in x 89 in x 15 1/2 in; 198.12 cm x 226.06 cm x 39.37 cm
label: Measurements
content: magnet: 18 in x 20 in x 12 in; 45.72 cm x 50.8 cm x 30.48 cm