Energy & Power - Overview The Museum's collections on energy and
power illuminate the role of fire, steam, wind, water,
electricity, and the atom in the nation's history. The artifacts
include wood-burning stoves, water turbines, and windmills, as
well as steam, gas, and diesel engines. Oil-exploration and
coal-mining equipment form part of these collections, along with
a computer that controlled a power plant and even bubble
chambers—a tool of physicists to study protons, electrons, and
other charged particles. A special strength of the collections
lies in objects related to the history of electrical power,
including generators, batteries, cables, transformers, and early
photovoltaic cells. A group of Thomas Edison's earliest light
bulbs are a precious treasure. Hundreds of other objects
represent the innumerable uses of electricity, from streetlights
and railway signals to microwave ovens and satellite equipment.