Replica of Joseph Henry's Princeton Oscillating Electromagnet Motor

Summary

Slightly turned view of the Smithsonian's replica of Joseph Henry's Princeton University oscillating electromagnet motor. Henry constructed this motor while teaching at Princeton in the 1830s. The motor was a simple device, whose moving part was a straight electromagnet rocking on a horizontal axis. Henry, who would later become the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, believed his machine was important as the first demonstration of continuous motion produced by magnetic attraction and repulsion.

Subject

• Henry, Joseph 1797-1878
• College of New Jersey (Princeton, N.J.)

Notes

See MAH-29682 or 29,682 for another image of this motor.

Contained within

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accesssion 11-006

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, [email protected]

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Date

c. 1830s

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

• Inventors
• Scientific apparatus and instruments
• Secretaries
• Inventions
• Science
• Historical models
• Motors
• Electromagnets
• Electric machinery
• Magnets
• Electromagnetism
• Electric motors

Place

United States

Form/Genre

• Object
• Negative

ID Number

MAH-16188 or 16,188

Physical description

Number of Images: 1 Color: Black and White ; Size: 8w x 10h ; Type of Image: Object ; Medium: Negative

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