July Mystery at the Museum Solved…

The answers to July’s series of Museum Mysteries are (in weekly order):  a 1906 Electrified National Cash Register, a 1912 Cadillac, a V-12 Liberty Engine and a B-9 Frigidaire Refrigerator.  All of this month’s mystery artifacts, and many others, are on display in the Deed’s Barn Replica at Carillon Historical Park! For a sneak peek at next week’s Mystery at the Museum artifact photo, be sure to pick up a FREE copy of the Dayton City Paper next Tuesday!

Week 1 | 1906 Electrified National Cash Register

On display in the Deeds Barn Replica at Carillon Historical Park is a 1906 Model 95 cash register manufactured by the National Cash Register Company. This model was one of the company’s first cash registers to operate electrically. Engineers in the Inventions Department at the National Cash Register Company had been working diligently to solve the problem of electrifying the company’s cash registers, but they were unsuccessful until a promising young engineer named Charles F. Kettering was hired by Edward A. Deeds. Kettering began working for the company in 1904, and within a year had electrified the cash register.

Week 2 | 1912 Cadillac

With the success of the ignition system, Kettering and the Barn Gang shifted their attention to replacing the dangerous automobile hand crank with a safer alternative, the electric self-starter. For this project, Deeds and Kettering used what they learned from replacing the cash register crank with an electric motor several years earlier at NCR. They were set once they combined this motor with a new light-weight storage battery supplied by O. Lee Harrison of the Electric Storage and Battery Company of Philadelphia.

Experiments started in Deeds Barn on September 2, 1910. By February of the following year, they had successfully tested the new system on a Cadillac inside the original Deeds Barn. The 1912 Cadillac on display in the Deeds Barn Replica at Carillon Historical Park is one of the first automobiles to offer an electric self-starter as well as an electric ignition system and electric lights.

Week 3 | V-12 Liberty Engine

When the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, President Wilson promised our European allies support through the manufacture of planes, fighters, and bombers. As the aviation program became a national priority, manufacturers raced to develop superior aircraft that would help ensure an allied victory.  DELCO founder, Edward A. Deeds, was commissioned as a colonel in the Army for the Aircraft Production Board in 1917. Deeds summoned two leading engineers to work with him to design a new aircraft engine that met the special criteria set forth by the Production Board: a high power-to-weight ratio and adaptability to mass production. In less than a week, the men had a set of designs completed and by July, a prototype engine was ready for testing. Over 20,000 Liberty engines were produced during the war, and many of them were used in De Havilland DH-4 airplanes, the only United States-made aircraft used in combat on the Western Front. After the war, the Liberty Engine went on to set several aviation records, including the first to complete a non-stop transcontinental flight. This example of the V-12 Liberty Engine, on display in the Deeds Barn Replica at Carillon Historical Park, is a cutaway model, allowing visitors the opportunity to see the inner workings of the piece.

Week 4 | B-9 Frigidaire Refrigerator

W.C. Durant, then President of General Motors, purchased the Guardian Frigerator Company in 1918, renamed it Frigidaire, and began applying mass-production techniques to the manufacture of refrigerators. From 1921 to 1926, Frigidaire appliances were produced by Delco-Light, a General Motors subsidiary in Dayton.

In 1926 Frigidaire was separated from Delco-Light to become a distinct General Motors division, and an extensive new manufacturing plant was built south of Dayton in Moraine, Ohio. General Motors decided to eliminate Frigidaire as a subsidiary in 1979, and the line was sold to White Consolidated Industries of Cleveland, Ohio.

The early refrigerator on display in the Deeds Barn Replica is a DELCO Frigidaire three-door model B-9 with an oak cabinet. It was manufactured by the company between 1923 and 1926, and featured a patented Frigidaire invention, the ‘frost-proof’ freezer.

To see other historical images from our collection, search our Digital Photo Archive.

June Mystery at the Museum Solved…

The answers to June’s series of Museum Mysteries are (in weekly order):  the Wright Brothers Wooden Wind Tunnel, Orville Wright’s Drafting Table and Orville Wright’s Gerstner Tool Box. All of this month’s mystery artifacts, and many others, are on display in the John W. Berry, Sr. Wright Brothers Aviation Center at Carillon Historical Park! For a sneak peek at next week’s Mystery at the Museum artifact photo, be sure to pick up a FREE copy of the Dayton City Paper next Tuesday!

Week 1 | Wright Brothers Wooden Wind Tunnel

In 1936, Henry Ford purchased Wilbur and Orville’s final bicycle shop and had it moved from its original location at 1127 W. Third Street to Greenfield Village in Michigan. In 1972, a replica of that same shop was constructed at Carillon Historical Park. In the rear of the building is the Machine shop, which would have been used by the Wrights to build bicycles and later, their experimental gliders and airplanes. Among the other tools and equipment on display is a large wooden box which served as wind tunnel. The Wright brothers constructed their own wind tunnel and used it to test airfoils (wing shapes). By testing for lift and drag with the various shaped airfoils, the brothers were able to make the calculations necessary for determining the shape and design of the wings for their aircraft.

Week 2 | Orville Wright’s Drafting Table

Located in the Wilbur Wright Wing of the John W. Berry, Sr. Wright Brothers Aviation Center is the Object Theater, one of only a few known theaters of this type in the nation.  Inside, visitors are invited to experience a 15-minute, automated multi-media presentation about the Wright brothers and their invention of flight. Unlike traditional films, the Object Theater features a special display of original Wright brothers’ artifacts during the presentation. One such artifact is Orville’s own drafting table. Different from standard drafting tables of the time period, inventive Orville outfitted his table with bicycle chains, which aided in the maneuverability of the table’s horizontal and vertical straightedges.

Week 3 | Orville Wright’s Gerstner Tool Box

Located in the Orville Wright Wing of the John W. Berry, Sr. Wright Brothers Aviation Center is a large display of Wright brothers’ artifacts.  One artifact of special note is the handsome, multi-drawer wooden tool chest, once owned by Orville Wright. This tool chest was manufactured by the long-time Dayton business firm of H. Gerstner and Sons. Harry H. Gerstner founded the company in 1906, in the corner of his father’s cooperage, around the time the Wright brothers were busy designing the 4-cylinder vertical engine that would be used on most of their planes through 1912. After the great flood of 1913, Gerstner built a new factory on Cincinnati Street, where it still operates today.

To see other historical images from our collection, search our Digital Photo Archive.