2-839-717 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

This is a centrifugal pump designed and made by U.S. rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard for forcing the propellants into the combustion chamber of a rocket motor. Most likely it dates from ca. 1938-1941, when he worked at his test site at Roswell, New Mexico, on his so-called P-Series, or pump series of rocket motors. The object was donated to the Smithsonian by the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation for the Promotion of Aeronautics in 1985.