Elec-company history

Edison General had been founded as the Edison Electric Light Company in 1878 by Thomas Alva Edison to market his incandescent lamp and other later products.

Accordingly, Edison organized research into all of these areas and in 1879, the same year that he produced an electric bulb, he also constructed the first dynamo, or direct-current (DC) generator.

The first individual system of electric lighting came in 1881, in a printing plant.

By 1882, he had developed such a system, and he installed the world's first central generating plant on Pearl Street in New York City's financial district.

In 1884 Frank Julian Sprague, an engineer who had worked on electric systems with Edison, resigned and formed the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company, which built the first large-scale electric streetcar system in the United States, in Richmond, Virginia.

In 1889 Sprague's company was purchased by Edison's.

The company was incorporated in 1892, acquiring all the assets of the Edison General Electric Company and two other electrical companies.

Meanwhile the company's electric-railroad ventures produced an elevated electric train surrounding the fairgrounds of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

In that same year, General Electric began its first venture into the field of power transmission with the opening of the Redlands-Mill Creek power line in California, and in 1894 the company constructed a massive power-transmission line at Niagara Falls.

In 1896, for example, Edison competitor Westinghouse Electric built a system of water-turbine generators at Niagara Falls that produced power for transmission to Buffalo, 20 miles away.

General Electric established an industrial research laboratory in 1900, and many of its later products were developed by in-house scientists.

In 1903 General Electric bought the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a manufacturer of transformers.

Edison's bamboo filament was replaced in 1904 by metalized carbon developed by the company's research lab.

A favorite holding company investment among many was the Electric Bond and Share Company, created by the General Electric company in 1905, to market the securities it acquired while selling equipment to utilities.

1906: The first GE major appliance, an electric range, is introduced.

Successful in his efforts, Insull acquired 20 other utility companies by 1907 and renamed the firm "Commonwealth Edison." By that time, the company had already become known as one of the most progressive--and lowest cost--utilities in the world.

In 1909, Leo Baekland synthesized carbonic acid and formaldehyde to create a hard, transparent resin.

By 1910 the volume of the company's trade in turbine generators had tripled and GE had sold almost one million kilowatts of power capacity.

A more radical branching of GE's activities occurred in 1912, when Ernst Alexanderson, a GE employee, was approached by a radio pioneer looking for a way to expand the range of wireless sets into higher frequencies.

In 1913, two other innovations came out of the GE labs: Irving Langmuir discovered that gas-filled bulbs were more efficient and reduced bulb blackening.

Gaining support from politicians and civic reform groups, state regulation of utilities became commonplace, such that by 1914, 43 more states followed the example of New York and Wisconsin by establishing government oversight of electric utilities.

In 1915 the first turbine-propelled battleship sailed forth, and within a few years, all of the Navy's large ships were equipped with electric power.

In 1918 all three companies were prospering, but to avoid competition with one another, they agreed upon a merger.

Owen D. Young, through GE, founded the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1919 to further international radio.

GE also introduced the first affordable electric refrigerator in the late 1920s.

In 1922, General Electric introduced its own radio station, WGY, in Schenectady.

1924: GE exits from the utilities business following government antitrust action.

The abuses of holding companies invited a six-year investigation pursued by the Federal Trade Commission beginning in 1928.

In 1930, his capital investment of $27 million allowed him to control electric companies and assorted other businesses in 32 states having assets of at least $500 million.

By 1932, only eight holding companies controlled almost three-quarters of the investor-owned utility business.

The world's first mercury-vapor lamp was introduced in 1934, followed four years later by the fluorescent lamp.

Moreover, all interstate holding companies and practically all businesses that produced a substantial amount of electricity would be forced to register with the newly created (in 1935) Securities and Exchange Commission.

1938: GE introduces the fluorescent lamp.

The company had been developing a mode of transmission known as frequency modulation (FM) as an alternative to the prevailing amplitude modulation (AM). In 1939 a demonstration conducted for the Federal Communications Commission proved that FM had less static and noise.

The Bell XP-59, the first United States jet aircraft, flew in 1942 powered by General Electric engines.

One branch of GE's operations that came into its own during this period was the General Electric Credit Corporation, founded in 1943.

Company scientists involved in an earlier attempt to separate U-235 from natural uranium were developing nuclear power plants for naval propulsion by 1946.

In 1947 GE opened a plant to produce silicones, which allowed the introduction of many products using silicone as a sealant or lubricant.

In 1949, G.E. introduced the most popular jet engine in history, the J-47, capable of working at high altitudes and in low temperatures.

1955: The United States Navy launches the submarine Seawolf, which is powered by a GE nuclear reactor.

That year NBC pioneered the first coast-to-coast transmission of a colour television broadcast, and in 1956 it made the first television broadcast recorded on videotape (rather than presented live).

In 1957 the company received a license from the Atomic Energy Commission to operate a nuclear-power reactor, the first license granted in the United States for a privately owned generating station.

In 1961 the Justice Department indicted 29 companies, of which GE was the biggest, for price fixing on electrical equipment.

In 1962, GE started developing its GECOS (later renamed GCOS) operating system, originally for batch processing, but later extended to timesharing and transaction processing.

The landscape of the utility industry remained fairly consistent since then: about 77% of generated kilowatt-hours were produced by investor-owned companies in 1970, while municipal and government utilities (and rural cooperatives) produced the remaining 23%.

In the meantime, GE scientist Ivar Giaever was a corecipient of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discoveries in the area of superconductive tunneling.

In 1975 a study of the company's status concluded that GE, one of the first United States electrical companies, had fallen far behind in electronics.

1976: GE spends $2.2 billion to acquire Utah International, a major coal, copper, uranium, and iron miner and a producer of natural gas and oil.

When by 1980 General Electric had received no new orders for plants in five years, nuclear power began to look more and more like a prime candidate for divestment.

These figures also represented huge gains since Welch took over in 1981, when the company posted profits of $1.6 billion on sales of $27.2 billion.

Immelt, who joined GE in 1982, had most recently served as president and CEO of GE Medical Systems, a unit with revenues of $12 billion.

In 1983, G.E. developed its own system of producing images of soft tissues.

Active development of Multics continued until 1985.

In 1986 GE also purchased the Employers Reinsurance Corporation, a financial services company, from Texaco, for $1.1 billion, and an 80 percent interest in Kidder Peabody and Company, an investment banking firm, for $600 million, greatly broadening its financial services division.

In 1987, however, GE sold RCA’s consumer electronics division to Thomson SA, a state-owned French firm, and purchased Thomson’s medical technology division.

Kidder Peabody did come back in 1988 to contribute $46 million in earnings, but the acquisition still troubled some analysts.

In 1989 GE agreed to combine its European business interests in appliances, medical systems, electrical distribution, and power systems with the formerly unrelated British corporation General Electric Company.

GE owned 100 percent of Kidder Peabody by 1990.

In 1992 GE signaled its intent to step up overseas activity with the purchase of 50 percent of the European appliance business of Britain's General Electric Company (GEC). The two companies also made agreements related to their medical, power systems, and electrical distribution businesses.

In 1994, in fact, General Electric was the most profitable of the largest 900 United States corporations, and was trailed by General Motors, Ford, and Exxon.

Revenues reached $70 billion by 1995, the same year that the company's market value exceeded $100 billion for the first time.

In 1996 the company celebrated its 100th year as part of the Dow Jones Index; GE was the only company remaining from the original list.

Expansion also continued in Europe for GE Capital, highlighted by the 1997 acquisition of Woodchester, one of the largest financial services companies in Ireland.

GE claimed that by 1998 six sigma was yielding $1 billion in annual savings.

Revenues for 1999 increased 11 percent to $111.63 billion while net income rose 15 percent to $10.72 billion.

In October 2000 he swooped in to break up a planned $40 billion merger of United Technologies Corporation and Honeywell International Inc.

Welch finally retired soon thereafter, with Immelt taking over as chairman and CEO in September 2001.

Enron Wind was the only surviving United States manufacturer of large wind turbines at the time, and GE increased engineering and supplies for the Wind Division and doubled the annual sales to $1.2 billion in 2003.

The reorganization, effective at the beginning of 2004, brought similar businesses together in an effort to increase sales and cut costs.

By 2005, GE was aiming to outsource $5 billion of parts and services from China and simultaneously grow sales in China to a like figure.

In May 2007, GE acquired Smiths Aerospace for $4.8 billion.

GE Plastics was sold in 2008 to SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation). In May 2008, GE announced it was exploring options for divesting the bulk of its consumer and industrial business.

On December 3, 2009, it was announced that NBCUniversal will become a joint venture between GE and cable television operator Comcast.

On March 1, 2010, General Electric (GE) announced that the company is planning to sell its 20.85% stake in Turkey-based Garanti Bank.

In 2011 GE sold a majority stake in NBCUniversal to Comcast, which acquired the remaining shares two years later.

In June 2012, CEO and President of GE said that the company would invest 300 crores to accelerate its businesses in Karnataka.

In April 2013, General Electric Co acquired oilfield pump maker Lufkin Industries for $2.98 billion.

In June 2014 a formal offer From GE worth $17 billion was agreed to by the Alston board.

The acquisition was expected to be completed in 2015.”