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GE Consumer & Industrial company history timeline

1878

Two years later, in 1878, Edison established, with the help of his friend Grosvenor Lowry, the Edison Electric Light Company with a capitalization of $300,000.

1879

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.

1881

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

1882

In 1882, Edison set up the first light-power station, helping to illuminate part of New York City.

1884

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.

1889

By 1889, Edison had consolidated all of his companies under the name of the Edison General Electric Company.

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

1892

founded: 1892 variant name: ge

1893

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

1894

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.

1900

In 1900 GE established the first industrial laboratory in the United States.

In 1900 GE built a research laboratory in New York.

1903

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

1905

One of the first household appliances GE began to market was a toaster in 1905.

1913

The first high-vacuum, hot-cathode X-ray tube, known as the “Coolidge tube,” was also developed in 1913.

1915

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.

1919

In 1919, at the request of the government, GE formed the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) to develop radio technology.

The largest was $6.4 billion for the Radio Corporation of American (RCA), the company GE had helped to found in 1919.

1922

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

The following year it teamed with Westinghouse Electric and American Telegraph and Telephone (AT&T) to found the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). In 1922 it debuted one of the country's first radio stations, WGY, in Schenectady, New York.

1928

GE has long been active in community involvement, primarily through an entity called Elfun (derived from "Electrical Funds"), which the company established in 1928 to provide a vehicle whereby GE employees could fund charitable activities.

1930

GE withdrew from the venture in 1930, when antitrust considerations came to the fore.

1932

Also in 1932 the first Nobel Prize ever awarded to a scientist not affiliated with a university went to Irving Langmuir for his work at GE on surface chemistry, research that had grown out of his earlier work on electron tubes.

1934

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

1940

Other advances included GE's 1940 development of frequency modulation (FM) radio transmission, considered a vast improvement over the existing amplitude modulation (AM) mode.

1949

In 1949 the court forced GE to release its patents to other companies.

1955

In 1955 the navy launched the submarine Seawolf, the world’s first nuclear-powered vessel, with a reactor developed by General Electric.

1957

1957 - First commercially feasible combination spray, steam and dry iron

And 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.

1961

In 1961 it opened a research center for aerospace projects, and by the end of the decade had more than 6,000 employees involved in 37 projects related to the moon landing.

1980

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.

1983

Schatz, Ronald W., The Electrical Workers: A History of Labor at General Electric and Westinghouse, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983.

1987

In 1987 GE also sold its own and RCA’s television-manufacturing businesses to the French company Thomson in exchange for Thomson’s medical diagnostics business.

Although Employer’s Reinsurance contributed steadily to GE’s bottom line following its purchase, Kidder Peabody lost $48 million in 1987, in part due to the settlement of insider trading charges.

1988

But research and development is still of such importance that in 1988 GE spent $1.2 billion of its own funds on it, and another $2.4 billion in customer-provided research funding.

By 1988 the company's restructuring efforts had resulted in the downsizing of 100,000 employees.

1993

The brokerage unit was ultimately a losing investment, and in 1993 a false-profit scandal came to light.

1994

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.

1995

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

Going into 1995, ongoing efforts by Welch to boost productivity, increase service sales, and expand internationally boded well for GE’s long-term future.

1996

The European branch of the company's financial services group accounted for almost 13 percent of GE Capital Services' net income in 1996.

1997

bernstein, aaron. "high tension at general electric." business week, 24 march 1997.

swoboda, frank. "talking management with chairman welch." washington post, 23 march 1997.

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

By 1997, analysts acknowledged GE as one of the most profitable companies in the world.

Furthermore, Dow Chemical sued GE in 1997, claiming that GE had marked, recruited, and hired former Dow workers who had knowledge of Dow's trade secrets.

Elfun's membership grew to 35,000 active and retired GE employees in 1997, with local affiliates in 10 countries.

1999

"General Electric Company." Hoover's Online, [cited May 1, 1999] available from the World Wide Web @ www.hoovers.com.

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

2000

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

In November 2000 Jeffrey R. Immelt won the succession battle and was named president and chairman-elect.

As investment manager Steve Leeb stated in Business Week, "One very impressive thing about GE is that it's hard to find any fundamental benchmark on which it doesn't excel." CEO Jack Welch retired in the year 2000.

2001

Also during 2001, GE Lighting had the largest product launch in its history when it introduced the GE Reveal line of light bulbs, which were touted as providing "a cleaner, crisper light" because the bulbs filtered out the duller yellow rays commonly produced by standard incandescent light bulbs.

Elfun's membership grew to 40,000 active and retired GE employees in 2001, with 90 local affiliates in 10 countries.

GE's revenues generated outside the United States were $50 billion in 2001, or 40 percent of total revenue.

2002

general electric's home page. april, 2002. available at http://www.ge.com.

Immelt began to place his imprint in earnest on GE in 2002 through major restructurings and several significant acquisitions.

2003

In October 2003, Instrumentarium Corp. was acquired for $2.3 billion.

2004

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

2006

Invest and Deliver: GE Annual Report 2006. http://www.ge.com/ar2006/?c_id=ar06IR.

2007

In 2007, the 9,000 sq ft (840 m2) Monogram Experience Center opened to provide architects, designers, contractors and other home-industry professionals the opportunity to interact with appliances from the Monogram Collection.

2011

In 2011, a data center with platinum certification by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design was opened.

2015

The transaction was terminated in December 2015 after the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to block the deal on concerns that, along with Whirlpool, the combined company would control 90% of the "do-it-yourself" market for kitchen appliances sold by home construction retailers.

2016

On June 6, 2016, Haier acquired GE Appliances for $5.6 billion.

The company was owned by General Electric until 2016, and was previously known as GE Appliances & Lighting and GE Consumer & Industrial.

2017

In 2017, the company invested $30 million to construct a new washer and dryer manufacturing line.

2022

"General Electric Company ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Retrieved June 21, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/general-electric-company-2

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