GE Drives & Controls Inc history

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.

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 1886 the Edison Machine Works was moved from New Jersey to Schenectady, New York.

1889: Edison has, by this date, consolidated all of his companies under the name of the Edison General Electric Company.

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

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

1903: Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a manufacturer of transformers, is acquired.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

1938: GE introduces the fluorescent lamp.

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

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 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.

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.

1981: John F. (Jack) Welch, Jr., becomes chairman and CEO.

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.

1987: GE sells its own and RCA's television manufacturing businesses to the French company Thomson in exchange for Thomson's medical diagnostics business.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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