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

Meanwhile, also in 1892, GE's stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

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.

General Electric and the Westinghouse Electric Company had been competitors, but the companies entered into a patent pool in 1896.

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

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

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.

1930: Company sells its holdings in RCA because of antitrust considerations.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

1986: Company acquires RCA, which includes the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), for $6.4 billion; Employers Reinsurance is also acquired for $1.1 billion, as well as an 80 percent stake in Kidder Peabody.

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.

The company also continued to restructure as necessary, including taking a $2.3 billion charge in late 1997 to close redundant facilities and shift production to cheaper labor markets.

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

2000: GE announces a $45 billion deal to take over Honeywell International Inc.

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.

Concerns about whether the company could continue its stellar earnings performance and about its accounting practices sent GE's stock sharply lower in 2002.

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