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GE Industrial Solutions history
GE Industrial Solutions company history timeline
In 1876 Edison built his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
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.
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.
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 application of electric lighting was on the steam ship Columbia in 1880.
The first individual system of electric lighting came in 1881, in a printing plant.
In 1882, Edison set up the first light-power station, helping to illuminate part of New York City.
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.
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.
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.
General Electric and the Westinghouse Electric Company had been competitors, but the companies entered into a patent pool in 1896.
The Schenectady laboratories date back to 1900 when Willis Whitney, a chemist from MIT, was hired to be its foundation director.
General Electric established an industrial research laboratory in 1900, and many of its later products were developed by in-house scientists.
In 1900 GE built a research laboratory in New York.
Edison’s bamboo filament was replaced in 1904 by metalized carbon developed by the company’s research lab.
One of the first household appliances GE began to market was a toaster in 1905.
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.
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.
In 1918 the company purchased Hughes Electric Heating Company, the maker of an electric cooking range, and Pacific Electric Heating Company, the manufacturer of America's then most widely used appliance, the iron.
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.
GE also introduced the first affordable electric refrigerator in the late 1920s.
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.
General Electric also owned several utility companies that generated electrical power, but in 1924 GE left the utilities business when the federal government brought antitrust action against the company.
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.
The formation of NBC was orchestrated by David Sarnoff, the general manager of RCA, which became the network’s sole owner in 1930.
GE withdrew from the venture in 1930, when antitrust considerations came to the fore.
Some of the legal actions resolved themselves without great cost, as when GE sold its interest in RCA in 1930 to loosen its grip on the fledgling recording industry.
In 1931, when Edison died, electric lights were dimmed for one minute across all the United States—a fitting tribute to the man who helped to transform the century.
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.
And GE introduced its first electric dishwasher in 1932, the same year that consumer financing of personal appliances was introduced.
The world’s first mercury-vapor lamp was introduced in 1934, followed four years later by 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.
Hammond, John Winthrop, Men and Volts, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1941.
General Electric had a diode programme since 1942 when Harper North began work on an improved radar diode.
One branch of GE’s operations that came into its own during this period was the General Electric Credit Corporation, founded in 1943.
Kelly launched the quest for the solid state switch in 1945.
General Electric had too much to celebrate and in the decade commencing 1946: they could claim two breakthroughs in jet engine technology, two new resins, new electric appliances and synthetic diamonds! One slot remains for that decade…and the winner is: a miniature relay.
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.
The first diodes released commercially by General Electric were the G5 series submitted for RMA registration in June 1948.
GE would become no less a leader in semiconductor development, having launched their own transistor research program soon after Bell Labs announced the invention of the transistor in 1948.
Then in 1948 the invention of the bipolar junction transistor by Shockley all at once reduced the cost and size while increasing the efficiency of transistors beginning a revolution in semiconductor electronics.
Use of antimony doping (n-type germanium) gave reversed polarity compared to conventional silicon diodes. [Drawing from Torrey 1948]
By the time the silicon controlled rectifier, the Diac and Triac were developed in the period 1957-1963 General Electric had assembled a significant team of researchers and engineers at Syracuse, Schenectady and the Clyde rectifier plant. It centres on the pioneering work of Harper North, Robert Hall and William Dunlap at Schenectady and that of John Saby at Syracuse in the period 1948-51.
In 1949 Hall’s work on the rectifier was transferred to the Electronics Laboratory at Syracuse for the development of production processes.
The time taken by Bell to take Shockley’s concept (1949) to a viable transistor reflected the immense difficulties presented by the grown junction approach.
In 1949 the court forced GE to release its patents to other companies.
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.
These were followed by the G5E (1N63) that December, G5G (1N65) and G5F (1N64) in 1950 [RMA Release 670]
By the mid-1950's the General Electric Company had for over 40 years been a power-house of vacuum tube development and production.
In 1950 Nishizawa and Watanabe, professors at Tokyo University, patented an analog transistor, later named the static induction transistor (SIT), that was capable of handling high power at high frequency.
In 1950 the package outlined changed to the newer format illustrated below.
Sheckler says Saby made his first transistor by March 11th 1951.
The prototype numbers appear in early data sheets and in a General Electric price list dated June 1st 1951 in which the new SX-4A and Z2 transistors were priced at a massive $29 each.
RMA 891B Radio-Television Manufacturers Association Release 891B October 11th 1951,
The Bell Laboratories work on the junction transistor was not published until 1951 [Shockley 1951] over a year after Teal and Sparks made the first crude grown junction transistor.
From 1952 the transistors had 3 pins with the base connection being soldered to the outside of the transistor’s case.
Hall found a value of 0.22 ev for the position of the traps above the valence band or below the conduction band. [Hall 1952]
These were first registered at the end of 1952 [RTMA 1952 Release 1146]
Hall R 1952 P-N Junctions Produced by Growth Rate Variation Phys Rev 88 139
Saby J 1952 Fused Impurity PNP Junction Transistors Proc IRE 40 1358-60
The first alloy junction transistors General Electric produced were the 2N43, 2N44 and 2N45 announced in September 1953. [Earliest documented reference from McGarrah 1953 Commercial Transistor Data Chart.]
A product announcement in the November 1953 edition of Radio Electronics noted that:
Saby J Dunlap W 1953 Impurity Diffusion and Space Charge Layers in “Fused-Impurity” PN Junctions Phys Rev 90 630-32
The 2N43, 2N44 and 2N45 transistors have been designed to eliminate the vagaries introduced by environment changes, and to delineate inherent variations in such form that design allowance may be made for them.” [Zierdt 1954]
The more cycles there are in the crystal-growing process, the more layers there are for slicing and dicing.” [Electronics 1954]
In 1954 he published a review on their development.
The project commenced in 1954.
General Electric datasheet ECG-78 General Electric Data Sheet NPN Junction Transistor ECG-78 Type 2N78 reproduced in Joint Electron Tube Engineering Council Release 1470 May 31st 1955
Those that did not make the specification for this series became the 2N107 with highly down-rated specifications and sold into the hobby market from 1955.
Electronics 1955 Preparing High Purity Silicon by Induction Heating Electronics Feb 1955 182
Then in 1956 the Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) was introduced by General Electric marking the point where semiconductor power electronics really began [2, 3].
If the series resistance is close to zero the structure will conduct several amperes at one volt drop.” [Moll 1956]
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).
Now their success was shared with management at Syracuse with the request that a major development project be undertaken to commercialise the SCR. General Electric went public with the new device in August 1957 and had prototype SCRs rated for 300 volts and 7 amperes available for $60 each.
By 1957, higher output Silicon Power Transistors were beginning to surface from such companies as T.I. and Transitron.
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.
The launch of the SCR coincided with his publication Solid-State Thyratron Switches Kilowatts Electronics March 28, 1958.
Additionally, in 1958 they found great success with their new Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) devices (see the Oral History Chapter on GE's F.W. Gutzwiller). The one product area where the competition seemed to have left GE in the dust was in Power Transistors.
A General Electric advertisement run in 1958 described it as “The revolutionary new controlled rectifier.
Holonyak recalls that in the Spring of 1958 at a meeting in Syracuse with Ray York, Richard Aldrich and Finis Gentry he and Aldrich were asked to develop a full wave controllable switch which could operate down to low forward voltages.
Gottlieb E Gutzwiller F Jones D Lowry H Snyder G Stasior R Sylvan T 1959 General Electric Transistor Manual Fourth Edition
In 1960s the switching speed of BJTs allowed for DC/DC converters to be possible in high frequency, with the MOSFET introduced in 1960.
The first of many editions of the General Electric Controlled Rectifier Manual was published in 1960.
The RCA patent issued on 17th October 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.
The wafer was then masked on both sides by silicon dioxide and etched to permit formation of the cathode by phosphorus diffusion to a depth of around 1.1 mils. [Gentry 1963]
GE was also faced with the possibility of its first labor strike since 1969 when Jack Welch and Edward Fire, the president of the International Union of Electronic Workers (IUE), became involved in an intense war of words over the job security of union workers.
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.
In December of 1976 GE paid $2.2 billion for 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.
Jack Welch was named the company's CEO in 1981.
Then in 1982, a cheap, robust and fast device was developed with the capability to turn-off, the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) was introduced.
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.
In 1984 GE sold Utah International to the Broken Hill Proprietary Company of Australia, keeping the company’s Ladd Petroleum Corporation affiliate.
Wise, George W. R., Whitney, General Electric and the Origins of United States Industrial Research, New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
In 1986 GE also purchased the Employers Reinsurance Corporation, a financial-services company, from Texaco, for $1.1 billion, and an 80% interest in Kidder Peabody and Company, an investment-banking firm, for $600 million, greatly broadening its financial services division.
In 1986, G.E. bought RCA for its NBC television network.
General Electric was a contractor in the programme and represented by Harper North in the more academic “crystal meetings” which were dominated by researchers from the Radiation Laboratory and the University of Pennsylvania. [Henriksen 1987]
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.
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.
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.
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 1992 GE was given The National Science Foundation's first National Corporate Achievement Award, in observance of its support for minority students, educators, and professionals in science and mathematics.
The brokerage unit was ultimately a losing investment, and in 1993 a false-profit scandal came to light.
Homewood, Illinois: Business One Irwin, 1993.
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.
GE Equity was formed in 1995 as part of GE Capital.
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.
In 1996 the GE Appliances division acquired a 73 percent interest in DAKO S.A., the leading manufacturer of gas ranges in Brazil.
GE's investment gamble yielded profits of $1.41 billion in 1996, as compared to its Asian profits of $585 million.
swoboda, frank. "talking management with chairman welch." washington post, 23 march 1997.
Metal thin film technologies for the emitters were developed (Goldey and Holonyak). [Moll 1997]
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.
The most recent stock split was in 1997 (2 for 1). GE's market capitalization (the total value of all its stock) is the highest in the world, at more than $245 billion.
Elfun's membership grew to 35,000 active and retired GE employees in 1997, with local affiliates in 10 countries.
Overall revenues exceeded the $100 billion mark for the first time in 1998, while the continuing stellar growth at GE Capital led that unit to generate nearly half of GE's revenues by the end of the decade.
Trained GE employees called "Black Belts" and "Master Black Belts" oversee personnel's training in this philosophy. It finally gives us a route to get to the control function, the hardest thing to do in a corporation." Welch projected the program's benefits to GE in 1998 to be worth $750 million.
Ward J 1999 an oral history of John Saby
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.
Saby agreed: “The major practical problem was the degradation of the junctions, due to atmospheric moisture.” [Morton 2000]
In 2000 Elfun members logged 1.3 million hours in volunteer hours.
Welch finally retired soon thereafter, with Immelt taking over as chairman and CEO in September 2001.
Where there is no masking an N-P layer is formed due to the slower rate of diffusion of the phosphorus leading to a surface N-type region over a deeper P-type region. [Holonyak 2001]
Elfun's membership grew to 40,000 active and retired GE employees in 2001, with 90 local affiliates in 10 countries.
general electric's home page. april, 2002. available at http://www.ge.com.
Concerns about whether the company could continue its stellar earnings performance and about its accounting practices sent GE's stock sharply lower in 2002.
Immelt began to place his imprint in earnest on GE in 2002 through major restructurings and several significant acquisitions.
In October 2003, Instrumentarium Corp. was acquired for $2.3 billion.
The staggering size of General Electric, which ranked fifth in the Fortune 500 in 2003, becomes even more evident through the revelation that each of the company's 11 operating units, if listed separately, would qualify as a Fortune 500 company.
Further, GE targeted double-digit growth through 2003.
Hall’s diode patent recognised both mechanisms: diffusion and alloy but Hall notes “the recrystallization from the alloying process was one of the key ingredients to make these rectifiers work” [Choi 2004].
Sheckler A 2004 The Beginning of the Semiconductor World; General Electric’s Role Proc IEEE Conference on the History of Electronics
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.
Invest and Deliver: GE Annual Report 2006. http://www.ge.com/ar2006/?c_id=ar06IR.
Owen E 2007 Fiftieth Anniversary of Modern Power Electronics: The Silicon Controlled Rectifier Proc 2007 IEEE Conference on the History of Electric Power 201-11
Not solid state but rugged and mechanical! In the following decade the laser diode is recognized. [General Electric 2008]
In 2010, the company released LED bulbs that required 77 percent less energy and would last for 22 years.
In 2011 GE sold a majority stake in NBCUniversal to Comcast, which acquired the remaining shares two years later.
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GE Industrial Solutions may also be known as or be related to GE Industrial Solutions, GE Power Electronics, GE Power Electronics Inc, GE Power Electronics Inc. and GE Power Electronics, Inc.