General Electric history

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.

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

In 1902, its first purpose-built factory, the Witton Engineering Works, was opened near Birmingham.

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

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.

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.

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 1917, GEC created the Express Lift Company in Northampton, England.

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

In 1919, GEC merged its radio valve manufacturing interests with those of the Marconi Company to form the Marconi-Osram Valve Company.

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 formation of NBC was orchestrated by David Sarnoff, the general manager of RCA, which became the network’s sole owner in 1930.

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.

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.

After the death of Hugo Hirst in 1943, his son-in-law Leslie Gamage (elder son of the founder of Gamages), along with Harry Railing, took over as joint managing directors.

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 1968, GEC merged with English Electric, incorporating Elliott Brothers, the Marconi Company, Ruston & Hornsby, Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns, the Vulcan Foundry, Willans & Robinson and Dick, Kerr & Co.

The Witton works remained one of the company's biggest sites, producing high-voltage switchgear and transformers, small motors, mercury arc rectifiers and traction components, until the plant was gradually sold off by Weinstock in 1969.

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.

The company continued to expand with the acquisition in 1979 of weighing machine maker W & T Avery, renamed GEC Avery.

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.

In April 1981, GEC acquired Cincinnati Electronics (CE), in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the time owned by George J Mealey.

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 it became one of the first companies in the new FTSE 100 Index, ranking third in value behind British Petroleum and Shell Transport and Trading.

In 1986, G.E. bought RCA for its NBC television network.

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.

In 1988 GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT) was created when GEC bought Plessey.

In May 1989 GEC-Alsthom bought British rail vehicle manufacturer Metro-Cammell.

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.

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 Otis Elevator Company acquired The Express Lift Company from GEC.

In July 1997, GEC announced the outcomes of a major review: it would move away from its joint ventures and focus on moving toward "global leadership" in defence and aerospace (Marconi Electronic Systems), industrial electronics (GEC Industrial Electronics), and communications (GEC Communications).

In February 1998 Marconi Instruments, the test equipment arm of GEC, was sold to IFR Systems.

In 1999, Marconi plc bought two American equipment-makers: RELTEC Corporation in March for £1.3bn, and FORE Systems in April for £2.8bn, to complement the telecommunication business of its subsidiary Marconi Communications.

In April 2000, it acquired Mobile Systems International for £391m.

In July 2001, Marconi plc suffered a 54% drop in its share price following the suspension of trading of its shares, a profits warning, and redundancies.

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

On 19 May 2003, Marconi plc underwent a restructuring and became Marconi Corporation plc, advised by Lazard and Morgan Stanley.

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

The majority of Marconi Corporation's businesses (including Marconi Communications and the rights to the Marconi name) were sold to Ericsson in 2005, and the remainder was renamed Telent plc.

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.