Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: and then welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris
Speaker 1: Poulette and I'm an editor and how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: Com sitting in a cross from me as always a
Speaker 1: senior writer Jonathan. Everyone my age remembers where they were
Speaker 1: and what they were doing when they first heard about
Speaker 1: the contest. Oh, I know I have an idea where
Speaker 1: that might be from excellent. Um. Actually, today we're off
Speaker 1: to see the Wizard. Yes, well sort of the Wizard
Speaker 1: of Men. Yeah, so before we before everyone gets excited,
Speaker 1: we are not doing an episode specifically about Thomas Alva Edison.
Speaker 1: In this episode We're gonna be talking about him a lot,
Speaker 1: but this episode is really about the first of a
Speaker 1: three part series about the company General Electric or g E.
Speaker 1: And why might we be mentioning uh, Mr Thomas albat Edison. Well,
Speaker 1: probably because he was one of four people that you
Speaker 1: could credit the whole existence of GE. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: without whom g would not exist, right. Yeah. The other three,
Speaker 1: I would argue would be Charles A. Coffin, Eli, Hugh Thompson,
Speaker 1: and Edwin Houston or Houston. I have no idea how
Speaker 1: he would have pronounced his name. I've heard it both ways.
Speaker 1: So but but Edison of clearly is the the name
Speaker 1: that jumps out at people when you talk about General Electric.
Speaker 1: And it's no surprise. He was a famous inventor, UH,
Speaker 1: an engineer. He was a great businessman. He was a
Speaker 1: very good showman. UH and UH and in his day
Speaker 1: he was the equivalent to a rock star, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean the newspapers wrote about them, and people would
Speaker 1: flock to see demonstrations the same way you might go
Speaker 1: and try and get those second row seats to see
Speaker 1: you know, a C D C. Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 1: That's that's awesome. I'm sorry, I just had to throw
Speaker 1: that in there. I was struggling to figure out a
Speaker 1: good band name to throw in. But a C D
Speaker 1: C S works so well. Yeah. Yeah, Well, the reason
Speaker 1: I wanted to uh to start with UH with Edison
Speaker 1: specifically and Jonathan Thrt. The these uh, these four gentlemen
Speaker 1: are crucial in understanding where ge comes from. But uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in in business, the business world, when two
Speaker 1: companies decide to merge, they will often take the name
Speaker 1: that they think will be the most successful. And G
Speaker 1: E actually the name itself derives mostly from Edison's company
Speaker 1: that he started, Edison General Electric. And to to know
Speaker 1: about ess in General Electric, we actually have to go
Speaker 1: a little further back, because g traces its history back
Speaker 1: to even before Edison General Electric existed. All right, so, uh,
Speaker 1: you've got in eighteen seventies six. Okay, so Edison was
Speaker 1: born in eighty seven. Uh So Esson goes in E
Speaker 1: and moves to Menlo Park, New Jersey, which is now
Speaker 1: called Edison, New Jersey. Yes, no relation, there's no muection. No,
Speaker 1: just no, it was it was weird. I don't know. No, No,
Speaker 1: it is of course named after Thomas Alva Edison. Um. So,
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy six he creates and an industrial research
Speaker 1: lab in Menlo Park. And and this was a lab
Speaker 1: specifically meant to help study and and push innovation in industry,
Speaker 1: not just not just you know, a think tank, but
Speaker 1: they were Esson was really looking at ways to improve
Speaker 1: systems and create technology that would be useful in some way.
Speaker 1: And and that was his focus. So that's what GE
Speaker 1: traces its history back to, was that the formation of
Speaker 1: that lab up in eighteen seventy six, which is kind
Speaker 1: of funny because when you think about it, there were
Speaker 1: other things going on at the same time. That ge
Speaker 1: also owes its existence too, And really you could argue
Speaker 1: since the Edison, the General Edison or the Edison General
Speaker 1: Electric Company didn't exist yet. In fact, that wouldn't exist
Speaker 1: until eighteen ninety. It's kind of interesting to see the
Speaker 1: centennial trace back to um eighteen seventy six. But in
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company,
Speaker 1: which was one of the many companies that would eventually
Speaker 1: kind of meld together to become Edison General Electric. And uh,
Speaker 1: you guys probably know or at least have heard about
Speaker 1: Edison and his relationship with the lightbulb. He did not
Speaker 1: invent the light bulb. He he created an incandescent lightbulb
Speaker 1: that actually was useful, But there were other inventors who
Speaker 1: had come up with incandescent light bulbs before Edison. It's
Speaker 1: just that they were they would light for very brief
Speaker 1: amount of time and then they burn out, and so
Speaker 1: Edison was the one who actually managed to improve upon that.
Speaker 1: So we often credit him with creating the lightbulb, because
Speaker 1: he really created the first useful one, right. And then,
Speaker 1: of course, uh, one of the things that we touched
Speaker 1: on a moment ago about him being a shrewd business person, um,
Speaker 1: he was good about once he had uh set out
Speaker 1: to create this, this new lightbulb, this more effective lightbulb.
Speaker 1: He also got into the business of helping wire people's
Speaker 1: homes because hey, I mean, let's let's look at it
Speaker 1: from this perspective. You've got a lightbulb, but people's homes
Speaker 1: aren't wired for electricity. So what's the point. Yes, how
Speaker 1: many people does it take? The scruminal label doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: We don't have electricity exactly. And so there there were
Speaker 1: a lot of um, wealthy business people who wanted electricity.
Speaker 1: I mean, hey, this is pretty cool, um. And so
Speaker 1: Mr Edison was in the habit of, um he really
Speaker 1: wanted to set up an entire system and uh, you
Speaker 1: know that's really kind of the background. But behind starting
Speaker 1: this uh laboratory, as Jonathan likes to say, is hey,
Speaker 1: let's find ways to capitalize on this. We can we
Speaker 1: can do this, and we can wire homes. Let's let's
Speaker 1: what else can we do to capitalize on what we
Speaker 1: know about electricity, and so he really got into the
Speaker 1: business along with all the other people with whom he worked,
Speaker 1: of really making an electrical industry. And that's really what
Speaker 1: g E is about. And he was even looking at
Speaker 1: things like electric railways, which that that was that was
Speaker 1: the method of transportation back at that time. You know,
Speaker 1: if you were traveling, if you weren't traveling by rail,
Speaker 1: you're traveling by horse like electric trolleys, street cars. So
Speaker 1: that these were really important projects for him, and and
Speaker 1: you know, to be able to develop these things, you
Speaker 1: also had to develop the infrastructure. I mean the infrastructure
Speaker 1: didn't exist either. So this was an enormous undertaking. And
Speaker 1: he employed lots and lots of other folks working with him,
Speaker 1: many of whom contributed UH to the innovative developments in
Speaker 1: the General Electric Company, both before and after it actually
Speaker 1: became GE. So nine he starts to UH to merge
Speaker 1: these different companies that he started together and calls it
Speaker 1: Edison General Electric. So it makes sense it's all these
Speaker 1: different specialized companies and now it's General Yes exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because because it wouldn't make sense to call it one thing,
Speaker 1: like call it the Electric you know, the Electric Light Company,
Speaker 1: but they also work in rail. Yes, you know, that
Speaker 1: just doesn't make sense unless it's light rail. But anyway,
Speaker 1: so at the same time that this is going on,
Speaker 1: there's another company called the American Electric Company. Yep. Now
Speaker 1: we touched on on one of Edison's major rivalries before
Speaker 1: on the podcast, of course, that being a Mr Tesla
Speaker 1: who's photo is still staring a hole into the side
Speaker 1: of your head. Yes. Yes. One of the funny things
Speaker 1: about this studio that we record in is, I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody on all the House stuff works dot Com podcast
Speaker 1: records in this room. Yet we have Edison and Tesla
Speaker 1: in here with us, and all the other famous people
Speaker 1: photos are out out there. So yeah, anyhow, we we
Speaker 1: touched on his relationship. We also, um, I don't recall
Speaker 1: if we mentioned George Westinghouse in that podcast. He have
Speaker 1: He of course was uh sort of instrumental in working
Speaker 1: with Tesla to bring around a C when when Edison
Speaker 1: wanted d C as the standard. But there were other
Speaker 1: people who were competing with Edison for the purposes of
Speaker 1: wiring homes and bringing electric lighting to homes and businesses.
Speaker 1: I should say, yeah, no, no, the American Electric Company
Speaker 1: was one of those, and they were They were out
Speaker 1: of New Britain, Connecticut, and there was a group of
Speaker 1: investors there that was in charge of financing the company.
Speaker 1: But the company was kind of struggling, and the company
Speaker 1: had been founded had been founded by two of those
Speaker 1: gentlemen I had engined earlier, Elihu Thompson and Edwin Houston,
Speaker 1: both of whom were engineers Uh and Uh. Thompson was
Speaker 1: an engineer, an inventor, and Houston was an electrical electrical engineer.
Speaker 1: And they they had founded this company. The investors had
Speaker 1: put their money into it, but they were kind of
Speaker 1: stuck in this tiny little region. There were some other
Speaker 1: investors who thought that the company had potential to grow
Speaker 1: and blossom, but it needed to get out from under
Speaker 1: the thumb of those investors, and so they called in
Speaker 1: a fellow named Charles A. Coffin, who was a businessman.
Speaker 1: He was not an engineer. He was a guy who
Speaker 1: had a shoe factory um and what a very successful one.
Speaker 1: Had become quite a wealthy man, and he was called
Speaker 1: in to actually buy out this company from under these investors,
Speaker 1: and it was renamed the Thompson Houston Electric Company, and
Speaker 1: it actually flourished. It did really well, in fact, so
Speaker 1: well that it was rivaling Edison's General Electric Company, especially
Speaker 1: in specific regions. In fact, Thompson Houston Electric, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the city's, one of the stays we're very
Speaker 1: very close to right now, was wired by Thompson Houston originally.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, they'd be hard Lanta, Georgia. What, yes, indeed, yeah,
Speaker 1: it turns out that Mr Coffin was there for the undertaking. Yes,
Speaker 1: and both talk more about Coffin as well. So well,
Speaker 1: now I was gonna say, you remember when we talked
Speaker 1: about the Colombian Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair. Uh, Thompson
Speaker 1: Houston was one of the rivals to Edison for lighting
Speaker 1: that exposition, and they you know, there was a bitter,
Speaker 1: bitter rivalry between the two companies there for a while,
Speaker 1: but they kissed and made up because in eighteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: so just two years after Edison General Electric was founded,
Speaker 1: in Edison, General Electric and Thompson Houston Electric merged and
Speaker 1: they formed General Electric. And the very first CEO of
Speaker 1: General Electric was Charles A. Coffin. Well, look at that,
Speaker 1: so Edison was considered a founder of General Electric and Coffin,
Speaker 1: since he had shown a very acute sense of business acumen.
Speaker 1: As it was an obtuse, it was acute. Uh. He
Speaker 1: he ended up being the guy in charge and he
Speaker 1: started to um to really take take initiative. And in
Speaker 1: fact he had a big test early, early, early on
Speaker 1: in the history of ge in eight so just one
Speaker 1: year after the company had been founded, out of these
Speaker 1: other two separate companies, Uh, Coffin had to guide the
Speaker 1: company through what was called the Panic of eighte. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a it was an economic depression. So we're
Speaker 1: just getting weird sound effects through the rest of this podcast.
Speaker 1: It's great, it's no work at all for our producer. Hi, Annie,
Speaker 1: we have a new producer today. Uh, she's stepping in capably.
Speaker 1: I might add. So in eightee, you have this economic
Speaker 1: depression that actually was part of an economic bubble. In
Speaker 1: this case, in e it was a railroad bubble. There
Speaker 1: was such a run on trying to build out railroads
Speaker 1: throughout the country that there was an overbuilding problem, and
Speaker 1: this overbuilding problem ended up having a bubble burst and
Speaker 1: then banks began to fail. So if this sounds familiar,
Speaker 1: it's because you could say the housing bubble was very
Speaker 1: similar to the railroad bubble, and that, in fact, we
Speaker 1: do not learn from our own history. But that's first
Speaker 1: stuff you missed in history class. This is tech stuff.
Speaker 1: I will concentrate on the tech anyway. Coffin ended up
Speaker 1: making this deal with banks where they would lend loans
Speaker 1: to g E in return for utility stock, and that
Speaker 1: actually kept the company going during this depression and they
Speaker 1: were able to ride it out and as a result,
Speaker 1: they're still around today. So in eighteen five ge builds
Speaker 1: the world's largest electric locomotive, wow, ninety ton electric locomotive,
Speaker 1: and also builds transformers capable of moving this electric locomotive
Speaker 1: because without it, now you just have this enormous thing
Speaker 1: that sits there, just like the light bulb in the
Speaker 1: house that has no electricity. Uh. The transformers, which were
Speaker 1: not Optimist Prime nor Megatron. We're talking about the transformers
Speaker 1: that are able to change electric current from one voltage
Speaker 1: to another effectively could handle up to eight kilowatts. And UH.
Speaker 1: Also that year in something else happened that would become
Speaker 1: an important part of GEES history. It was not directly
Speaker 1: involving g at this point, but there was a scientist
Speaker 1: named Vilhelm Conrad Rutgen. Yes, he discovered something. He discovered
Speaker 1: X rays. Yeah, you know, I've I've heard about this guy,
Speaker 1: and uh I see right through him. Yeah, totally transparent. Actually,
Speaker 1: uh Renchen's work played a big part in GE. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's he's his work, UH will come up many times
Speaker 1: over the course of the next three podcasts two and
Speaker 1: a half podcast I should say, because GE one of
Speaker 1: gs major um industries that it's involved in is medical equipment,
Speaker 1: especially medical imaging, but but medical equipment in general. And
Speaker 1: in fact that that first instance happened the next year,
Speaker 1: in so just one year after X rays had been
Speaker 1: first demonstrated to exist, Ali Hu Thompson created electrical equipment
Speaker 1: that was capable of producing X rays, which that that
Speaker 1: actually launched gees foray into medical imaging equipment. That was
Speaker 1: the same year the GE got listed on the Dow
Speaker 1: in eight So yeah, they're UM, they're already making headway
Speaker 1: into to the industries that they would become known for
Speaker 1: further on in their in their history. And one of
Speaker 1: the really good things if you can, if you're a
Speaker 1: business person, if you can find an industry that is
Speaker 1: uh getting started and jump in with both feet, like
Speaker 1: like these people did, um, you can make us pretty
Speaker 1: big um impact on the industry. And that's exactly what
Speaker 1: what G was doing at this point, because they were
Speaker 1: founding whole industries. Really, when you get down to it,
Speaker 1: I mean, the medical imaging field really didn't exist as
Speaker 1: we know it today. And of course now we know
Speaker 1: so much more about these things, but GE was certainly
Speaker 1: a leader in that department. Yeah, and if you've listened
Speaker 1: to our other podcasts about companies, you've heard sort of
Speaker 1: similar stories, things like Texas Instruments being really into the
Speaker 1: whole the solid state electronics. I mean, uh, there are
Speaker 1: certain companies that really shaped the way these technologies developed.
Speaker 1: It's not just that they were innovators, but they actually
Speaker 1: because they got in so really they almost dictated to
Speaker 1: the rest of the world how these technologies would take form.
Speaker 1: And uh and occasionally you'll see a company really depart
Speaker 1: from that and make something pretty cool, but more often
Speaker 1: than not, you find out that the form that was
Speaker 1: settled on by the company that founded it is the
Speaker 1: one that's the most stable. So yeah, G was doing
Speaker 1: some some really important work here, and in nineteen hundred
Speaker 1: they registered the trademark for the GE monogram. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the logo. Yeah. Um. And and this is not especially
Speaker 1: significant in a way, but in another it is because
Speaker 1: they're still using that exact same logo. They have established
Speaker 1: themselves as a leading brand and they are. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a name known worldwide, and brand recognition is
Speaker 1: a tricky thing, right, you don't want to mess with
Speaker 1: it too much. And so GE has done a good
Speaker 1: job at preserving that the monogram itself has changed slightly.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the color scheme changes a little bit, sometimes the
Speaker 1: the the lines are adjusted a little bit, but in
Speaker 1: general it's the same monogram as was trademarked back in
Speaker 1: And also in nineteen hundred, they established a research and
Speaker 1: development lab and uh, this was this is the one
Speaker 1: that most people say is the first lab in the
Speaker 1: United States that was dedicated just to scientific research. That's
Speaker 1: all it was meant for. Yeah, they realized that if
Speaker 1: if they could come up with a lab, a lab.
Speaker 1: So now you're doing that. That's why I that's why
Speaker 1: I'm shortening it to lab. Now you don't hear me
Speaker 1: saying laboratory, Yes, that's true. Um, Yeah, the reason they
Speaker 1: wanted to start a lab was, uh, you know, you
Speaker 1: might think it's counterproductive. Well, if they're not necessarily working
Speaker 1: on uh ge stuff, how are they making money from this? Well,
Speaker 1: they figured out that. Um, if they're working on uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in a in a general direction towards something
Speaker 1: that they want to accomplish that uh, they will make
Speaker 1: discoveries that they can use and capitalize on later. Um.
Speaker 1: And uh you know that's actually pretty common in the
Speaker 1: podcast that we've talked about that other companies have followed
Speaker 1: ges lead in this regard and has paid off for them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean look at look at Google, and it's twenty
Speaker 1: percent time. Now. You could also argue that a lot
Speaker 1: of the Google projects that came out of time ultimately
Speaker 1: kind of didn't go anywhere. But the point is is
Speaker 1: that a lot of innovation that eventually finds its way
Speaker 1: into Google products and services comes out of that twenty
Speaker 1: percent time. It may not be its own individual thing.
Speaker 1: Like you might not point out a specific product and
Speaker 1: say this is the result of twenty time from Google,
Speaker 1: but you might see a feature that's in another product
Speaker 1: and say, actually that that grew out of other project
Speaker 1: that it wouldn't exist without it. So yeah, that's really
Speaker 1: gees recognition that the innovation is going to play a
Speaker 1: major role in an industry. And and of course this
Speaker 1: is an era in the United States history where industry
Speaker 1: and innovation were paramount in in people's minds. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was one of those things that was just uh
Speaker 1: stressed by by the news and just the development of
Speaker 1: the industrial age overall. So it was an exciting time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in the United States. Right around the same time, you've
Speaker 1: got the physicists who are making incredible discoveries. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is an era of discovery that is is hard
Speaker 1: to it's hard to exaggerate, you know, because it was
Speaker 1: so amazingly important. It's like right up there with the
Speaker 1: Renaissance as far as uh, as as discoveries and and
Speaker 1: uh and the advancement of thought goes. Yeah, oh, by
Speaker 1: the way that that lab, that lab was in Schenectady,
Speaker 1: New York. Yeah, I keep on saying just New York.
Speaker 1: If I ever say just New York, it's chances are
Speaker 1: M saying s connected e, which I can't say. I
Speaker 1: just like saying Schenectady. Actually, that's going to come up
Speaker 1: a lot too, which is why I'm just going to
Speaker 1: say New York. And then Chris can pop in with
Speaker 1: the actual town name, because I want to embarrass myself
Speaker 1: as as as a few times as possible in this podcast.
Speaker 1: You could say an area just northwest of Albany. There
Speaker 1: we go, just northwest of Albany. Is the place in
Speaker 1: New York? All right? In nineteen o two, a fellow
Speaker 1: names James J. Wood received a patent for an invention
Speaker 1: that GE ended up turning into a product. Do you
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about? That would be the electric fan? Yes, indeed,
Speaker 1: something that is incredibly important down here in the South.
Speaker 1: Also incredibly important for those of you who have computers, Yes,
Speaker 1: or at least a lot of computers, which require a
Speaker 1: very small electric fan to keep the processors from overheating
Speaker 1: and your computer from shutting down. Yes, we can thank
Speaker 1: James Wood for that. Not James Woods, different guy. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's awesome and everything, and you could go up and
Speaker 1: thank him for the electric fan and he might even
Speaker 1: say you're welcome, But that's not the right guy. That
Speaker 1: was actually done for the Fort Wayne Electric Works. There's
Speaker 1: a really cool well to me, it was really cool,
Speaker 1: uh photo of this on the GE website because it's got,
Speaker 1: you know, the big f W E W thing right
Speaker 1: in the hub in the center of the fans. So
Speaker 1: it's it's um, very um turn of the century looking. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool stuff. In n three, they created the
Speaker 1: world's largest steam turbine engine at that point. It was
Speaker 1: capable of generating five thousand kilowatts. They went to the
Speaker 1: Fisk Street station in Chicago, UM, and that was this
Speaker 1: is one of those things that Edison and his company beforehand,
Speaker 1: we're doing. They were working on ways to electrify parts
Speaker 1: of the city. So they were very big into creating
Speaker 1: these stations that could be placed in local areas to
Speaker 1: provide electricity to uh, you know, different parts of the town.
Speaker 1: And um, how many people was it? It was? Uh,
Speaker 1: well it was it? Well, yeah, you said that you
Speaker 1: were talking about the killer watts, used less space and
Speaker 1: came in um under budget, and was more efficient than
Speaker 1: they expected it would be. Yeah, they thought that it
Speaker 1: was going to be. I think it was something like
Speaker 1: four times larger than what it actually was. So it
Speaker 1: was it really spoke to the the skills of the
Speaker 1: engineers and the designers behind it, who were able to
Speaker 1: create a much more efficient system than they had originally imagined. Well,
Speaker 1: considering that we were talking about at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the podcast how this all started. This whole venture was
Speaker 1: started in the mid eighteen seventies, and we're talking about
Speaker 1: thirty years later and they're already making these these huge advances.
Speaker 1: It just you know, and they really moved quickly. Speaking
Speaker 1: of huge advances, in nineteen o five, the Model D
Speaker 1: twelve hits the scene and changes the world. It was
Speaker 1: the greatest thing since sliced bread. Yes, the electric toaster.
Speaker 1: There's another really cool picture of the toaster because it
Speaker 1: has no side. Yeah. I just sit there and look
Speaker 1: at them like that just looks like potential second degree
Speaker 1: burn written all over it. Yes, keep the cat off
Speaker 1: the counter, Yeah, keep keep everything off again. Put the
Speaker 1: electric toaster in the backyard. Yeah. Imagine if you will,
Speaker 1: the the traditional style vertical toaster where you dropped the
Speaker 1: bread inside the toaster and everything with the slots. But
Speaker 1: the thing is, yeah, and remove the casing so it's
Speaker 1: basically just the metal framework. And I'm sure it worked great.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but here again g is coming up with
Speaker 1: ways to monetize electricity. So hey, it's something else you
Speaker 1: can put in your home along with your fan and
Speaker 1: your light bulb. Yeah, that's right, that's right. That's another
Speaker 1: thing is that you know, G had a vested interest
Speaker 1: in making sure that there were lots of products that
Speaker 1: ran on electricity so that you would want it. Uh.
Speaker 1: They also in nine to know five they established the
Speaker 1: Electric Bond and Share Company, which was designed to provide
Speaker 1: financing too smaller companies out there that would so in
Speaker 1: a way to try and help out other companies that
Speaker 1: could potentially buy electricity from them, by electricity from them,
Speaker 1: or create things that they could then you know, these
Speaker 1: could be companies that that the G might acquire later,
Speaker 1: but or things that made electrical equipment that made it
Speaker 1: necessary for people to buy more electricity. Lots of different reasons.
Speaker 1: And then eventually this this UM division, this service actually
Speaker 1: would evolve into Gas Commercial Finance Division. Back in nineteen
Speaker 1: o six, on Christmas Eve, there was an historic event.
Speaker 1: Ernst Frederick Verna Alexanderson. Yeah, that's a thrish Dish. He
Speaker 1: was an an inventor who created a high frequency alternator
Speaker 1: which was used in a radio broadcast, the world's first
Speaker 1: voice radio broadcast, so not a not radio communication that
Speaker 1: had been around for a little bit. And uh, and
Speaker 1: some some tests have been done, but this was the
Speaker 1: first time there was a radio broadcast made on Christmas Eve. UM,
Speaker 1: so that's pretty interesting that it was a g E
Speaker 1: employee who created the high frequency alternator that made that possible.
Speaker 1: GE built thirty ton gearless electric locomotives for the New
Speaker 1: York Central Railroad. Uh So, again, still very much in
Speaker 1: that railroad mode of transportation. I mean we're still talking
Speaker 1: the earliest parts of the twentieth century, so that's still
Speaker 1: the best way to get lots of stuff across large spaces. Well,
Speaker 1: at the time, they if you coupled two locomotives together,
Speaker 1: and these were horsepower locomotives each. Uh So if you
Speaker 1: couple two of them together, they could pull pretty much
Speaker 1: anything that they could put on, you know, on a
Speaker 1: train car. They were saying that they could handle the
Speaker 1: loads that they were putting on them at that point.
Speaker 1: So these were substantial machines. The heaviest loads that had
Speaker 1: been pulled at that by that time were pull double
Speaker 1: by these things. Uh In nineteen o nine, the Research
Speaker 1: and Development Lab produced a duct tile tungsten filament which
Speaker 1: made incandescent bulbs much more efficient. It was William D.
Speaker 1: Coolidge helped out with that. William D. Coolidge is the
Speaker 1: guy responsible and uh so yeah, this this made incandescent
Speaker 1: bulbs last longer than they had before, and which was
Speaker 1: good because even back when they were first hitting the scene,
Speaker 1: they weren't They didn't last terribly long. With a few exceptions.
Speaker 1: It all depended on what the filament was made out of.
Speaker 1: And Edison's I believe was made out of a bamboo
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, Um, the old bamboo. Uh well,
Speaker 1: and uh the funny thing about this tungsten filament that
Speaker 1: Mr Coolidge came up with, it's still basically the one
Speaker 1: that incandescent bulbs used today use. So um, it's it's
Speaker 1: proved long lasting. Yes, yes, and g E Is also
Speaker 1: looked into alternatives two incandescent bulbs, which we will talk
Speaker 1: about further in but uh. In nineteen ten, they developed
Speaker 1: the company developed the first electric cooking range. Do you
Speaker 1: know what that was called? Yes, well, it was a
Speaker 1: brand that's still used today for appliances hot Point hot
Speaker 1: Point nineteen twelve. So in nineteen twelve, a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff happens. First of all, Coffin steps down as the
Speaker 1: president of ge UH and E w RICE takes the
Speaker 1: Helm and uh GE and starts to introduce improvements in
Speaker 1: vacuum tube design, so not inventing vacuum tubes, but improving
Speaker 1: upon them. Also was they contributed to the creation of
Speaker 1: the very first electrically propelled navy vessel, the U S. S. Jubiter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: used a seven thousand horsepower horsepower turbine processor and uh
Speaker 1: was a twenty tho ton collier. Yeah, and you know
Speaker 1: what happened in nineteen twenty with the Jupiter. It's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: So you have the first electrically propelled navy vessel. So
Speaker 1: that's that's the Jupiter. In nineteen twenty, the Navy decided
Speaker 1: to refit the Jupiter to to transform it into the
Speaker 1: U S. S. Langley, and it became the very first
Speaker 1: aircraft carrier. So the Jupiter would eventually become the first
Speaker 1: aircraft carrier. So it's two firsts, the first electrically propelled
Speaker 1: vessel for the Navy and the first aircraft carrier. Also
Speaker 1: in nineteen twelve, GE began its plastics department, which just
Speaker 1: goes to show you they've graduated. Nice thanks, um, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they they're not going to do a seduced joke that
Speaker 1: not gonna happen. But they you might say, you know,
Speaker 1: wow that I didn't really realize that plastics were around.
Speaker 1: Well they, I would say, they probably weren't in the
Speaker 1: way that a lot of us think of plastic. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: this was mostly these were mostly used for industrial purposes
Speaker 1: like wire insulating wires. Yeah, and they were phenomic, which,
Speaker 1: based on my own personal limited knowledge of plastics, sort
Speaker 1: of a hard, brittle plastic. Yeah, this isn't multiple plastic
Speaker 1: that would come later. So in the EN they developed
Speaker 1: the hot cathode high vacuum X ray tube, which helped
Speaker 1: make U make it X rays more efficient and uh
Speaker 1: and reliable, so that doctors could use this technology in
Speaker 1: a way that would uh it would it would consume
Speaker 1: less energy and it was easier to control. Hey, and
Speaker 1: you know what it used? What's that tungsten? Yeah, of
Speaker 1: course it did so a cold cathode, aluminum cathode. So ntour. Well,
Speaker 1: this is the year where one of those four men
Speaker 1: I mentioned, Edwin J. Houston or Houston when he passes
Speaker 1: away in nineteen fourteen. That same year, g E starts
Speaker 1: to provide electrical components that are used within the locks
Speaker 1: in the Panama Canal. Thanks President Roosevelt. There we go.
Speaker 1: Nineteen fifteen, GE develops cal Rod, which is a heat
Speaker 1: conducting ceramic that also acts as an insulator. Yeah, used
Speaker 1: in electric range tops. Sorry, um yeah, one of the
Speaker 1: uh one again, this is one of the topics that
Speaker 1: will come up probably a handful of times in this discussion.
Speaker 1: Um cal Rod is still in use. Um G has
Speaker 1: been pretty good about finding materials that have multiple uses
Speaker 1: and just do so well that they you know, they
Speaker 1: hang around for years. Yeah, yeah, if it ain't broke. Uh.
Speaker 1: Nineteen seventeen, they developed the first hermetically sealed refrigerator refrigerator. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so uh, when we're talking about the icebox, we're starting
Speaker 1: to speak metaphorically, right, finally, Yeah, because before before that
Speaker 1: it was literal. Do you actually did have to get
Speaker 1: a big block of ice and put it in a
Speaker 1: box to try and keep stuff cold. Meanwhile, dozens of
Speaker 1: of ice men are hanging out outside Menlo Park and
Speaker 1: Schenected Eat, shouting and waving their fist and big signs
Speaker 1: made out of ice rapidly melting in. They developed the magnetron,
Speaker 1: which was a vacuum tube that uses magnetic fields to
Speaker 1: control power output. And you guys have probably heard us
Speaker 1: talk about magnetrons before because they've been used in a
Speaker 1: couple of different technologies, one of which was radar. Yes.
Speaker 1: But then one of the guys who was working on
Speaker 1: radar with a magnetron noticed something interesting. Oh, yes, the
Speaker 1: chocolate bar melting in his pocket. Yes, which indicated that
Speaker 1: there was something hinky going on. And that led to
Speaker 1: the discovery of microwaves and their potential use as a
Speaker 1: heating element. And so yes, magnetrons now are used in
Speaker 1: not just radar, but also microwaves. I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: being cooked slowly. This could probably be useful for something. UH.
Speaker 1: And that same year they also developed a two watt
Speaker 1: alternator that allowed for trans oceanic radio broadcasts. So now
Speaker 1: people can talk to each other across the ocean, and
Speaker 1: UH and Yale insults at each other directly. Actually, it
Speaker 1: was used during World War one two to transmit information
Speaker 1: between UH, the Allied Expeditionary Yeah, Expeditionary Force, and UH
Speaker 1: in the United States itself from from back and forth
Speaker 1: during during the war to communicate plans and things. And
Speaker 1: speaking of World War one, alright, so in nineteen nineteen,
Speaker 1: this is this is where I'm going to go off
Speaker 1: in a little bit of a tangent en. Here's a
Speaker 1: big mess in World War One. So the United States
Speaker 1: government decided during World War One that it would be
Speaker 1: really important to gather together all of the different companies
Speaker 1: and technologies that had to do with radio because that
Speaker 1: would be very useful during the war effort. So they
Speaker 1: essentially commandeered everything. More or less. I am oversimplifying for
Speaker 1: the purposes of this podcast, but the United States essentially
Speaker 1: commandeers all these different companies assets that are dealing with
Speaker 1: radio technology. When the war is over. Uh, the the
Speaker 1: United States says, um, well, we don't really want to
Speaker 1: give all this stuff back to companies that have overseas
Speaker 1: elements because that could eventually be bad. We need an
Speaker 1: American company, gosh darned patriotic American company, to take over
Speaker 1: a radio development. And so they go to several different companies,
Speaker 1: including g E, and say, form an American company that's
Speaker 1: all about radio. So they formed the Radio Corporation of
Speaker 1: America or r c A, and g E is Uh.
Speaker 1: The the has controlling interest in our c A, but
Speaker 1: other companies do to, including Westinghouse and A. T. And
Speaker 1: T as well as others. Uh So, it's kind of
Speaker 1: a complicated relationship here, but yes, so G, Yeah, it's complicated.
Speaker 1: G has controlling interests in our ci A and the
Speaker 1: very first CEO of our c A is a man
Speaker 1: named Owen D. Young and he will become important in
Speaker 1: a little bit. So moving on, In nine creates a
Speaker 1: portable X ray machine, so now you can look at
Speaker 1: people on the go. Yeah. They they put in an
Speaker 1: X ray tube and the transformer assembly uh in basically
Speaker 1: was immersed in oil um which enabled this technology to work.
Speaker 1: But the device only weighed twenty pounds UM and it
Speaker 1: could be used also for for dental X rays, which
Speaker 1: is important. Now we still haven't reached the point where
Speaker 1: we have X ray specs, but that's probably a good thing.
Speaker 1: Well that didn't come along until the invention of the
Speaker 1: comic book ad. Yeah, yeah right there with Charles Atlas. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: we you wouldn't want those ionizing radiation staying close to
Speaker 1: you for a long bad time. Turns out to be
Speaker 1: a bad thing. Yeah, and then there are the people
Speaker 1: that you know never mind um so yeah, like wow,
Speaker 1: look at her skeletal structure. U. Anyway, so one a plane,
Speaker 1: UH sets an altitude record of hundred feet And the
Speaker 1: way it does is it uses something called a supercharger,
Speaker 1: which was developed by General Electric and UH. Yeah, the guy,
Speaker 1: the guy I love these stories, a guy named Sanford
Speaker 1: Moss who who realized that sixteen years old that if
Speaker 1: you compress UH fuel where if you if you burn
Speaker 1: fuel and compressed air environment, you could get more energy
Speaker 1: out of the the Actually exactly, the combustion creates more
Speaker 1: energy than it would without the compressed air. What he said,
Speaker 1: and Uh and he you know, was working for GE
Speaker 1: and they turned that into a well into a whole
Speaker 1: line of jet engines, which would happen later, but yeah,
Speaker 1: huge deal. In nineteen twenty two, Coffin retires from the board.
Speaker 1: He had already retired as president. Now he had become
Speaker 1: a member of the board and now was retired. UH
Speaker 1: and Rice retires as the president. And that's when O. N. D. Young,
Speaker 1: the former head of our CIA, becomes the new chairman
Speaker 1: of the board and a guy named Gerard Swope becomes
Speaker 1: the new president of g E and Swope and UH
Speaker 1: and Young together began to really focus on creating UH
Speaker 1: gadgets for the home appliances for the home. They really
Speaker 1: started to push g E to make more of those,
Speaker 1: and and not not to abandon its industrial uh it's
Speaker 1: it's industrial efforts as well. It was still making stuff
Speaker 1: for industry and for companies, victories, that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: but that they wanted to have a whole line of appliances.
Speaker 1: And that's also when uh oh and and Swope, by
Speaker 1: the way, another thing that's interesting about him, Gerard Swope
Speaker 1: the president at that point, he was known for really
Speaker 1: working to improve labor conditions. He was he was really
Speaker 1: on the side of employees more often than not, and
Speaker 1: so he worked to make sure that the uh, the
Speaker 1: labor conditions within GE were the best they could be.
Speaker 1: He also worked with labor relations and was very much
Speaker 1: on their side for um uh negotiations. So Swope was
Speaker 1: kind of a kind of a popular president really m
Speaker 1: G while he was there. And they also in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty two created a radio station in New York. What
Speaker 1: town was that that would be in Schenectady. There you go,
Speaker 1: and it was w g Y. Yeah, this might not
Speaker 1: sound very exciting, but it was one of the very
Speaker 1: first to begin regular broadcasting using a and this is
Speaker 1: funny in today's in today's thinking a fifteen hundred transmitter
Speaker 1: which probably would get you a few miles away. Here's
Speaker 1: your traffic report. We got Charles up in the tree
Speaker 1: outside the office. Charles is, what's what's going on out there?
Speaker 1: There's a horse, all right? And moving on to your requests.
Speaker 1: So it would get better, yes, yes, eventually you had
Speaker 1: the Zoo crew in there. So in nineteen race car
Speaker 1: driver named Peter de Polo wins the Indianapolis five hundred
Speaker 1: driving a car that also happens to have a G
Speaker 1: e U supercharger in it, So thanks Mr Moss. Not
Speaker 1: a little jet engine right there in the car. Well no,
Speaker 1: but it did the same, had the same effect on
Speaker 1: It was the same effect, and that it went really fast.
Speaker 1: It didn't reacht I hope. So in uh six, Charles
Speaker 1: Coffin passes away, so he's you know, his passing was
Speaker 1: another end of an era. At that same time, our
Speaker 1: c A, the Radio Corporation of America, acquired several other
Speaker 1: networks and formed something called the National Broadcasting Company or NBC.
Speaker 1: I feel like i've heard of that, do do do? Okay?
Speaker 1: Actually I told you before we started that I had
Speaker 1: a bit of color to add to the r C.
Speaker 1: A discussion UM found out and and apparently this is
Speaker 1: a myth. But but the the musical nature of that
Speaker 1: is true. The notes that you just sang, which are
Speaker 1: recognizable to those of us in the United States as
Speaker 1: uh than the tones that NBC uses on its broadcasts,
Speaker 1: happened to work out to G E c uh clever. Now,
Speaker 1: apparently the myth is that that that's for General Electric Corporation. UM.
Speaker 1: From what I understand, that is just a myth. But
Speaker 1: if they are in the right position, So if you
Speaker 1: play GEO, go out to your piano, if you've got one,
Speaker 1: play g E C and you will. I want to
Speaker 1: believe that just as much as I want to believe
Speaker 1: how is how because it's three letters off from my
Speaker 1: IM so I think that's probably more more true. It's
Speaker 1: more true than this less true thing. So it's more
Speaker 1: true than this. In nineteen seven, G. S W g
Speaker 1: Y starts sending out the first TV signals to be
Speaker 1: picked up by a home television and it's in a
Speaker 1: little town in New York. It's called that's right. So
Speaker 1: in nineteen nine g E installs this. This excites me
Speaker 1: because I'm such a theater geek. Right In N nine
Speaker 1: g E installs electronic theater lighting controls at the Chicago
Speaker 1: Civic Opera. Alright, So, as a theater geek, I have
Speaker 1: to say, this revolutionizes the way the way people can
Speaker 1: perform theater because before you typically had lighting that was
Speaker 1: very much stationary because you couldn't really do a whole
Speaker 1: lot with it, or you couldn't turn lights on and
Speaker 1: off easily because you were using sometimes open flames. Um.
Speaker 1: Switching to electronic lights means that you could turn things
Speaker 1: off and on very quickly. There was no you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't going to fade up or fade down if
Speaker 1: unless you wanted it to. But it allows you to
Speaker 1: do some very dramatic staging opportunities that just weren't available
Speaker 1: before that. So it's really done a lot to change
Speaker 1: the way live theater works, which is exciting to me
Speaker 1: and no one else. So we'll move on ninety um.
Speaker 1: So that was the very I was gonna sorry, Oh
Speaker 1: there we go. Uh In g introduced the first washing machine.
Speaker 1: Did you see a picture of this? Yes? I did.
Speaker 1: It looks like an oil drum with a home appliance
Speaker 1: of some sort. On top of it. Yeah. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: that's the way they used to look. I mean, the
Speaker 1: thing is that with those old washing machines, you didn't
Speaker 1: you know, we think of them as being sort of
Speaker 1: square now, but they also have a brokage totally square.
Speaker 1: That's because you're such a hep cat. I just wear
Speaker 1: clothes once and then I burn them. Um yea. But yeah,
Speaker 1: these didn't have the holes that and a spin cycle
Speaker 1: that you know, would drain the water you were, you'd
Speaker 1: wash it and then you'd take them out of there
Speaker 1: and you'd bring them yourself. So but they worked. You
Speaker 1: didn't have to take it down and pound your stuff
Speaker 1: on rocks down by the river, that's right. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was definitely an improvement. Was also when ge began to
Speaker 1: provide electrical systems for a building that was going up
Speaker 1: in New York City, a tall building, a very tall building,
Speaker 1: the tallest one at that point, the Empire State Building. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they did a whole lot of stuff with the wiring,
Speaker 1: their safety switches, switchboards, panel boards, and all sorts of
Speaker 1: other electrical uh infrastructure that went in the building. And
Speaker 1: of course, you know, people rushed right in to pick
Speaker 1: up spaces and that. Oh wait, no, they didn't, but
Speaker 1: that's another story. Yeah, we could do a whole podcast
Speaker 1: just on the Empire State Building. Actually, they're quite a
Speaker 1: few podcasts. We could do a podcast on our c A.
Speaker 1: It would be fascinating. Yeah, we can do that. Uh,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna actually talk a little bit about that
Speaker 1: in just a second. Anyway, Um show save the G
Speaker 1: E C for that. So G E starts it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's mold Bowl Plastic division within the company. Yeah. Now
Speaker 1: this is when we start getting into plastics such as
Speaker 1: we know them now, where you can you can form
Speaker 1: them into different shapes, and I mean not that you
Speaker 1: couldn't before, but they're flexible, more flexible, and they start
Speaker 1: taking the place of other materials in home appliances. So
Speaker 1: you'd find stuff that fewer things made out of metal
Speaker 1: and more things made out of plastic from this point forward.
Speaker 1: Also in ninety so r c A is formed. In
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty, the United States holds antitrust hearings against General
Speaker 1: Electric regarding our CIA. And didn't they weren't they supposed to? Wait?
Speaker 1: This is where I ran. Wait, right, So the United
Speaker 1: States nineteen tells GE, Hey, you guys need to make
Speaker 1: this company. So they do, and then in nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: US says, hey, you guys have a monopoly on this
Speaker 1: company we made you make get rid of it. I know, right,
Speaker 1: that doesn't make a lot of It drives me crazy.
Speaker 1: You've got I mean, like you weren't there already? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know real Uh this short trip the United States?
Speaker 1: So yeah, the United States says, all right, we can't
Speaker 1: let all these different assets go back to the companies
Speaker 1: they belong to originally, because who knows what could happen.
Speaker 1: So let's make this one company by telling these other
Speaker 1: companies to form it. And then comes up to G
Speaker 1: and says, hey, you can't do that anymore, that thing
Speaker 1: we told you to do. Stop doing that. And so
Speaker 1: G divested itself of the controlling interest to our c A.
Speaker 1: And uh that's you might think, oh, well that's the
Speaker 1: end of that story. No, but it's gonna take two
Speaker 1: podcasts before we get back to it. Um anyway, the
Speaker 1: uh yeah, this drives me nuts. Oh. Also that same year,
Speaker 1: there was another company that also had to divest its
Speaker 1: interest in our ci A, Westinghouse. So you know G
Speaker 1: and Westinghouse, these competitors both owned interest in our Cia.
Speaker 1: Both of them had to divest interest in it so
Speaker 1: that it would no longer be considered an antitrust issue.
Speaker 1: All right, And that brings us to nineteen thirty one
Speaker 1: and the end of our podcast. We decided to end
Speaker 1: it in thirty one because nineteen thirty one is the
Speaker 1: year that Thomas Alva Edison passed away, but he lived
Speaker 1: long enough to see his company become pardoned upon, a
Speaker 1: powerhouse in its industry and create several industries as well. Yes,
Speaker 1: it was definitely an instrumental company at that time. It
Speaker 1: will only grow to be more so over the following decades.
Speaker 1: So we are going to conclude our podcast of part
Speaker 1: one of the g E Story right here. We will
Speaker 1: pick up in part two in nineteen thirty two, and
Speaker 1: we will continue on and there will be a part
Speaker 1: three because this is this is a company that's got
Speaker 1: a storied past. So join us for our next episode.
Speaker 1: And if you guys have any suggestions for episode topics,
Speaker 1: whether it's a company we should feature, whether it's an
Speaker 1: interview we should do, or just some other kind of
Speaker 1: technology you would like to hear about, let us know.
Speaker 1: You can contact us through email. Our address is text
Speaker 1: stuff at Discovery dot com, or you can send us
Speaker 1: a message on face Look or Twitter or handle at
Speaker 1: both of those is text stuff H. S W and
Speaker 1: Chris and I will talk to you again really soon.
Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
Speaker 1: from the Future. Join How Stuff Work staff as we
Speaker 1: explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The
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