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 looks dot com. Well, hello there,
Speaker 1: and welcome to text stuff. My name is Chris Poulette
Speaker 1: and I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: And because we're recording a podcast, the person sitting across
Speaker 1: from me is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. There was no
Speaker 1: possibility of taking a walk that day. That was a
Speaker 1: really short quote. Yes, I you know when you can
Speaker 1: always tell when I'm pressed for time. It's the short quotes. Well. Originally,
Speaker 1: Chris and I when we were talking about doing this
Speaker 1: series of podcasts, this being the third part on our
Speaker 1: series on g E, we originally talked about doing two
Speaker 1: episodes in our two parts series exactly we're gonna do
Speaker 1: parts one in parts two. But then as we looked
Speaker 1: at the history, and it is a long and storied
Speaker 1: history that we knew that we really couldn't it that
Speaker 1: into two episodes unless we went super long, and we
Speaker 1: try and reserve the super long episodes for things like
Speaker 1: the four episode or talking to Brian Brushwood. So we
Speaker 1: decided to something that Jonathan's vain pop out on this forehead. Yeah,
Speaker 1: anything that makes me rant. So we wanted to try
Speaker 1: and uh and keep it a little more manageable. So
Speaker 1: this is part three, um, and we thought we would
Speaker 1: start with a monumental event in the history of the
Speaker 1: United States and really in the world in general, or
Speaker 1: actually not in the world in general. Yes, it was
Speaker 1: out of this world nineteen sixty nine, the Lunar landing, which,
Speaker 1: for the purposes of this podcast we are going to
Speaker 1: say actually happened on the Moon. Yes, it was not
Speaker 1: a hoax, It was not done in some television studio.
Speaker 1: It really did happen, people, and just just just go
Speaker 1: with this. It did happen, because if you say it
Speaker 1: didn't happen, there's a chance and astronaut is going to
Speaker 1: show up in deck. You h you know, I'm not arguing.
Speaker 1: I'm not arguing either, but I mean you're you know,
Speaker 1: looking at me when you say that, I completely Well,
Speaker 1: it's because you're across from me. That's so. Anyway, Yes,
Speaker 1: the lunar landing in nineteen sixty nine. So you've probably
Speaker 1: seen the the iconic image of the footprint left behind
Speaker 1: by Neil Armstrong on the service of the Moon. Yes, well,
Speaker 1: the company that made the material that created that boot
Speaker 1: print silicone rubber. As it turns out that was g
Speaker 1: e Ge created the silicone rubber that was used in
Speaker 1: Neil Armstrong's boots as well as the other astronauts, so
Speaker 1: that that bootprint is courtesy of GES technology. Yep. Oh.
Speaker 1: They also did a couple other things like quality control systems,
Speaker 1: U launch vehicle test facilities, ship to satellite communications for
Speaker 1: live color TV pictures of splashdown, and recovery systems, engineering support,
Speaker 1: just little stuff. Sure, but I'm talking about the boot Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm about that footprint, but no, that is that. It's
Speaker 1: really cool they did play that was one of the
Speaker 1: companies that played a large part in getting people to
Speaker 1: the Moon. Not the only one, obviously, there were many
Speaker 1: other companies that all contributed to that effort, but g
Speaker 1: did make a significant contribution to the space race and
Speaker 1: it was pretty awesome to see that come together. And
Speaker 1: if you guys have never watched any video footage of
Speaker 1: the lunar landing, I highly recommend you check it out.
Speaker 1: There's tons of it on the internet. Um. I like
Speaker 1: watching the reactions of the news anchors when the linear
Speaker 1: landing set down. Because you see these these these people
Speaker 1: who have developed very very stately professional personas on the air,
Speaker 1: and you see them kind of you see that crack
Speaker 1: just a bit as the enormity of this event hits
Speaker 1: them in real time. It's phenomenal. That probably doesn't mean
Speaker 1: as much to you if you aren't familiar with their
Speaker 1: previous work, But for those who have seen footage of
Speaker 1: these newscasters UH reporting all sorts of events, including major tragedies,
Speaker 1: and see them kind of break down a little bit
Speaker 1: when they see people land on the moon, it kind
Speaker 1: of gives you an idea of how big a deal
Speaker 1: this was. It's easier for us to forget now because
Speaker 1: we're so far removed from it, but it was enormous.
Speaker 1: And also, I just anything that that shows that kind
Speaker 1: of level of awe in in in human achievement, to
Speaker 1: me is is really inspiring. So those are Jonathan's feelings
Speaker 1: in a capsule. There you go. Nineteen seventy the GE
Speaker 1: sold one of its divisions. This is one of those
Speaker 1: few times where did divest itself of something. It's sold
Speaker 1: a computer division to a company called Honeywell, we'll have
Speaker 1: to do an episode on Honeywell at some point too.
Speaker 1: So nineteen seventy they sell this computer division to Honeywell,
Speaker 1: which is why g E is not really into the
Speaker 1: whole computer side of of the industry. Um. And in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one they introduced something that is very again
Speaker 1: really important to those of us in the South. Well,
Speaker 1: it's especially cool. Yes, it is especially cool, especially when
Speaker 1: you're on the go because it was it's also handy,
Speaker 1: the first sup portable air conditioner. Yes, they carry cool, Yes,
Speaker 1: very cool. Yes, definitely. Anything where you can move an
Speaker 1: air conditioner from room to room is awesome. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very important for those of us who live in warm climates.
Speaker 1: And in when we were recording this, we had an
Speaker 1: exceptionally mild winter. Mild is probably even going being generous.
Speaker 1: It was warm to the point where we were hitting
Speaker 1: eighty degree temperatures in February, which makes us worry about
Speaker 1: what the temperatures could be like and say May or
Speaker 1: June or Heaven help us August. Um. Uh, we've we've
Speaker 1: talked about the many businesses with which ge was involved.
Speaker 1: And in nine and seventy one also um, they worked
Speaker 1: for the French company actually to pull this off, but
Speaker 1: the g E F one oh one engine UM became
Speaker 1: the world's most successful aircraft engine uhich is very very
Speaker 1: popular machine. UM and you know, just another one of
Speaker 1: the transportation businesses that they were involved in. There will
Speaker 1: be actually some some new ones that we haven't talked
Speaker 1: about in previous pot well, something we touched on in
Speaker 1: previous podcasts, but not the same way. Also, the the
Speaker 1: second of the scientists at the GE laboratories um dr.
Speaker 1: How would you pronounce his name, Ivar Giver THEE. This
Speaker 1: last name is spelled g I A E v e R. Now,
Speaker 1: the funny thing about this is he won this award
Speaker 1: in ninety three, the Nobel and Physics UH for something
Speaker 1: he did in six He discovered super conductive tunneling. And
Speaker 1: we've talked about that in previous podcasts several times. So
Speaker 1: if you want to know what's for conductive tunneling is
Speaker 1: this is one of those weird quantum effects that that
Speaker 1: is perplexing and can also be very irritating to computer engineers,
Speaker 1: as the design chips. Super Conductive tunneling is that that
Speaker 1: tendency for sub atomic particles to pass through barriers as
Speaker 1: if the barrier is not there. Uh. And in general,
Speaker 1: this has to do with the probability of a particle
Speaker 1: being within a certain area. As the particle approaches a
Speaker 1: a a barrier, there is a probability that the particle
Speaker 1: will be on the other side of that barrier. And
Speaker 1: as long as there's a probability, that means that there
Speaker 1: is going to be, at least in some instances, a
Speaker 1: case where the subatomic particle will be on the other
Speaker 1: side that barrier as if it passed through it. Now,
Speaker 1: there is no actual tunnel left behind that. It's not
Speaker 1: like there's a hole made through the barrier. It's just
Speaker 1: that there's a point where the subotomic particle is on
Speaker 1: one side and then it's on the other. And that's crazy,
Speaker 1: but it's also quantum. I should also point out that,
Speaker 1: you know, we were talking about nineteen three back in
Speaker 1: seventy two, just really briefly, uh. Fred J. Borch retired
Speaker 1: in seventy two and Reginald H. Jones became chairman and CEO. Okay,
Speaker 1: so Borch was the chairman and CEO. Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: president and CEO, and then sixty seven he became the
Speaker 1: chairman and CEO, and then seventy two, he retires and
Speaker 1: Reginald H. Jones becomes the chairman and CEO. Okay, just
Speaker 1: since you know, in case you were just tuning in, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: because that wasn't the last podcast, so it was like yes,
Speaker 1: so for you guys, it was a week ago. We're sorry.
Speaker 1: So seventy eight is the next date I have? Do
Speaker 1: you have anything between seventy yes? I do. UM. Now
Speaker 1: we UH. We've talked about in previous podcast gees interest
Speaker 1: in medical fields actually from from a pretty early time
Speaker 1: in its corporate history. The company was involved with different
Speaker 1: medical technologies UM, electronic medical technologies, and we also talked
Speaker 1: about a super conductive magnet UH that they created. Well,
Speaker 1: this is where we're starting to get into the heavy
Speaker 1: duty UM high end high tech scanners. UH. Seventy six
Speaker 1: is when they created a computed tomography scanner scanner UM.
Speaker 1: And this is a time when GEES units have worked together.
Speaker 1: There's a group at the research and Development center and
Speaker 1: and also at the Medical Systems division can do cross
Speaker 1: section X rays in five seconds. UM greatly speeds up
Speaker 1: medical diagnoses. So that is a pretty and nifty technology.
Speaker 1: And also UM something else that was sort of curious back,
Speaker 1: dating back to our first podcast on GE, is when
Speaker 1: the company chose to acknowledge its hundred the anniversary. It's
Speaker 1: centennial and uh in what year seventy six? I thought,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it was I had Okay, I'm sorry, Well
Speaker 1: that yeah, I do too. Sorry I had looked down
Speaker 1: at the wrong thing. But that's um, yeah, it is
Speaker 1: coming up because, uh, eighteen seventy six is when Thomas
Speaker 1: Edison opened his laboratory. Um. But the Edison General Electric Company,
Speaker 1: which is one of the two companies that that went
Speaker 1: in to create General Electric, was founded in eighteen ninety. Yeah,
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight was when he founded the Edison Electric
Speaker 1: Light Company, which I guess is what GE identifies as
Speaker 1: being the seed that it grew out of. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because sorry about my date incorrection. Oh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it just made me think that maybe because again, we
Speaker 1: we look at different Chris and I both do our
Speaker 1: research independently, so once in a while, especially for something
Speaker 1: as complex as a corporate history, you can come up
Speaker 1: with some conflicts in dates. But in this case, it is, Uh,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight was when they were saying they were
Speaker 1: a hundred years old and apparently, I would say it's
Speaker 1: the Electric Light Company that they're looking at, not the
Speaker 1: electric company, hey you guys, but the Electric Light company
Speaker 1: that that was the basis for their one years. They
Speaker 1: counted from that point, even though the Edison General Electric
Speaker 1: Company didn't start until eighteen ninety and the General Electric
Speaker 1: Company itself didn't that merger didn't happen until what was
Speaker 1: it like ninety six, eight ninety six, something like that. Um,
Speaker 1: I was even after that, well after after Yeah. So anyway,
Speaker 1: you've got this whole uh, it's you've got this whole
Speaker 1: uh centennial problem here. When do you trace your history back?
Speaker 1: And yeah, same thing with IBM, where they have a
Speaker 1: date that is slightly different than the date when the
Speaker 1: company was actually incorporated. But yeah, they celebrate their their
Speaker 1: uh their centennial. This goes all the way back to
Speaker 1: the days at Menlo Park, New Jersey, which is now
Speaker 1: called New Jersey. Uh. It's where Thomas Alva Edison had
Speaker 1: his own research lab. And uh. That year they also
Speaker 1: introduced a new kind of a couple of new products,
Speaker 1: including a new type of technology about helping you wake up. Yes,
Speaker 1: the first programmable digital clock radio. That's a great way
Speaker 1: to celebrate a hundred years. It's been blinking twelve since then.
Speaker 1: Um no, yeah, So that was one of the two
Speaker 1: products I had for that year, the other one being
Speaker 1: an over the range microwave oven. Oh well, yeah, the
Speaker 1: space Maker. But they also came out with the FP
Speaker 1: one and FP two food processors. What you're really handy
Speaker 1: if you need to chop up a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: veggies in a hurry. Um. Yeah. One of the things
Speaker 1: that that we've talked about repeatedly on the other two
Speaker 1: podcasts is GES diversity and its businesses. Now, of course
Speaker 1: they're all um, revolving around things you can do with energy,
Speaker 1: um and uh and in ways to add to them. Uh.
Speaker 1: So you know, you've got your big stuff. You've got
Speaker 1: dynam mos and and uh nuclear power plants things to
Speaker 1: generate electricity. You've got uh jet engines and other transportations
Speaker 1: stuff that uses energy to get you from place to place.
Speaker 1: And you've also got small appliances and and other appliances
Speaker 1: larger appliances that people using their home to take advantage
Speaker 1: of energy. So there the idea of one of the
Speaker 1: things that you identified early on was its desire to
Speaker 1: come up with a whole range of stuff hot range, um,
Speaker 1: that that people could use to make their lives better.
Speaker 1: And um, so we are are are not teasing them
Speaker 1: about the digital clock, radio or food processors, but you
Speaker 1: know it just it really does show that the breadth
Speaker 1: of stuff that they are doing. Um. Also, in seventy eight,
Speaker 1: they got eight hundred sixty five patents awarded to them
Speaker 1: in the United States. They were the first organization to
Speaker 1: get fifty thousand United States patents. That number is gonna
Speaker 1: go up, by the way. We'll have We'll have more
Speaker 1: on that number as we go on. It's pretty crazy
Speaker 1: when you look at the number of patents that were
Speaker 1: awarded to GE over its history. Um, the next year
Speaker 1: I have is eighty one. Do you have anything between
Speaker 1: seventy eight one? No, I don't and eighty one was
Speaker 1: sort of talk about crazy. Yeah, yeah, so well you
Speaker 1: had you had the the the chairman CEO retired. Jones
Speaker 1: retired and John elf Welch John F. Welch became the
Speaker 1: new chairman and CEO Jay Jack. Yeah we're in a
Speaker 1: first name basis being Jack. Yeah, I'm not. Mr Welch
Speaker 1: became chairman and CEO. GE developed a method to create
Speaker 1: fiber optics strands. They would actually create these, uh, these
Speaker 1: ingots and would pull strands of material from them that
Speaker 1: would create fiber optic lines. This, this is what I
Speaker 1: think is crazy. Yeah. Three ft the the uh they
Speaker 1: courts ingots. We're talking about our three ft long that's
Speaker 1: about a meter, and they can be stretched into fiber
Speaker 1: optics strands twenty five miles in length. Yeah, so it
Speaker 1: goes from you know, I mean a miles what five feet? Yeah,
Speaker 1: give or take nothing, nothing, So that's exactly yes. So
Speaker 1: I mean that's you know, to put it in perspect
Speaker 1: I was trying to put in respect because I didn't
Speaker 1: do the metric translation for the but yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: a long stretch. So just multiply by one point six.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, so yeah, that's that's pretty impressive. Uh. Then
Speaker 1: and I've got three. They developed the signa magnetic resonance
Speaker 1: imaging system, which is also known as the m r I,
Speaker 1: which X rays are really good for looking at things
Speaker 1: like bones. Yes, they're looking good at looking at hard tissue,
Speaker 1: but not so good at looking at soft tissue. You know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't show up very well on an X ray.
Speaker 1: So if you're looking for something that could be a
Speaker 1: problem beyond just something that's affecting hard tissue. An X
Speaker 1: ray is not your best choice. The R I which
Speaker 1: which is a technology that was born out of this UH,
Speaker 1: this work that General Electric had been doing with magnets
Speaker 1: for several decades. UH allowed doctors to look at soft
Speaker 1: tissue in a way that they could not before without
Speaker 1: doing like exploratory surgery. So this is a non invasive
Speaker 1: way to get a look at what is going on
Speaker 1: within a person's body. And UH, and you know, the
Speaker 1: early m R I s were less sophisticated. It took
Speaker 1: a lot longer to take a full image. We've talked
Speaker 1: about m r s and another episode of tech Stuff,
Speaker 1: but UM, this was this was really a revolution in
Speaker 1: the medical imaging field. UM and UH and we we
Speaker 1: talked about in a previous episode how the two companies
Speaker 1: that went into creating GE that merged to create g E.
Speaker 1: We're actually dueling it out for a very large electrical
Speaker 1: project back before everybody had electric lights in their homes. UM.
Speaker 1: The Chicago World straight at the Columbian Exposition. Um, well,
Speaker 1: they were chosen in in to participate in another major
Speaker 1: electrical public electrical project they were lighting up a Lady
Speaker 1: yes yes, um, and this would be Lady Liberty, the
Speaker 1: Statue of Liberty um given to the United States by
Speaker 1: the French a long time ago. Well, they were they
Speaker 1: were redoing the the Statue of Liberty. They were trying
Speaker 1: to um uh clean it up, renovated, and they redid
Speaker 1: the lighting from scratch. As a matter of fact, um
Speaker 1: a GE person named Gilbert Riling came up with a
Speaker 1: completely new metal halide lamp specifically for this project. And
Speaker 1: um the g E Research Labs and and Howard Branston, yeah,
Speaker 1: came up with the lighting scheme for the statue and
Speaker 1: its torch. So um they were instrumental in helping redo
Speaker 1: the lighting for the for the statue. Also, in fifty
Speaker 1: six years after the United States government told GE that
Speaker 1: it had to get rid of our c A, g
Speaker 1: E took over our ci A again. So they reacquired
Speaker 1: r c A the Radio Corporation of America UH in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, and also as part of that deal
Speaker 1: acquired in BC, so g E once more has has
Speaker 1: controlling interest in both r C and NBC. Now then
Speaker 1: g E turns around and sells that interest in our
Speaker 1: CI A to a partner company called Bertlesman and r c. A.
Speaker 1: Then changes names it becomes b MG Music. Yes, b
Speaker 1: is a German publisher. Yeah, and was again partnered with
Speaker 1: General Electric. So yes, now you've got BMG Music and NBC.
Speaker 1: NBC still falling under the guidance of General Electric also
Speaker 1: would eventually UM become part of a partnership between the
Speaker 1: Electric and the company Comcast. Uh. This, by the way,
Speaker 1: forms the basis of many, many, many jokes found in
Speaker 1: the television series thirty Rock. So in thirty Rock you
Speaker 1: have Baldwin's character who is a corporate one, Alec Baldwin's character,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't Stephen Baldwin. Uh. Alec Baldwin's character is
Speaker 1: a corporate executive with General Electric UM, and he is
Speaker 1: put in charge of many things, including some of the
Speaker 1: programming at NBC, which involves the show that that UM
Speaker 1: Liz Lemon works on. So he he talks about how
Speaker 1: he helped introduce some very innovative products and GEES past,
Speaker 1: including some crazy microwaves and things of that nature, which
Speaker 1: again poke fun at gees history with home electronics and appliances. UM.
Speaker 1: So if you always wondered where those jokes came from, Well,
Speaker 1: it's because General Electric owns NBC. And then in more
Speaker 1: recent episodes, they've talked about a cable company called cable
Speaker 1: Town taking over more and more of the responsibilities of
Speaker 1: producing the show. Uh. And and Jack Donneghie, the Baldwin character,
Speaker 1: has now become executive with cable Town. Huh. That's the
Speaker 1: whole reference to g and Comcast rending a partnership together
Speaker 1: and overseeing in BC. So just giving you that background
Speaker 1: so that you can understand why those jokes are funny, okay. Uh.
Speaker 1: And in nineteen nine, they actually launched the Consumer News
Speaker 1: and Business Channel or c NBC CNBC. It's a twenty
Speaker 1: four hour news channel. It's sort of a competitor to CNN.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, they will never make that work.
Speaker 1: Um Uh. Simplicity which spelled with a C, which is
Speaker 1: a computer system that basically tracks how auto automotive bodies
Speaker 1: are traveling through uh, the manufacturing process, so they know
Speaker 1: where parts are headed and where everything is going and
Speaker 1: where it's been. So they have a good idea and
Speaker 1: that's been adopted by a lot of the automotive industry today. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's an administrative software which really helps you know what's
Speaker 1: going on at any given time during your whole process.
Speaker 1: You can look at the supply chain even and say, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna need to address this because it's
Speaker 1: gonna become a problem if we don't take care of
Speaker 1: it at this point. So it's it's very useful. Again,
Speaker 1: one of those things about improving efficiency, so not terribly
Speaker 1: exciting to necessarily a consumer, but it does ultimately affect
Speaker 1: the consumer because by improving efficiency you can do things
Speaker 1: like takedown, you know, keep prices low. So it's it
Speaker 1: does end up affecting us in the long run. It's
Speaker 1: just when at first clients you're like, well that's okay,
Speaker 1: but I don't see what it's important to me. And
Speaker 1: then ninety two the Mars Observer rolled out. That was
Speaker 1: the first newspaper on Mars. It was very effective. Um
Speaker 1: it's we yard because it came out in ninety two
Speaker 1: and the only comic strip it's running is Marmaduke. Uh No,
Speaker 1: this was actually because I had m A r in
Speaker 1: the names satellite that studies Martian geology and climate and
Speaker 1: maps the planets. So it's a satellite. It's not actually
Speaker 1: a newspaper. I enjoyed the joke though. Um. And then
Speaker 1: in ninety three, the GE Medical Systems in the R
Speaker 1: and D Center again went in on creating a magnetic
Speaker 1: resonance therapy system. Also in ninety three, g E sold
Speaker 1: off the GE Aerospace division to marry at A. Martin,
Speaker 1: which would later become Blockheed Martin. Yep. So this is
Speaker 1: another one of those instances where g did divest itself
Speaker 1: of part of its business, not didn't do so that frequently,
Speaker 1: just once in a while. So um, yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: not one of those habitual let's purchase everything every company
Speaker 1: we can see and then sell off stuff that doesn't work,
Speaker 1: that doesn't that's that doesn't tend to be GAS approach. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's not. It also doesn't herald the end of
Speaker 1: GES involvement in transportation as we's. Um, I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: you take lead on this because you took much more
Speaker 1: detailed notes and during this era. Whereas this is the
Speaker 1: part where I started to uh, sorry to to check
Speaker 1: my Facebook status, this is the part that's really exciting. Okay,
Speaker 1: g E Plastics. First, you can tell I went to
Speaker 1: g dot com to get my information g Plastics was
Speaker 1: the first UM part of the company, which made it
Speaker 1: the first Fortune five hundred company to go online and
Speaker 1: had its own website, first Fortune company that was not
Speaker 1: a computer company, right the way, we need to be specific, sonny,
Speaker 1: how they admitted that party. She didn't have to be
Speaker 1: really careful here. Yeah, g was one of the first
Speaker 1: Fortune companies to have a web presence, that first Fortune
Speaker 1: five companies that didn't already deals exclusively with either computers
Speaker 1: or networks. So they were a non computer, non network
Speaker 1: company that had a website and that was that was
Speaker 1: kind of a big deal. Now granted, back in really
Speaker 1: all they had was a looping midi and an under
Speaker 1: construction gift, but that's not true, but yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was. Of course, it was much more static than
Speaker 1: than future websites would be. But in just two more years,
Speaker 1: GE the company would launch its own website which would
Speaker 1: become uh kind of a hub for lots and lots
Speaker 1: and lots of different businesses. Also, they launched another project,
Speaker 1: which was a one that was in partnership with Microsoft. Yes, MSNBC,
Speaker 1: which was part of the Microsoft Network and NBC together
Speaker 1: working on a project of you know, it's UM a
Speaker 1: different sort of news station UM and is still on
Speaker 1: the air today. UM UM and you c T system
Speaker 1: UM using new technology that allows them to get multiple
Speaker 1: images at the same time and speeds things up than
Speaker 1: other single slice scanners. UM. It was that I find
Speaker 1: this interesting. It was the first design for six Sigma
Speaker 1: project that made it, which means fewer than three defects
Speaker 1: per million opportunities. So it was supposedly, I'm going by
Speaker 1: GES information, so I don't have anything that says otherwise. UM,
Speaker 1: very very reliable. Yeah, I mean that is very significant.
Speaker 1: It's it's uh, you know, we kind of take it
Speaker 1: for granted that when stuff is put together that's done
Speaker 1: so flawlessly, but in real life that that just does
Speaker 1: not happen. There are going to be flaws, and sometimes
Speaker 1: companies catch them before they go out to market. Sometimes
Speaker 1: consumers find out about them and then there's a recall
Speaker 1: or sometimes there's a patch of some sort of it's
Speaker 1: a software type thing. UM. We've seen that recently in
Speaker 1: with UH Apple. Apple had released UH a new iPad
Speaker 1: in the spring of and the y five versions of
Speaker 1: the iPad where some consumers were reporting problems with it,
Speaker 1: and so Apple has essentially had a capture and release
Speaker 1: program where you bring your iPad in that's having issues
Speaker 1: and they'll replace it for you. And that that could
Speaker 1: be anything from a faulty chip to just a faulty
Speaker 1: process in the manufacturing line. But that stuff happens. So
Speaker 1: this that is why this is significant, is that you
Speaker 1: might just take it for granted that things work. Things
Speaker 1: don't just work. We have to work to make them work. Yes,
Speaker 1: And you remember when we were talking earlier on another
Speaker 1: podcast about the powerful engines, Um, this is what I
Speaker 1: meant about them not getting out of transportation entirely. The
Speaker 1: g B, which is a catchy name, UH, was a
Speaker 1: a jet engine that Boeing requested of them, A hundred
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand pound thrust engine used for the seven seventy
Speaker 1: seven two l R and seven seventy seven ER was
Speaker 1: the most powerful mercial jet engine. I have one fact
Speaker 1: in I want to share that I know is not
Speaker 1: part of the GE timeline that I would like to mention.
Speaker 1: So in ninety nine, UH, an interesting company, became a
Speaker 1: subsidiary of g E, a company that also has a
Speaker 1: very long history Montgomery Ward. Really yes, GE was a
Speaker 1: major shareholder in Montgomery Ward. You know, we talked about
Speaker 1: how GE would invest money in other companies. Yeah, Montgomery
Speaker 1: Award was a department store and a catalog company and
Speaker 1: company in the United States, and so there is a
Speaker 1: Montgomery Ward that still exists today, but it's a different
Speaker 1: company than the one that I'm talking about here. In
Speaker 1: ninety nine, what happened was Montgomery Ward, this catalog company
Speaker 1: and department store, went into Chapter eleven. GE then ended
Speaker 1: up taking over and it became a subsidiary of g E.
Speaker 1: Now it would it would later fold completely. The company
Speaker 1: would just fold within a year or two. So but
Speaker 1: I just thought that was interesting. It's one of those
Speaker 1: things where you know, it's again shows you that g
Speaker 1: was diversifying by investing in lots of different businesses, not
Speaker 1: all of which were successful, but just one of those
Speaker 1: things that I thought was an interesting fact about g
Speaker 1: and I wanted to mention it before we said goodbye
Speaker 1: to and partied like it was well. They also came
Speaker 1: out with an anatomical mapping technology that gave people their
Speaker 1: doctors more uh more vision into what where the locations
Speaker 1: of disease were. And they were they first, according to
Speaker 1: g E, to introduce full field digital momography in two thousand, Um,
Speaker 1: they also started doing a lot of e business. Uh
Speaker 1: they were making more than two billion in business, and
Speaker 1: they opened our global research center in Bangalore in India,
Speaker 1: So they were you know, really opening it up to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, becoming a real global company where they had
Speaker 1: other units in in other countries like that. And then
Speaker 1: in two thousand they had a power plant on wheels.
Speaker 1: I saw that it was like a truck trailer truck. However,
Speaker 1: the TM could produce twenty two point eight megatre yeah
Speaker 1: mega watts. UM was the largest gas largest mobile gas
Speaker 1: turbine generator set available and can be shipped via land
Speaker 1: or sea. It only takes days to set up. However,
Speaker 1: it could be very useful if you need a portable generator.
Speaker 1: I mean you think about like disasters. For example, Hurricane
Speaker 1: Katrina when it hit New Orleans, there were entire huge
Speaker 1: sections of that region that were without power. So these
Speaker 1: sort of of advances are very important for those kind
Speaker 1: of events, and not just those as well, but there
Speaker 1: are others. But yeah, for disaster relief, this would be phenomenal. Um.
Speaker 1: The two thousands, I would say, are are characterized in
Speaker 1: GS history with a lot of medical advances well, and
Speaker 1: I should also say before we jump into that two
Speaker 1: thousand was so the Centennial for Ges Research and Development Division.
Speaker 1: They had formed that nine. By two thousand, g S
Speaker 1: R and D Division held or had had been awarded
Speaker 1: sixty seven thousand, five hundred eighty eight patents. That is phenomenal. Now, granted,
Speaker 1: keep in mind, patents really only protect a a process
Speaker 1: or a technology for a limited amount of times, so
Speaker 1: not all of those patents were active. It's not like
Speaker 1: the E could sue you for making another light bulb
Speaker 1: because that patent has expired decades ago. Patents tend to
Speaker 1: last either fourteen or seventeen years, depending on the type
Speaker 1: of patent. But anyway, I just wanted to mention that.
Speaker 1: And also in two thousand one we had another change.
Speaker 1: In fact, the Welch leaves in two thousand one and
Speaker 1: Jeffrey R. Emilt becomes chairman and CEO of g E.
Speaker 1: He's the current head. Yes, you're just staring at me smugly. Yes,
Speaker 1: I just happened to have been affected by that change,
Speaker 1: were you. Yes, what happened? Well? And my my previous employer, Yes,
Speaker 1: I worked for the Home Depot on their website, I
Speaker 1: worked there during the years that Robert Nardelli um was
Speaker 1: the CEO of the company. Nardelli and Emilts were in
Speaker 1: competition for Welch's job. So I just sort of smirked
Speaker 1: because go and see this stuff touched me and I
Speaker 1: you know, you wouldn't have thought it would. Two thousand
Speaker 1: one also marked an effort with GE trying to merge
Speaker 1: with another company, a company they had a history with,
Speaker 1: a little company called Honeywell. I s so Honeywell, you
Speaker 1: know that was the company they sold their computer division
Speaker 1: two back in nineteen seventy one, I think. So they
Speaker 1: tried to merge with Honeywell, and they were even approved
Speaker 1: by the United States Department of Justice and eleven other entities,
Speaker 1: but they encountered a tiny little problem at the European Union.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, they said that this is violating some antitrust laws,
Speaker 1: and so the merger was blocked. So it was one
Speaker 1: of those major events that really kind of opened everyone's
Speaker 1: eyes to we are a global entity. Now. It's no
Speaker 1: longer companies with working within the confines of a single country,
Speaker 1: because now you're talking about how, uh, almost all the
Speaker 1: world can approve of something, and one part of the
Speaker 1: world can say no, No, that violates this law and
Speaker 1: that will block it. The merger is up and it's blocked. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it was a big deal because it looked
Speaker 1: like it was going to go through until the European
Speaker 1: Union came in and said no, we won't allow this
Speaker 1: to happen. And uh, I mean that's a was a
Speaker 1: multibillion dollar deal that fell through. Yeah, that's amazingly huge. Uh. One.
Speaker 1: One thing, Um, there were several different imaging systems and
Speaker 1: other things that were introduced, and you know, touch on
Speaker 1: a few of those because there are tons of them
Speaker 1: in the two thousands. Yes, um, But they did one
Speaker 1: of the things that I thought was interesting in two
Speaker 1: thousand before we get too far ahead, was they g
Speaker 1: developed the first diagnostic agent for objectively identifying Parkinson's um
Speaker 1: called dat scan, which basically is a liquid that they
Speaker 1: used to show the contrast between healthy and affected parts
Speaker 1: of the brain. So they weren't just developing the systems,
Speaker 1: they were also developing the agents that help those systems
Speaker 1: work made it more effective. Also, before we leave two
Speaker 1: thousand one, I find it kind of funny because uh,
Speaker 1: after all this GEH invents a new kind of incandescent
Speaker 1: lightbulb the reveal, which if you look at them, they're
Speaker 1: kind of blue bluish color if you live in a
Speaker 1: country where they still sell incandescent lightbulbs as we do. Um.
Speaker 1: And they also changed the way that compact fluorescent lights,
Speaker 1: or as we call them in my house, curly bulbs,
Speaker 1: um are because they redesigned the geometry the way that
Speaker 1: the tube itself is shaped, so that it would be
Speaker 1: more compact and fit in places where a traditional uh,
Speaker 1: incandescent bulb would fit, which is helpful for those of
Speaker 1: us who have like fixtures that were made for incandescent bulbs,
Speaker 1: but we don't want to replace the entire lighting system, right. UM.
Speaker 1: And that's you know, again useful because it helps speed
Speaker 1: the adoption of that technology, which is a more energy
Speaker 1: efficient technology. Um. They were in space again working on
Speaker 1: the International Space Station in two thousand two. Um. They also, Uh,
Speaker 1: did you talk about the four D imaging that the
Speaker 1: ge vlissann thirty? Yeah, No I didn't. It's kind of neat, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they talked. So in two thousand two they introduced this
Speaker 1: this technology mainly for ultrasounds, which allowed physicians to actually
Speaker 1: view three D images and an ultrasound live what was happening.
Speaker 1: So it was rendering live three D images, which is
Speaker 1: a big deal and it helps a lot when you're
Speaker 1: trying to to diagnose potential problems or just look at
Speaker 1: the general health of of a of a patient. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that was I thought that was pretty cool. I also
Speaker 1: thought it was neat in two thousand three how they
Speaker 1: introduce something that is just now starting to really get
Speaker 1: a little more traction, which is this idea of having
Speaker 1: appliances that talk to each other. Yes, the profile harmony
Speaker 1: closed care system, which you know is marketing jargon, um
Speaker 1: but yeah, basically, it's a washer and dryer that that
Speaker 1: talked to one another theoretically to um enable better care
Speaker 1: of your clothes. So, for example, if you set your
Speaker 1: washer to wash things that are designed for permanent press,
Speaker 1: it would communicate that to the dryer so that the
Speaker 1: settings would already be there when you transfer the the
Speaker 1: items from washer to dryer, so that it uses the
Speaker 1: right amount of temperature and the right duration to get
Speaker 1: your your clothes dry without damaging them. That's the idea
Speaker 1: behind it. Now today we're talking about appliances that have
Speaker 1: even greater ability to uh send information back and forth
Speaker 1: between each other and try and personalize your experience to
Speaker 1: a higher degree. But it was this sort of stuff
Speaker 1: back in two thousand three. That's kind of the building
Speaker 1: the foundation for that. Actually, it's funny you would mention
Speaker 1: degrees because I was going to mention the TI vecton
Speaker 1: uh G E profile ovens that combine thermal convection and
Speaker 1: microwave technology is not if I'm not mistaken, and I
Speaker 1: didn't watch a lot of thirty Rock, but I think
Speaker 1: this is one of the specific technologies that he was
Speaker 1: supposed to have come up with. And UH, I think
Speaker 1: it also could transform into a dangerous robot that could
Speaker 1: reek havoc across the city. Well, it is supposed to
Speaker 1: speed up your cooking time. UM, let's see. UH. Two
Speaker 1: thousand three, they came up with the H system, which
Speaker 1: is the first the jet combined cycle system that UH
Speaker 1: and the first that can do better than six efficiency UM.
Speaker 1: And UM the very wise, very wise trucking system using
Speaker 1: satellite and cellular telematics to track trucks. But sort of
Speaker 1: like the UH the technology that we're using in the warehouses,
Speaker 1: a simplicity from earlier. Yeah, they once they found systems
Speaker 1: that work, they began to look at ways to apply
Speaker 1: that across other industries, which you know, that's that's a
Speaker 1: viable approach. So yeah, again another one those ways of
Speaker 1: looking at supply chains. Well, the Centricity was a medical
Speaker 1: systems release that they worked into the Indiana Heart Hospital,
Speaker 1: and it was a way to uh use digital patient
Speaker 1: records data and medical images and basically anybody who was
Speaker 1: in the hospital, you know, the on the random people
Speaker 1: could come in and look no doctors and and medical
Speaker 1: personnel at the hospital could check from wherever they were
Speaker 1: and see how a patient was doing. Um. So I
Speaker 1: mean it's those things are all very similar. Yep. Uh.
Speaker 1: Skipping ahead a little bit to two thousand four, Uh,
Speaker 1: they developed a couple of interesting technologies. There was one
Speaker 1: called street Lab, which was you know, a sort of
Speaker 1: a portable a portable lab that could uh analyze and
Speaker 1: identify materials like powders, pills, liquids. So this is sort
Speaker 1: of the stuff that law enforcement or military officials would
Speaker 1: need in order to to identify potentially hazardous or illegal materials. Uh.
Speaker 1: They also demonstrated that oh, lead technology could be used
Speaker 1: in lighting applications, which you know that's again you know
Speaker 1: We're talked about a few times about how they have, UM,
Speaker 1: how the company has has pushed lighting technology, UH, going
Speaker 1: beyond just the incandescent bolved which formed the very foundation
Speaker 1: of g S business way back in the day. Uh,
Speaker 1: they've looked at fluorescence and L E ED and O
Speaker 1: L e D technology as as ways to light areas
Speaker 1: in your home. Yeah. In two thousand four, UM, they
Speaker 1: found a new uh application for that plastic that the
Speaker 1: company invented on accident. Lexan UM the illuminates films, basically
Speaker 1: something that would interest tech stuff fans. Um. They used
Speaker 1: them films like this in uh L L c D
Speaker 1: screens UM to give them a more evenly lit surface.
Speaker 1: So UM, you know they used the hard plastic as
Speaker 1: a very thin film, uh, basically in the guts of
Speaker 1: the screen to do that. And then I didn't mention that.
Speaker 1: In two thousand again Lexan shows up SLX. They use
Speaker 1: a color infused plastic that they were using on car.
Speaker 1: So they're they're finding new ways to use this plastic
Speaker 1: and very thin sheets. Uh. They can be used for
Speaker 1: these different different applications. UM. Let's see, UM go ahead.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say g Healthcare again with the high
Speaker 1: deaf magnetic resonance systems. This is two five. This is
Speaker 1: where they were able to increase the resolution on those
Speaker 1: m r I scans so that doctors could get an
Speaker 1: even better look at what's going on in that soft tissue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and and apparently according to g E, this is
Speaker 1: very useful for kids and people with Parkinson's disease because, UM,
Speaker 1: this particular type of machine, this high definition machine is
Speaker 1: better at capturing people who can't hold still. If you've
Speaker 1: never had an m r I done, Um, you're supposed
Speaker 1: to be perfectly still for quite a whi while it
Speaker 1: depends on what they're doing, but it generally it could
Speaker 1: be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
Speaker 1: And you hear this loud knocking noise or a buzzing
Speaker 1: as I did they do give you the warning? People,
Speaker 1: they gave you headphones, right, they gave me headphones, but
Speaker 1: I could hear through them. Um. So yeah, so this
Speaker 1: is this is a benefit for for doctors because they
Speaker 1: don't need you to be quite so still. Um. They
Speaker 1: were in lighting again two thousand seven. They came out
Speaker 1: with a vo Or vo v I O high power
Speaker 1: white led and this is UM this is moving towards
Speaker 1: using these for UH lighting in buildings. Um. They used
Speaker 1: a proprietary technology to do UH to do a hundred
Speaker 1: kelvin color shift less than a hundred kelvin's over fifty
Speaker 1: thousand hours. That's a big step up from Edison's bamboo
Speaker 1: filament light bulb of you know, a few hundred hours.
Speaker 1: That same year they created the cylinder gas engine. They
Speaker 1: also created did you see the hybrid locomotive. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: actually pretty cool. Well, it uses a regenerative breaking process
Speaker 1: and so you know they use this in cars to
Speaker 1: when they're breaking, the train is storing up energy that
Speaker 1: it can be used to power the locomotive, and it
Speaker 1: cuts fuel use by up yeah, and emissions up to
Speaker 1: So that's that's significant. You know. It may not be
Speaker 1: as dramatic as one would hope, but that's every little
Speaker 1: bit helps well. And and trains are used so much
Speaker 1: still around the world. Yes, I should try to all
Speaker 1: about that. My house is right across from some train tracks,
Speaker 1: so I get to hear it every day. I can't
Speaker 1: tell what animally made these those are train tracks. Um,
Speaker 1: let's see, Oh yeah they were. Um well, I was
Speaker 1: gonna say in uh uh not to jump too far ahead.
Speaker 1: Two thousand eight Virgin Atlantic with Richard Branson. One of
Speaker 1: their jet engines used biofuel from a jaunt over in
Speaker 1: UH in Europe from Heathrow in in London to Amsterdam.
Speaker 1: They used coconut and barbassos oil. H And that's just
Speaker 1: one of those engines. They they wanted to try it
Speaker 1: out so and it worked. And that same year they
Speaker 1: labs at GE created a super hydrophobic nanocoating. So hydrophobic
Speaker 1: means that it repels water. It does not. It does
Speaker 1: not like hydrophilic would mean it clings the water. Hydrophobic
Speaker 1: means it repels. So why would you want a hydrophobic coating, Well,
Speaker 1: it could be really useful for a coating on things
Speaker 1: like jet engines. When you're traveling at altitudes where normally
Speaker 1: ice could form on different components. If you have a
Speaker 1: hydrophobic coating on top of your equipment, then it helps
Speaker 1: prevent that ice formation. Very important, yes, yes, especially for
Speaker 1: things like jet engines, and also keeps UH dirt build
Speaker 1: up to a minimum as well, because if it has
Speaker 1: less moisture than that, you know, the moisture will cause
Speaker 1: the dirt clump what's irritating is when you try and
Speaker 1: wash the vehicle, the sponge soaked with water will just
Speaker 1: jump literally out of your hand and fly fifteen feet
Speaker 1: across the tarmac. So in two thousand eight printed they
Speaker 1: they've managed to come up with a way to print Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a lead sheets mainly for lighting. Uh. They're
Speaker 1: not printing display in the sense of like, you know,
Speaker 1: I need a seventeen inch display, let me print one up.
Speaker 1: It's more like printing up these old leads that are
Speaker 1: meant to just be lights. But yeah, they were using
Speaker 1: technology that was essentially based on newspaper printing tech, which
Speaker 1: is kind of cool. They just, you know, took this
Speaker 1: this old technology for printing newspapers and found a way
Speaker 1: to retool it so that they could print sheets of
Speaker 1: oh lads, Yes, which is nice considering the state of
Speaker 1: the printing industry. Hopefully some of those can be repurposed.
Speaker 1: Speaking as a former newspaper reporter, Um, they and two
Speaker 1: thou found that for the Mars Observer, Yes, it was
Speaker 1: explains a lot. Um two thousand nine, they found a
Speaker 1: way to save five gigabytes on a single DVD sized disc. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you want to know how significant. That is, if
Speaker 1: you were to have a dual side of DVD with
Speaker 1: four layers of storage, you can hold maybe around seventeen
Speaker 1: gigs of info. So using the same sized, uh medium,
Speaker 1: keep in mind this is a DVD sized disc, it's
Speaker 1: not a DVD itself. Using this holographic storage, you could
Speaker 1: store five hundred gigs of data. Now you know that
Speaker 1: is has a huge improvement. Of course, we are moving
Speaker 1: towards a solid state kind of approach where optical media
Speaker 1: are less important for most of us. Uh So, in
Speaker 1: a way, holographic storage may not become a big deal,
Speaker 1: but still pretty impressive. Yeah, yeah, um. They also came
Speaker 1: up with smaller ultrasound devices. There's one that's uh the
Speaker 1: Venue forty, which is sort of a tablet size, and
Speaker 1: there's another called v scan, which is pocket size. And
Speaker 1: this is this is good for for two reasons. I mean,
Speaker 1: you would imagine that it would be nice to be
Speaker 1: able to carry this around without having a wheel around
Speaker 1: a cart, uh as as I've seen in some places.
Speaker 1: I imagine it would also be very useful in places
Speaker 1: where medical equipment is more dear, places where uh it
Speaker 1: might be hard to get medical equipment of that nature
Speaker 1: in or out UM. So having these portable devices UM
Speaker 1: would be easier for doctors to come in to an
Speaker 1: isolated area and help diagnose and treat patients. Yeah, they are.
Speaker 1: They were. Also they started to to work on or
Speaker 1: continue to actually to work on creating ways to sequence
Speaker 1: d N a faster UM to make that on the
Speaker 1: whole DNA sequencing. Of course, we've we figured out how
Speaker 1: to do it. It's just a question of creating the
Speaker 1: getting it more efficient and more so we can do
Speaker 1: it more quickly. But also they developed some interesting wearable
Speaker 1: sensors I like them designed to test the air for toxins.
Speaker 1: So this would be something that you could put on
Speaker 1: a uniform or other piece of clothing to help indicate
Speaker 1: when things are going bad, you need to get the
Speaker 1: heck out of that area. Yeah, it would be like
Speaker 1: more insensitive than a canary. Yes, you could wear it
Speaker 1: on a badge on your your uniform or or your
Speaker 1: coveralls or whatever it is. And if you were an
Speaker 1: environment where they were toxins, president it would change color
Speaker 1: or or give you some other sort of notice to
Speaker 1: let you know that it's time to go. UM energy
Speaker 1: smart led bulbs can't end UM so this is this
Speaker 1: is really impressive. These smart LED bulbs that g has
Speaker 1: created are more efficient than incandescent bulbs. They use other words,
Speaker 1: they use seventy seven percent less energy uh, and they
Speaker 1: can last up to twenty two years under normal use conditions.
Speaker 1: So think about that, you buy these light bulbs for
Speaker 1: your house and you don't have to replace them for
Speaker 1: twenty two years. I want me some of these. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're kind of expensive at this time. However, I imagine
Speaker 1: that you if you amortize that cost over twenty two years,
Speaker 1: it probably evens out somewhat. And you also have to
Speaker 1: think if these are LED bulbs, they have distinct advantages
Speaker 1: over fluorescent bulbs. Fluorescent bulb is one of the big
Speaker 1: disadvantages is that there are some very there's some very
Speaker 1: toxic materials inside fluorescent bulbs. Y. Yeah, if you if
Speaker 1: you if you were to break one, uh, then you
Speaker 1: could potentially expose yourself to very dangerous toxic materials. So
Speaker 1: led bulbs they don't have that same problem. So there's
Speaker 1: that advantage as well. So you're like, well, it's more efficient,
Speaker 1: I don't have to buy them as frequently, and it's
Speaker 1: not gonna kill me if I break one, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: might kill my wallet where I think, Oh, I spent
Speaker 1: so much money on that bulb and I just broke it.
Speaker 1: But it's not gonna it's not gonna poison you. I'm
Speaker 1: feeling like I have to make this joke. So thank
Speaker 1: you Gee for saving us front by inventing this, uh
Speaker 1: this product that say so much better than the old
Speaker 1: product invented by g Yeah. Um, anyway, you brought a
Speaker 1: good thing to life. Um. Yeah. They also are working
Speaker 1: on other ways to save energy, such as, uh the
Speaker 1: Watt station, which is advice for charging electric vehicles on
Speaker 1: home or at the or on the road. Not on
Speaker 1: the road, but yeah, I mean they could be uh
Speaker 1: stationed delta stationed elsewhere than your house. Um. And uh
Speaker 1: they've been working on ways to network um smart meters
Speaker 1: and give you an idea of how much energy you're using. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They have a Nucleus Energy Manager which has these these
Speaker 1: little they look like adapters almost for a plug, and
Speaker 1: then you plug your appliance into that and you plug
Speaker 1: that into the wall and it helps communicate with the
Speaker 1: smart meter how much energy each appliance is drawing when
Speaker 1: it's drawing it. It's really an idea that lets you
Speaker 1: ultimately micromanage what your appliances are doing when and and
Speaker 1: trying to make it as efficient and cost effective system
Speaker 1: as possible, so that way you're not just spending money
Speaker 1: keeping something active when it doesn't need to be. And um,
Speaker 1: that gets us within the last couple of years. Um.
Speaker 1: But it really shows how amazing, what an amazing, amazing
Speaker 1: hundred slightly more years it's been for this company. I
Speaker 1: mean they really came around at the time when electricity
Speaker 1: was becoming a household uh necessity. I mean they kind
Speaker 1: of made it a necessity because all of a sudden
Speaker 1: gone from uh, hey, wouldn't it be cool if we
Speaker 1: had electric lighting in our house too? You know, they've
Speaker 1: they've made all these products that make our lives uh
Speaker 1: so much easier and we've grown accustomed to and uh
Speaker 1: in some cases need especially with a medical talking about
Speaker 1: medical equipment, where it's made such a difference in our lives.
Speaker 1: And I can't imagine that that Thompson and and Edison
Speaker 1: and Houston looking back on it, at the advancements their
Speaker 1: company has made in that time. I mean going from
Speaker 1: Edison's days of you know, a few hundred hours to
Speaker 1: a bulb that will last twenty two years under normal conditions. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's just phenomenal. Really, yeah, it really is,
Speaker 1: it really is. And you know, we're continuing to see
Speaker 1: innovations from g E H. I'm sure the company will
Speaker 1: will push for being a leader in things like energy efficiency, uh,
Speaker 1: in lighting and that sort of stuff. I would be
Speaker 1: shocked to see them. I see what you did to
Speaker 1: get away from that. Um. So yeah, it's this is
Speaker 1: a definitely an interesting company with a very interesting past. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know it's it'll be I'm excited to see
Speaker 1: what happens in the future with it, especially uh, knowing
Speaker 1: how they do spend so much money and time in
Speaker 1: in research pure research that it's always a benefit. I mean,
Speaker 1: of course, I love to learn and I love finding
Speaker 1: out new things. So it's always cool when I see
Speaker 1: a company that's dedicated to that sort of stuff. Again,
Speaker 1: even if it's not truly altruistic, Uh, it ends up
Speaker 1: benefiting us in ways that no one could have anticipated.
Speaker 1: So I'm all for it. Yeah, And it's it's always
Speaker 1: fun for us to dig into these companies and their
Speaker 1: pasts too, I think because we find out things about
Speaker 1: the company that we didn't know before come and products
Speaker 1: and services they are involved in or were involved in.
Speaker 1: Looking at IBM and some of the companies that I
Speaker 1: that they rolled off and became huge in their own right.
Speaker 1: This this is just one of those fascinating things that
Speaker 1: we discover. We dig into these, and I've enjoyed doing these.
Speaker 1: Yes so I So, if you guys have a company
Speaker 1: you think that we should focus on, let us know.
Speaker 1: Or if there's any other topic you would like us
Speaker 1: to cover, or in a particular person you would like
Speaker 1: us to interview, give us a shout, but don't actually
Speaker 1: just shout it, because chances are we won't hear you. Instead,
Speaker 1: why don't you send us an email Our addresses tech
Speaker 1: stuff at Discovery dot com or track us down on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. Our handle at both of those is
Speaker 1: tech Stuff hs W and Chris and I will talk
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Be sure to check out
Speaker 1: our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how
Speaker 1: Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and
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