WEBVTT - GE and the House That Jack Built 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.840 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.919 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.120 How Stuff Works in iHeart Radio and I Love all 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:23.079 things tech. And we are continuing our journey through the 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:26.960 history of General Electric or GE, a company that has 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:32.040 encountered some pretty significant challenges over the last decade or so. Now. 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.840 In our first two episodes, I went through the founding 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.120 of GE and then made my way all the way 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:39.479 up through World War Two, and I talked about how 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.280 some of the top level executives of the company were 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.640 called upon by the US government to serve in wartime 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.600 government positions to help the US meet the needs of 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.920 supplying the military with the equipment necessary to fight the war. 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.440 I also talked about how g E continued to grow 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.480 as a company, building on new departments and divisions and 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.320 diversifying the company's businesses. And I ended the last episode 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:03.640 by talking about a court case that determined g E 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.600 was being anti competitive by leveraging patents in order to 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:10.800 act as an effective monopoly when it came to manufacturing 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.160 light bulbs. Now we're almost up to nineteen fifty and 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.160 it's time to get out of this world. The one 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.040 thing I want to mention before we get into the 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.479 nineteen fifties is that in nineteen forty six a scientist 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:28.000 at GE named Vincent Schaefer developed the process of cloud seating. 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.000 And the idea is pretty elegant but has long been 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.319 a subject of scientific dispute. So here's the process. It 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.520 involves distributing tiny particles into clouds in an effort to 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.880 make it rain. And the thought is that these particles 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:47.080 will act as nucleic sites for rain drops to form. 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:50.760 When the raindrops get large enough, they have enough weight 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:54.320 to fall to Earth. And so that is the general 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:58.200 thought behind cloud seating. It's been practiced ever since, but 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.000 there have been many questions over whether or not cloud 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:05.320 seating actually works. Sometimes it would rain, sometimes it wouldn't, 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:07.800 And if it did rain, is there any way to 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:10.520 be sure that it was the cloud seeding that actually 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:12.000 made the difference. I mean, you had to have a 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.560 cloud there in the first place. You couldn't just manufacture 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.520 a cloud. Experiments and labs suggested that it should work, 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.280 but the natural world is very different from the controlled 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:26.200 conditions of a lab environment. It didn't help that many 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.680 of our measuring instruments lacked the precision to detect very 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.560 small raindrops, so you couldn't really monitor to see if 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:34.400 it was actually doing what it was supposed to do. 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.720 An experiment in two thousand eighteen suggests that cloud seating 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.160 does in fact work, at least to some extent. But 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.640 there's another question that's still open, which is does cloud 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:49.000 seeding make economic sense? Does the amount of water produced 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.040 by rainfall justify the cost of flying aircraft up and 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.040 distributing the particles in the first place, Because it may 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.760 very well work, but it might not work well enough 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.360 to make sense from a financial perspective. I just find 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.480 it fascinating that we've essentially been doing this for seventy 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.920 years and we still don't know if we should be 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.000 doing it now. I can certainly see why cloud seating 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:14.240 companies feel we should be doing it. I mean, that's 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:18.720 their business. But the jury is still technically out over 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.519 whether or not it makes sense, and there's still a 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:25.359 little bit debate on whether or not it really truly works, 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.240 or if it works in enough conditions for it to 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:33.320 be reasonable. Now in Ge made the first two door 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.720 refrigerator freezer combo. And I only mentioned it here because 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:43.080 I think it's cool. That's a pun. Now we're up 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.640 to the nineteen fifties. So in nineteen fifty one g 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.520 E built a new jet engine called the J seven nine. 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.960 And here's an interesting historical note. When engineers tested the 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:59.160 J seven nine, which had variable statures, the efficiency ratings 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:04.080 were so high that the engineers thought their instruments were malfunctioning. 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.960 There's no way we're getting this level of energy efficiency 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.920 out of this thing. But then that raises a question 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:12.640 for a lot of people, what is a statter? What 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:17.359 does that actually mean? Well, the name gives you a hint. Statter, stationary, 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.640 that kind of thing. So in jet engines, you have 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.080 fan blades that rotate. Those are rotors, and you had 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.600 fan blades that hold in place. Those are called statters. 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:31.200 And the purpose of this combination is to both draw 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:35.240 air into the engine and to compress that air before 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.360 it enters into the combustion chamber. The adjustable status meant 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.680 that the engine could be finely tuned to produce higher 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:47.000 compressor pressures and to produce more usable energy as opposed 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.440 to waste heat. When you're actually burning fuel. In n 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:56.400 GE Research Laboratory, scientists named Tracy Hall announced that his 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:00.279 team had discovered a way to create synthetic diamond in 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:04.560 the lab. Halls team used a process involving high pressure 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.680 high temperature or hp HT. They were successful in producing 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:14.680 synthetic diamonds on December sixteenth, nineteen fifty four. Now, other 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.599 teams were using different methods to create diamonds of in 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.840 other companies as well, but it was Hall's efforts that 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.920 would receive the credit for designing the first reliable, reproducible 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:30.760 methodology to create commercially viable synthetic diamonds. So there are 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.040 a lot of qualifiers there because there were people who 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:37.480 were working on different methodologies and they were also producing diamonds, 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:41.200 but it wasn't considered to be as reliable nor as 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:45.560 viable for a commercial use. And these were not diamonds 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.279 meant to adorn engagement rings or other jewelry. For one, 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.480 they were brownish in color, so they weren't terribly attractive. 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.279 They also were very very tiny. The largest diamond they 0:05:56.320 --> 0:06:01.640 produced in that early batch measured point one five millimeters across, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:06.080 so these were not large stones. More importantly, this purpose 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.279 would be put to commercial uses. In fact, it wouldn't 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.880 be until the nineteen seventies that scientists would actually be 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.919 able to create diamonds of sufficient quality and clarity that 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.560 they could be used in the gem industry. And even 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.600 then the process was so labor intensive and so expensive 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:27.560 it was not economically feasible to create synthetic diamonds for 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:31.800 decorative purposes. The cost of the synthetic diamond would be 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.240 so high that would actually be cheaper for you to 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:38.159 go out and buy a ring with a natural diamond 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:42.080 on it. Also, the whole topic of diamonds is one 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:47.520 that I find particularly upsetting, But that's a that's a 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:51.240 topic for a totally different podcast. So how did they 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.520 make synthetic diamonds? Well, I'm sure most of you know, 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.640 diamonds are a form of carbon. It's a it's a 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.520 crystalline form of carbon. You've gotta crystalline structure where you 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.640 have a carbon atom that's surrounded by four other carbon 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:07.560 atoms and they're all connected to each other through strong 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.920 covalent bonds. And diamonds are incredibly hard. They are the 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.800 hardest natural substance we found so far. They also have 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.280 a lot of different industrial uses. They can operate at 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:23.240 high temperatures where they can hold stiff firm. At high temperatures, 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.120 they don't really operate at all. They're just minerals, but 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.040 they hold together well at high temperatures. So you put 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.360 it on something like a high speed cutting tool, and 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.800 the hardness combined with the fact that it's not going 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.280 to break down at high temperatures, means you can run 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.800 that very high RPMs and start cutting through stuff pretty well. 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.200 In nature, diamonds form as carbon is compressed at very 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:49.000 high temperatures over a very long time, and if it 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.360 weren't for stuff like volcanoes, we probably never would have 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.960 found the things because they tend to form in the 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:59.000 Earth's mantle, which is not easy to get to. They 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.000 they these zone where they form is about a hundred 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.600 miles beneath the surface of the Earth. That's far deeper 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:10.800 than we've ever drilled. Hall's lab used a belt press, 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:14.600 and this press could exert more than ten giga pascals 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.840 of pressure. A pascal is a unit of measurement for pressure, 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.560 and it equates to a Newton per square meter. Standard 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.800 atmospheric pressure is about one d one point three to 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:30.520 five kilo pascals, So a giga pascal is one billion pascals. 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:36.200 Ten giga pascals would be ten billion pascals, so that's 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:38.240 a lot of pressure. G would actually put it in 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.200 another way for those of us who don't use you know, 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.680 scientific notation for everything. They said, the press could exert 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.440 one point five million pounds per square inch of pressure, 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:52.240 So in other words, it's just a whole lot of pressure. 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.719 And plus it would operate at a very high temperature. 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:57.839 It would be heated to a temperature of more than 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.360 three thousand six d fifty degrees fahrenheit or two thousand 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:06.600 ten degrees celsius. This press pushed against a mixture of graphite, 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.560 which is another form of carbon, and the graphite would 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:14.199 be dissolved in a catalyst metal and catalyst metals could 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.240 include stuff like nickel or iron. A catalyst in a 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.719 chemical reaction is something that facilitates and speeds up the 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.439 chemical reaction. So in this case, and meant that we 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.960 didn't have to wait millions of years for synthetic diamonds 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:30.520 to form, instead talk about twenty minutes. The largest of 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.360 those diamonds, like I said, was point one five millimeters across, 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:37.559 so pretty darn tiny. The following year, g E introduced 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:42.360 hermetically sealed relays. These are electronic components that could be 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.520 used in lots of different applications that otherwise might be 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:49.560 sensitive to their environments, particularly in stuff like high altitude 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:55.000 airplanes and aerospace applications, and variations of these components would 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:59.560 be used throughout the next few decades in those particular applications. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:02.480 It's just one early example of how GE would become 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.719 an important part of the space race, which was just 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.920 heating up in the nineteen fifties between the United States 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:13.240 and the then Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the company continued to 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:17.320 expand its consumer product line. It had introduced a toaster 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.840 decades earlier, but in nineteen fifty six it introduced the 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:27.160 toaster oven. Specifically, it was one called the tree toast 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.160 our oven, and it's adorable. You should look up a 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:34.479 picture of it. That same year, GE built a commercial 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.120 jet engine based off the J seventy nine design, which 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:40.840 was intended for military aircraft that wasn't meant to be 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.880 for commercial aircraft. So this new engine, which had the 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:49.360 designation c J eight oh five, would mark General Electrics 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:53.000 entry into the commercial jet engine business. So now they 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:55.800 were building jet engines not just for the U. S. Military, 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.600 but also for companies like Boeing and other companies were 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:03.880 creating aircraft. Seven would be a really big year for GE. 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.000 The company secured a contract with the United States Air 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.320 Force to provide the engine for an experimental supersonic aircraft, 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.800 the x B seventy Valkyrie. Now the X in aircraft 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.280 names is a big tip off that that's an experimental prototype. 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.960 You'll often see X as part of the designation at 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:26.120 the beginning of various aircraft that usually means experimental. The engine, 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.439 called d J ninety three, was capable of producing enough 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.920 thrust to propel the experimental aircraft to three times the 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.000 speed of sound, and it would travel an altitude of 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:40.120 seventy thousand feet or about twenty one meters. Not the time, 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:44.080 the thinking was that the greatest threat to bombers were 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.720 intercept aircraft. So if you could fly high enough and 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.240 fast enough, you wouldn't have to worry about that. No 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:52.400 one would ever be able to get a bead on you. 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:55.120 They wouldn't be able to to track you and fire 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.720 on you at that speed and at that altitude. So 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.680 the Valkyrie would be safe against tip called defenses. However, 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:05.880 the Soviet Union was developing service to air missile technology 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:08.760 and that started to bring into question whether or not 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.880 the Valkyrie would be equally as effective against that sort 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:16.920 of defense system. And one of the ways to get 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.280 around that would be to fly the Valkyrie at lower altitudes, 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.679 where it could fly beneath radar. But if you did that, 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.679 you also had to fly slower. You couldn't fly at 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.959 the same mock three speed at lower altitudes. That meant 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:34.120 that the bomber would be flying lower and slower than 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.480 it was designed to do, and it would be no 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.840 more effective than other bombers that were already in use 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.000 at that time, and it was more expensive. So with 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:48.199 all of those considerations stacked against the Valkyrie, the ultimate 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.440 decision was not to go into production and build those 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.480 out as a production model, so it just remained an 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.040 experimental prototype. But it is super cool to look at. 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:58.440 If you ever want to look at a picture of 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.840 a x B said in the Valcrie, they're pretty neat looking. 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:05.200 Something else that happened in nineteen seven was that General 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:10.080 Electric constructed a nuclear power plant in Alameda County California, 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.400 and it was the first nuclear reactor to be connected 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:17.040 to a commercial electricity grid. In other words, General Electric 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.720 was able to produce electricity that would go to average 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:24.760 citizens over an Alameda County. And I've talked a little 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:27.560 bit about how nuclear power plants work, I'll just give 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:31.720 a very very high level rundown. So you have a 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.320 nuclear material that undergoes nuclear decay, and as part of 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:39.960 that process, it releases subatomic particles, typically neutrons, and those 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:44.040 neutrons collide with other atoms of that same nuclear material. 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.280 This is your fuel, and when they collide with those 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:50.640 other atoms, it initiates a chain reaction. Those atoms then 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.199 go undergo radioactive decay and they release neutrons and so 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.199 on and so forth. So if there's enough thistle material, 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.240 that is material that can split apart in the few will, 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:03.840 this reaction can be sustained until the amount of fuel 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.080 dips below critical levels, in which case you start to 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:10.760 have fewer and fewer reactions and you've spent the nuclear fuel. 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:13.800 Doesn't mean that all the nuclear radiation stuff is gone, 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.480 far from it, but it's no longer producing the reactions 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.680 at the level you need to sustain that reaction indefinitely. 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.320 This is a nuclear power plant. Now, the concentration of 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:29.120 nuclear material is really high where that reaction starts to 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:31.520 pick up speed over and over and over again, and 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.680 this happens in the blink of an eye. Then you 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.560 can set off a much more explosive chain reaction. In 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.280 that case you have a nuclear bomb rather than a 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:44.240 power plant, and that that concentration is key there. That's 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:49.280 why you'll hear stories about how how much UH uranium 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.000 you would need for a nuclear power plant versus one 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.640 for you know, refined uranium for a nuclear bomb. Now, 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:00.200 this reaction produces a lot of heat, and it's the 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.520 heat that's the key for these nuclear power plants. That heat, 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:09.000 usually through a paired system of pipes, transfers to a boiler, 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.240 and the water in the boiler boils into steam, and 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:16.000 that steam then turns turbines which generate electricity. So a 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.720 nuclear power plant is, if you think about it, really 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:23.960 just a way to boil water, really fast and really efficiently. 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.960 Cold power plants also boil water, but obviously they do 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:31.920 it through combustion rather than through a nuclear reaction. So 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:37.080 the interesting thing to me is that the the part 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.000 that generates the heat is different, but the end result 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.000 is very much the same in the sense that you're 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:48.440 boiling water to create steam to turn turbines to generate electricity. Now, 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.240 I'll not go down the nuclear power rabbit hole because 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.600 there's much more to talk about just with general electric 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.400 But if you want to learn more about nuclear power plants, 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.160 do a quick search over at text of podcast dot com. 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:03.080 That's where we have an archive of all of our 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:06.040 past episodes. You can also learn the difference between fission 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:10.280 nuclear reactors, which are what we use today, and fusion 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.760 nuclear reactors, which we hope we can make feasible in 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.960 the near future. We have done fusion reactions already, but 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.840 the question is can you make that sustainable? Can you 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.600 make it economically feasible. That's a question that we have 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.200 not yet answered, but if we are able to do it, 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:31.520 it could transform the world anyway. The ge facility, which 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:35.680 was called the Valacitos Nuclear Center, it still exists, uh. 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:39.440 It was only an active power plant until nineteen sixty three. 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.640 At that point, the federal government told g E to 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.920 shut it down, So the boiler reactor was shut down 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:49.720 in nineteen sixty three, but GE maintains the facility mainly 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:54.320 for the purposes of testing an analysis, particularly testing radiated 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:59.440 materials to see how long they remain at dangerous levels 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.800 of radiation. For example, So if you have instruments or suits, 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.919 things like that that would exist in a radiation radiation 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.280 UH filled area, you want to know how long is 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.120 that stuff going to be dangerous UM. That's just part 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:16.359 of what they do now. A major part of that facility. 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.520 UH One of the largest of the reactors on that 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.600 site got shut down in ninety seven. It was still 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.640 being used for research purposes, but not to generate electricity. 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.920 Why was it shut down, Well, it was discovered that 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.679 it had the unfortunate distinction of sitting nearly directly on 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:35.840 top of a fault line. There was a legitimate concern 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.520 over what might happen should an earthquake hit while the 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.160 reactor was an operation. There is still a smaller reactor 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.040 on the site that operates in the one kilowatt range, 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.919 but that's the only one as far as I can tell. Otherwise, 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.720 all the other reactors have been completely decommissioned to shut down. 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:57.080 We've got a lot more to say about general electric 0:17:57.240 --> 0:17:59.800 but before I get into that. Let's take a quick break. 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:10.960 The work out of GEES research Lab was pretty incredible. 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:14.480 In the nineteen fifties. You had the nuclear scientists building 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.840 that first licensed power plant to provide electricity to a grid. 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:22.200 You had synthetic diamonds, and you had Robert H. Windorf 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.480 who created a substance called borazon in the lab. Borizon 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:27.840 is is a man made substance. You don't find it 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:32.760 in nature, but it's almost as hard as diamond and 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.560 it can be used in temperatures much higher than even 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:37.960 diamonds can be used in. Like diamonds will break down 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.600 once you get over a certain temperature, but borazon can 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.239 hold together longer. So it would also become a very 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:47.040 useful component in industrial cutting tools for example. Now around 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:49.959 the same time, a different group of engineers were building 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:55.320 something perhaps a bit less lofty in the grand scheme 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.800 of things, but that would be the humble electric can opener. 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.119 G introduce is the first consumer electric can opener in 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.600 nineteen fifty eight, and pet ownership has never been the 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:10.000 same since. In nineteen fifty nine, g E introduced the 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.320 halogen lamp. These work in a way very similar to 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:18.439 incandescent lamps. There's a tungsten filament inside a very small bulb, 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:23.399 and encasing the filament is a quartz envelope. Inside the 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.920 envelope is a gas from the halogen group of gases. 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.320 So this is different from what the kind of gas 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.880 you would find in your typical incandescent bulb. The benefit 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:37.480 of halogen gas is that it can combine with tungsten vapor. 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.000 So when the tungsten filament heats up and it starts 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.080 to give off light, it's also giving off tungsten vapor. 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.160 You know, tungsten is essentially burning off of the filament. 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.600 That vapor combines with the halogen gas and then it 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:54.840 gets deposited back onto the tungsten filament, at least some 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.679 of it does, so some of that vaporized tungsten gets returned. 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:01.359 That actually helps ex in the useful life of the 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.080 halogen lamp. Halogen lamps can produce a lot more light 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.840 per unit of energy compared to an incandescent bulb. They 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.760 also produce a lot more heat, and as someone who 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:16.200 has sadly a few halogen lamp fixtures in his house, 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:20.840 I can speak from experiences. Those things get real hot. 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.399 Guys like you will burn your fingers. I know I 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:28.320 have anyway. In nineteen sixty a device built by g 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:31.320 E became the first man made object to be recovered 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.920 after going into orbit around the Earth. It was code 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:37.520 named by g E the r v X to a 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:42.119 re entry vehicle that was part of the Discoverer thirteen satellite. 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:45.280 The discovered thirteen satellite kind of set the stage for 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:49.520 space based reconnaissance and spy missions. Now, granted, that was 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:54.160 not the public facing part of the mission. Obviously, letting 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:57.320 everyone know, hey, this is a spy satellite is not 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.879 the best plan if you want to use it for 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.280 you know, spy stuff. So there was a cover story, 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:05.040 and the cover story was essentially that it was a 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.959 science experiment, but in reality it was a classified mission 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.840 that was overseen by both the Air Force and the 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:14.879 c I A. G would go on to open up 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.800 a space center in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in nineteen sixty 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:21.919 one because they were getting more and more involved in 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:26.680 building components for the space race. Also in nineteen sixty 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:29.879 there was a guy named Jack Welch who joined g 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:34.040 E as a chemical engineer. He'll be really important later, 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.720 So remember that name, Jack Welch. We'll get back to it. 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:41.800 Nineteen sixty two, scientists from GE would develop one of 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:47.280 the first solid state lasers using semiconductors. Interestingly, scientists at 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.639 IBM and over at M I T were independently doing 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:53.560 the exact same thing, and all the parties pretty much 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.359 cracked the problem right around the same time. This set 0:21:57.400 --> 0:21:59.919 off a bit of a patent rush, with GE beating 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:02.200 IBM to the punch by a little more than a week. 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:05.800 I just find it fascinating that the solid state laser 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.160 was one of those things that multiple parties invented at 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:13.560 around the same time, independently of each other. But to 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:16.119 be fair, the stage had already been set with early 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:19.320 work in masers and lasers, so these were not the 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:23.520 first lasers. They were the first solid state ones. Solid 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.720 state lasers would then find their way into numerous technologies 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.960 and applications. Early on, scientists theorized that they could be 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:34.240 incredibly useful in communications, but they would become so commonplace 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:36.880 that we'd rely on them to play our tunes for us. 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:40.199 Because the laser and stuff like CD players, DVD players, 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:43.080 Blu ray players, those are all solid state lasers. So 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:46.359 what was truly cutting edge technology in nineteen sixty two. 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:48.639 Is now so commonplace that you can go out and 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:51.480 buy one and use it to frustrate your pets. You know, 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:53.240 you can just go get a little key chain with 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:56.439 a solid state laser on it. Um. But I'm pretty 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:58.560 sure back in nineteen sixty two, no one thought that 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:01.720 that was going to be a few future possibility. D 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:06.480 E scientists were also working with superconductors and magnetism. Now, 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:09.359 a conductor is a material that allows electrons to pass 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:13.480 through it. You know, it conducts electricity. A superconductor is 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:16.280 a material that does this with no resistance to the 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:20.639 flow of electricity. So, under normal conditions, conductors have a 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:23.600 bit of resistance to electricity, and the amount of resistance 0:23:23.640 --> 0:23:27.560 is dependent upon several factors, like how what what the 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:31.000 actual material is, You know, what is the conductive material. Also, 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:35.560 it's thickness or gauge. So a thin copper wire, for example, 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:39.560 has higher resistance than a thick copper cable. They're both 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:42.560 made of the same thing, but the physical structure is 0:23:42.600 --> 0:23:46.040 different and that changes the resistance of the material. G 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:49.520 S super conducting magnet was the first to break through 0:23:49.560 --> 0:23:53.199 the one hundred thousand gass limit. The gass is a 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:57.760 unit of measurement for magnetic flux density. I'll give you 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:00.800 the technical definition of a gass as laid out by 0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:06.040