The inventor Thomas Edison started what would eventually become the GE Company, The Edison General Electric Company in 1890. For several years before, he had been involved in many experiments in his lab on electricity and its many properties. His fascination started at an early age but was fueled by the electrical exhibits at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. Once his lab was functioning, he opened the electric company but was unable to fully expand with his limited resources.
In the late 1800s another electric company began to make an appearance. The Thomas-Houston Company began to make itself known and was growing at a fast pace. It was sold and merged several times at the hands of a savvy businessman by the name of Charles A. Coffin, who had previously sold shoes. It quickly became as well-known as the Edison General Electric Company.
After several years, it became to difficult to provide fully installed electrical systems to the customers of each company separately. The companies owned separate technologies, and advances and patents were not always enough. They decided to merge the companies in 1892. They named the new company General Electric Company. Together they were more able to provide a complete electrical portfolio to their customers, both business and residential.
Charles Proteus Steinmetz was the first scientist employed by GE. He was already very well known and distinguished upon his arrival. It was Steinmetz's idea that GE needed a specialized research laboratory to keep ahead in the business of electricity. His request was finally granted by GE's founders and CEO, and the first research library was started in a barn in Steinmetz's backyard. The first director of the new research lab was a young chemist from MIT named Willis Whitney.
The company began its first real claim to fame by immensely improving on the companies' original patent idea--the incandescent light bulb. The improvements enabled the light bulb to last longer and be sturdier than the previous design. This act alone secured the company's place in the field and enabled the research lab to come up with many more technologies over the years.
Between 1913 and 1924 the GE Company began to expand its business to much broader horizons. GE took an interest in and merged with many new companies, allowing the ideas to grow faster than would have ever been possible and allowing the world to experience new and emerging innovations. GE brought television to the American public in 1927 and three-times-a-week programming in 1928. GE is also responsible for the electric washing machine introduced in 1934 and moldable plastic that soon became a part of our culture.
In the late 1930s GE introduced the GE line of credit. It was a major turning point in American society. GE gave us the first television network and the first jet engine. The company also won a Nobel Prize in the field of surface chemistry. This amazing company continues to grow and expand its own horizons, thereby expanding the world. Many of its discoveries have changed not only our country but the world.