The GE Story, Part 2

That would be senior writer Jonathan Strickland. There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrub and he almost deserved it. All right, then, welcome to part two of our g e extravvagance. If you're just joining us, Uh? Five or no sorry? Four people founded ge and based on on a merger between two companies, Yes, Edison General Electric and Thomason Houston Electric. Yes, and you know those three guys plus a guy named Charles Coffin who was a business

person who brought the companies together in a merger. And um, they went from a brand new field, um, you know, wiring homes for electricity lighting homes. Uh and and really uh decided to create a company that could make things that could use electricity and would sell equipment to generate electricity. UM and really uh turned into a a eight hundred pound guerrilla as they say in marketing speak of the electric world. And we got all the way up to

nineteen thirty one in GES history. That was the year that Thomas Alva Edison died. So we pick up in nineteen thirty two when GE formed the GE Credit Corporation, which was to help finance sales of products to families. And that reason for this is, uh, GE had already weathered one major economic depression, but now the country was still reeling from the Great Depression, which was not that great. No, it was huge, but it wasn't great now now and uh.

And in the last podcast several years earlier, we talked about well several years earlier in the g E timeline right, Um, we we talked about how GE had started helping companies, financing companies that were starting out, um and basically to help them get off the ground and hopefully use electricity and buy stuff from them. UM. So this is this

is GE getting into a different segment of the financial market. UM. Which again, if you're if you're looking at it on paper, you may say, why would they get into financing, Well, they're they're working in their own business interests as well. Yeah, they're they're financing the sale of their products to people, so you know, there's there's definitely self interest in there. But it also was very helpful to families who needed to have these these sort of appliances in order to, uh,

to have an efficient and cost effective home. So it was, you know, a mutually beneficial sort of thing. It's not we don't want to say that it was completely altruistic, but at the same time, we don't want to say it was some sort of how can we get those last few pennies out from their clutches. It wasn't either of those things. No, no, no, no no. UM and UH.

Also in the last podcast, we discussed how GE had started very early on for the company, really one of the very first research and development labs UM for corporations, because they realized that if they could come up with more cool scientific breakthroughs UM. Again this this is sort of in that same bucket that they could, uh, they could come up with things that would help people and that they could monetize and add value to the company.

And UH one of the first things that they could really brag about UM not that they couldn't some of the others, but one of the scientists won a Nobel Prize in that year as well, Irving Langmuir won a Nobel Prize for his work in surface chemistry, and that was the very first United States industrial scientists to win a Nobel Prize. So that's a that's a big bragging point for g. E. H. Skipping ahead a couple of years produces the first electric food waste disposal unit, the Disposal. Yes,

it was creatively named the Disposal. Uh yeah, so this is um I personally love this kind of invention. It's a fantastic invention. I have a have an electric food waste disposal unit in my house and uh, very useful because I don't have to make a compost heap in my house. I don't live in San Francisco. But yeah, so this was this was definitely one of those inventions introduced to try and make the whole home life more simple and clean and efficient, which was kind of like geez,

thing like that was that was there. That was their space was that we're going to make your life easier and here's how through electricity. They also had the very first night baseball game played in the United States thanks to some lights provided by ge Yes Crossley Field. Yes in Cincinnati, Cincinnati Reds versus the Phillies and who won. The Reds beat the Phillies two to one. Thank you awesome take that Phillies. As a Braves fan, I can't say that enough that from two to one and nine.

My wife's from Philadelphia. Yeah, these were the Nova Lux lamps. Um. Yeah, and Chicago was skeptical of these. I'm I'm kidding Chicago. The Cubs were skeptical of these lamps up until I don't know, just a few years ago. Now I'm I'm teasing. Um. Oh, I like how we've something become a baseball podcast. No, uh, and uh, I just find it kind of interesting that

they were so successful that they took off. And uh, the if you're not a baseball fan, if you live in a different part of the world where baseball is sort of a curiosity rather than a national pastime. Um, the Chicago Cubs are a team that has been around for a very very long time, and they didn't uh set up electric lights in their ballpark until, um, just a few years ago at the time we're recording this. And I have absolutely no problems with that. I'm just teasing.

I actually kind of like the Cubs. Yeah. Everyone everyone loves an underdog, right So anyway, oh the poor cubs. A nineteen thirty six, that's when ge starts a small appliances division essentially, I mean they really get into creating

small appliances for the home. So again, if you remember from our last podcast, I talked about how the president and CEO during this time really wanted to focus on targeting the consumer, the average consumer as a customer for GE because a lot of Gees customers were big companies,

not consumers. Um. This was a continuation of that, and they started to make stuff like juicers, roasters, mixers, countertop cookers, that kind of stuff, you mean, like the juice so Matt juicer and the Olive Carte table cooker like if you need to eat a whole table, I'm gonna say, if you need to cook your table yep. And the Dorchester coffee maker. Yes, um, actually this is this is kind of interesting. We talked about in the HP series of podcasts. Um they Hewlett Packard over its history, which

is quite a bit shorter than g ees. UM got into a number of fields and then later divested themselves of it UM. As we look at GE, note that they get into a wide range of different UM businesses, but they pretty much are working in the same fields that either they created or UM augmented in such a significant way that they are a big part of them. And really they didn't let go of a whole lot of this stuff. They continue to be involved in in these So there's a there's a few that they did

divest themselves and sometimes not choice. Well, that's true. Our c A was taken from them, and it's states who gave it to them in the first place. I know, I'm sorry that was the last podcast. I'm not gonna go off on that again, but yes, that's true. GE was more known for developing these different technologies, getting involved in it and staying with it UM. They were very

careful too about what they got into. Like you know, there was there was a stressed innovation, but they weren't so much about innovation that they were going to go and embrace something that was unproven. Right there that have done that, right, yeah, I mean in the last podcast

I talked talked about Google. You could argue that Google has done that as well, where they've embraced stuff that wasn't quite proven and not fully baked, maybe and it just didn't work out, maybe for one reason or another. Who each one is is fairly complex. But GE was pretty good about identifying innovative designs that would be sustainable. So that's part of the reason for the company's success.

But in UH, the final of the four founders passes away, Ali who Thompson he actually passed away if you had listened to our last podcast. The other three founders had had passed away before this. So now the four guys who had built the two companies that eventually became General Electric are no more. They have shuffled off the mortal coil. Yeah, and UH we were talking about the different tabletop appliances or kitchen appliances. This is again the uh diversity of GE.

We talked about a guy in the last podcast named Sanford Moss who at sixteen figured out that if you burn fuel in a compressed air environment, you could really put out some energy compared to a typical engine. Uh. That's called the supercharger. If you're familiar with these types of things, well, Howard Hughes, you know the Billy jillionaire with the boxes on his feet set a transcontinental air record. You know, if you know you're familiar with Mr Hughes,

you know that he was very much into aviation. He made it across the country in seven hours, twenty eight minutes, twenty five seconds using that supercharger technology of Gees. Yeah. I have so many jokes I want to tell, but I'm going to I'm going to abstain. Okay, So in nineteen thirty eight, ge invinced the fluorescent lamp. Yeah, they were kind enough to wait until Mr Edison passed before

they invented the fluorescent lamp. Yeah, because of course Edison is famous for his work in the incandescent lamp, as well as other multiple inventions. How be fitting there. Anyway, it's a very tiny spaces. We have another joke that I can't tell. Anyway. The fluorescent lamp, of course, was a new development. And yeah, yeah, you would think for a company that was that was so centered around incandescent

lighting for it to develop fluorescent lighting. That's that's interesting. Well, it's it's not the first time, I mean sorry, it's not the last time ge will work on a completely different lighting technology. So they really weren't married to it. It was more of a joke that I made, but uh yeah, I mean that was that significant really when

you think about it. They made a significant enough of provement in an incandescent light bulb that they were able to really make a business out of it, and now they are innovating by creating the fluorescent lamp well and and again it's something that sets ge apart because you've got companies that will try their hardest to ignore or or dismiss technologies that would significantly impact their business model

by by changing whatever it was they were making. So if you've got a company that's making a product and a new way of making a new kind of product that competes directly with the old one and is in many ways superior to the old one, oftentimes that first

company is going to resist it. In this case, we have a company that's actually innovating in that space because well, multiple reasons, one of the one of them being that I assume that the people in charge of g E knew that you can't just innovate and then rest on that you have to keep pushing in order and keep changing and keep keep growing in order to stay liable

as a company. Yeah, and that's I mean, I'm assuming that I've never I haven't read any of these these men's works directly, so I can't say for sure, but based upon the way the company has grown over the years, I think it's a fairly safe assumption. Corporate body language, you might say. Uh. Catherine Burr Blodget, Yes, the first female scientist at GES Research Laboratory. Hey you said laboratory. I know I had to think about it too. Um she made this is. I love what they call it

because it sounds so uh well, duh. Invisible glass. That's what Wonder Woman's jet is made. But no, we're talking about glass that doesn't reflect. It's got a coding on it that prevent prevents the glass from being reflective, and that's very useful in a number of different technologies and and basically it was the forerunner of a lot of the glasses used in different applications today. Things like cameras may be useful for a camera lens, also optical lenses

in general anti reflective coatings. If you have a smartphone, you probably have a very tiny bit of that glass or something very much like it. Um and another chemistry

in ninety silicone. They got into silicone, well actually invented it really, and it's used in all kinds of things, uh, insulating electronics, it's excellent for that, baking now they use it for that, now, industrial sealants, aquariums, um, lots of different applications and and and great for advertising what uh causes you believe in on your wrist if you're so inclined, although that's sort of passed out of fashion here. Yes.

So also in nineteen forty they created a television station called w r g B in a little town of New York called and it was the first television network, or grew into the first television network. It was kind of funny to call it that. Um, you might not necessarily think about it, but remember when we talked about uh computer networks, we said that basically a computer standing on on its own is not a network. But if you put, you know, connect another net computer to it,

you've created a network. Well, yes, this was a network of two. W r g B was simultaneously broadcasting the same signal that the New York City TV station was and so in in doing that, they created their first network. Pretty cool and U r g B also I think that's kind of funny, red, green, and blue being the colors that you see on a computer screen or TV screen. Of course that's pre color TV. I know that's that's

the ironic party. So in nineteen forty also, that's when Gerard Swope and Charles E. Wilson stepped down for the first time. Because this gets complicated and I'll explain why. So they stepped down in nineteen forty and UH from being president and CEO respectively, and then UH, Charles E. Wilson becomes the president. By the way, Charles E. Wilson, there are two Charles E. Wilson's that are important during this particular era. One of those, Charles E. Wilson's, is

the CEO of General Motors. The other, Charles E. Wilson, became the president of of G UH. And you can change tell them apart because the one at at General Motors was known as Engine Charlie. The one of g was known as Electric Charlie. That's kind of funny. I'm not even making that up. Also, when you think about a General Motors in General Electric, they're both major generals,

that's true, the very model of a modern major general. UH. And then oh, and d Young, you know, he stepped down as well, and Philip D. Reid took his place. Now that happens in nineteen forty I'm gonna go ahead and explain what happens over the next few years, because it's gonna get confusing otherwise. So nineteen forty you have

this regime change. Essentially. In nineteen forty two, Uh, both UH, Charlie Wilson and Philip Read leave GE and and Owen Young and Gerard Swope stepped back into their roles as UH CEO and president respectively. Wait what Now, Here's what happened. So in nineteen forty two, there was a little event going on in nineteen forty two, and had started a few years earlier, and it was really in full swing by forty two, which is World War two. The jitterbug. Uh,

world War two. We're gonna stick with that. So, yeah, world War two was in full swing. Not actuee what you're doing for there with the jitterbug. Now, in nineteen forty two, UH and both Read and Wilson left GE to go serve on the United States War Production Board. So they left, they left the company to serve with the United States government. On this board and they were

there for three years. So in nineteen forty five, when the war came to an end, Swope and Young step down again and Wilson and Reid took their place again as the the CEO and president of the company or president CEO, I should say, because Wilson was the president. So yeah, it's this weird little moment in GEES history where the outgoing president and CEO were replaced, then they came back in to replace the incoming president and CEO, and then they left for the incoming president and CEO,

who were coming back again a few years later. But all had to do with World War two. Confused, You won't be after this episode of tech stuff. Actually, that's never true. So and so that's that. That's the whole confusing little moment in GEES executive history. Moving on though, So in ninety one, transportation strikes again. Well there's yeah, g E built the I A, which is the very first United States jet engine i A. Uh. And then in nineteen forty three ge developed something autopilot. Ah, why

you skip nineteen forty two, which surprised me. Oh, well, what was the world world first turboprop? Oh? Yes, yes, yes, by designed by Sir Frank Whittle. Yeah, I did skip that. You're right because the Bell xpfte era comet used two of those engines to be the first American jet ino um, which they then put on automatic pilot and it crashed into a barn. No I'm kidding. Yeah. The autopilot, of course is setting, which allows a aircraft to continue on

a set course without adjustments. So very helpful, uh feature there that g E developed. Uh. And in ninety five they demonstrated the first commercial, non military use of radar, which they used to help vessels navigate through dark conditions so that they wouldn't bump into stuff as long as it's not farther than twenty miles away. And also in forty five, that's when we now have Wilson and Read

in places executive leaders for GE. They've they've actually come back from the war effort and now they are there to stay for the rest of their tenure. Uti you have the J forty seven, which became the most produced jet engine in history, uh, five thousand pound thrust um production. So you know, powerful engine there. And also that ye're a GE scientist named Vincent Schaefer developed an interesting technique

for areas that are suffering from drought. Yes, cloud seeding. Yes, he was the one who figured out that by seeding clouds, by putting in tiny particles and clouds for water droplets to form around, you could make rain. Oh I thought you could grow sunflowers and clouds. No. No, you must be playing a super advanced version of plants versus zombies sky sky plants versus sky plants versus zombies. So yeah,

that that was another interesting development. Forty seven uh G produces the first two door refrigerator which has a separate door for the freezer. Yes, before they had developed the first hermetically sealed refrigerator, which was a nice invention, this is an improvement on that technology. He had seven point five cubic feet. Uh, not big by today's standards, but

you know, it's pretty significant at the time. Yeah. And also the fact that it had a separate door for the freezer meant that you didn't have to worry about defrosting the refrigerator all the time because it had its own separate compartment. Yes. Yeah, and it's important to note to um uh and I this just occurred to me. This is not something that I found through research. But we're talking about right after World War Two, which in

America was a time of enormous prosperity. He had a whole lot of people coming back from the war that the American UH manufacturing machine was completely geared up. Um. The Americans produced UH, if you'll pardon the pun, UH really don't intend it to be boatloads and boatloads of

all kinds of weaponry. Uh. There were huge advancements in technology, not just from GE, but from other corporations in the United States, and so as the UH the men came home from Europe and the Pacific theaters, UM, they found themselves in an opportunity to do to get more stuff than they had ever had before, all sorts of new things. UM. So this, these bursts in technology came at a perfect time. And I'm sure, again this is not based on my reading.

I'm sure that in no small part this caused GE to grow significantly because they had invested in all these different areas, especially home appliances, small appliances. UM. I'm sure they made uh tons and tons of cash simply through being having it available at the right time, geared up in the right a. Um. So this this was a huge time for them. So in introducing U two door refrigerator freezer that was brand new and that would be

something that people are gonna want in their homes. They also introduced now this was for commercial restaurants, not for homes, but they introduced an electronic oven that was it was programmable in a sense and actually made an entire industry possible, something that maybe we shouldn't thank ge for the fast food industry. Yeah, they made custom matching gear all sorts of different appliances that you would find in a fast food restaurant, uh, for different types of cooking, toasters and

fryers and all sorts of other stuff. Um and uh yeah, I mean the fast food and industry really took off after the war was over as well. Um, So you could gear up your stuff and have it looked sweet, you know, have it all behind the counter where everybody could see it. It looked nice. Um. That was that you know. It added to the the atmosphere in a fast food restaurant. Yeah, in nineteen fifty Wilson, as it is, I was supposed to say, I don't have a lot

of atmosphere. Most the fast food restaurants have been in in nineteen But if you you went out, you know, for a date or something like that, it would you know, I'm learning a lot about Chris on this podcast. In nineteen fifty, Charles Wilson steps a complicated guy. Charles Wilson stepped down as the president in nineteen fifty and Ralph J. Cordner became the new president of ge UH and in fifty one they developed the company developed the J seven

nine military jet engine and very popular military jetting. I like the story that that was on the g S website about how when the engineers were testing the engine, they thought that their instruments must have been broken because the efficiency levels were way higher than they expected them to be. Like, that's not gonna work this this this meter is broken. Go give me a new one. Uh.

In nineteen fifty two, I think the gate is broken. Yeah, sir, sir, you've switched off your targeting COMPU or nineteen fifty two, they built an appliance park facility in Kentucky, which is great if you need to park your appliances. Yeah, and this is this was a company or a part of the company that was specifically dedicated to designing and producing appliances for the home, and my notes are way off today.

In nineteen fifty three, they developed the Lexan polycarbonate resin oh Man Daniel W. Fox trying to come up with a better how how many times have we mentioned this scenario? Trying to come up with a better wire enamel comes up with alexan, which, if you know what alexan is, is a very hard, transparent plastic um which can be used in all sorts of things. This is another area that GE capitalizes on later. But yeah, um, very very useful plastic. Uh. Nineteen fifty four they developed the first

automatic portable dishwasher called the Mobile Maid. Yes, so um, yeah, portable dishwasher. Uh. I'm not gonna make any jokes on that either. Nineteen five they developed the first micro miniature relay and this was for for aircraft and spacecraft. Yeah, and they're still in use. This This is another technology G developed that still finds its way into today's aircraft and spacecraft. They also developed a method for creating artificial diamonds,

which are used in industrial applications like drilling. You know they have diamond drill bits and stuff. Well, this was when they actually developed a technique to create them artificially. Yes, diamonds in this case or a grinder's best friend. Um, they used these, and we're talking about someone who's actually grinding stuff down, not a not a not a sandwich. Yes that is correct. Yeah, you don't want industrial diamonds in your sandwich. But they are great for grinding stuff down.

And as a matter of fact, this is not the only application of very very hard stuff that they innovate in their chemical labs, but we'll come to that later. Yeah, diamonds also very useful if you're going to create a doomsday device, because they almost all have to have some sort of diamond right there in the center to focus the energy. You know what I'm talking about, Yes, I

know exactly what you're talking about. Or some sort of a chip that goes along with the diamonds, yes, yes, but my my, this this is the next thing that I want to talk about in a technology that will change the world. For this is the t is not as I first imagined, a very early terminator, or maybe it is and I just don't know about it. Well not not. You know, it's not talking about heart failure.

Possibly again, I am not a very complex guy. And the invention of the first toast our oven, the toaster oven, which finds its way on many countertops and is a prized possession in my home. I have mine up on a little pedestal with a light shining down bold by the way that shines right down on a little a little, a little angelic choir sings the three notes from NBC

on there. But no, I it's a useful appliance. You know, you're not gonna get an argument out of a I don't own a toaster oven, but I have known the joys of a toaster oven. It's it's useful, and it helps you cook your tad r tots um. Good grief. All right. So they also that year created the convert Skylark, which I must admit does not truly compete with the toastar oven for innovation. All it was was a commercial jet engine that was based off the J seven nine

military engine they had developed a few years earlier. Okay, so so in the corporate in the corporate world, here you've got your very successful line of toast ars that they put in homes. They're very popular with pirates as well. Put it in the toastar Um, Jonathan's taking a drink, I was hoping to make him spit tea um. But you also have this very very business e line of very expensive stuff that you're selling jet engines to the military and to commercial aspects, so they are they are

extremely successful both of these. You could say that g E at this point has a diversified offering extremely appliances for the home and jet engines for the military, and they're selling stuff to corporations to that rely on plastics and chemicals like the neural resin developed in n s by Allen S. Hay of the Research Laboratory, and it was this was an important development because this was a kind of plastic that still stay stays strong even at

high temperatures, which made it ideal for industrial use. Yes, you know you wanted. That was one of the problems with plastics is that, you know, as the temperatures increase, the plastic would become brittle or it would start to melt. It would it would just it would not be useful anymore. So there were some lots of industries actually that just could not really use that much plastic in what they did because it just wasn't stable. This helped fix that

problem in that there was. You know, for for certain applications, this plastic could maintain its its integrity even at those high temperatures. Yes, no, no matter bribing will cause it to melt. Um very high integrity. Seven, you've got the J ninety three, the successor to the the other military jet engine that we talked about just a moment ago. Supersonic jets used the J ninety three. They could go three times the speed of sound um and they did

put that on the experimental XP seventy bomber um. So that year they also opened the world's first licensed nuclear power plant. Uh. They unlicensed nuclear power plants where, of course all over the place at that point. Uh. You know, every little kid would instead of operating a lemonade stand, would be like, Mom, I'm going to go out and harvest some uranium and create a fission reactor in the backyard and have an unlicensed nuclear power plant. And they'd say,

just be home before supper I made. Oh. In seven, my brother was born and Robert h. When Tworf Junior came up with borazon, Yes, cubic born nitrite apparently was not right. I should say, yes, not born. Um, that's the character. And Lord of the rings actually Boramir's little cousin born. He was not a very I thought I was loopy. Um. No, this is the chemical I was talking about, or the substance I was talking about a few moments ago. Um. It is an artificial substance. But

it's second in hardness only two diamonds. And it can and it can operate at temperatures higher than diamonds can. Yes, diamonds will burn at a certain point, believe it or not. Um, And I imagine that has to be really hot, pretty darn hot, I think is the technical term. Yes, but borison will will substitu will continue to exist at at those temperatures and temperature. U should I go into the next exciting home appliance? Well, before we do, there's something

else that happens. You mean, yes, something else happens too that I should mention before we go into the appliance. So in nine, Philip D. Reid steps down as chairman. So Cordiner, who was the president, now becomes the chairman and CEO. Right, So he transitions into the chairman and CEO role, and Gerald L. Philippe comes in as president. Now this is important because it starts to show a transition from the way their corporate structure was in the

earlier days. Eventually, we're going to get to a point where you have one person as chairman and CEO and you don't have a president anymore. So we're coming up to that point. We're not there yet, but that's why we've You know, we've now got a guy who's transitioned out of president to become chairman and CEO, and a new fellow has come in as president. And now what

was the amazing invention that G introduced in nineteen fifty eight. Yes, dogs and cats everywhere learned to come scampering into your kitchen whenever this device is activated, which is funny for two reasons. One, um, my cats do that, and the cat food we have doesn't come in that kind of a can. Uh. The other thing is G makes that joke on its own website. Does it really Yes? On the timeline I actually went to Uh, it says and dogs and cats everywhere learn a new sound, and and

I thought I was being funny and original. It turns out that I was making a reference to something I hadn't even read. Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's not funny and we are. We are teasing ge sort of about the toaster oven and the can opener and these appliances, but uh, they really were fulfilling their goal of trying

to make life easier for people through electrical stuff. Yeah. Yeah, when you compare it to something like the second hardest material known demand um, or you know, something something that that's only outstripped by diamonds, that sort of stuff, it seems it seems, you know, tiny and silly in comparison, but jet engines or jet engines or or all the medical equipment that makes But the truth is is that these things did make life easier. And hey, I got

an electric can opener. I have an electric can opener too, and I use it. And well I'm a left hander. Okay, so a left hander trying to use a can opener at a good point. All right, guys, if you, if you want to know an exercise and frustration, find a left hander and ask them about using a manual can opener, even left handed can openers. But I digress. Anyway, they were making stuff that really did make life easier, and

we take it for granted. Now, I mean, you think about, like, think about how long it takes you to heat something up using a microwave, for example, and then think about how long it would take you if you were to use a conventional oven arrange top for that's a lot more energy as well. That's also true. But yeah, look at any directions, like if you ever buy any frozen food that has directions for either using the oven versus a microwave, look at the amount of time between those two. A. Well,

here you go. You got ge pioneering refrigeration which makes frozen food possible or or practical. Let's say, um, you can go to the Antarctic if you want to, um where food. Well, they you know, used to bring in ice from other from other climates or or you know, they'd have to make it at these uh complicated refrigeration places and sawdust and then move it across as fast as they could. So so you know this there there the technologies that they're working on make frozen food possible.

And then when you get it home you can store it, uh and then you uh you know, open it up and stick it in an oven, which they helped uh pioneer, and then the magnetrons for microwave ovens. So either way, uh, this is something frozen food in your home is really made practical by you know, people like gee, so yeah, no, and don't mean to to make fun. We're teasing because it's such a compared to the other compared to the others of it seems so so menacing. Yeah, it's a

big deal in a way. And they also did something another lighting innovation in fifty nine with the the halogen light. Yes, the halogen lamps, so again another way to light areas. They were able to create very small bulbs that could put out quite a bit of light. And so a lot of death lamps use halogen bulbs. Yes, less common than they used to be, the stand lamps, the torch lamps that they used to have in the nineties. Yeah, and there's there's some more now that ayre coming out

with things like led bulbs. But hey, you know what, you just got their finger in that pie too. Yeah, we'll get into that. Oh yeah. And in nineteen sixty Discovery thirteen, which is it turns out or not several of our parent companies employees, no, Discovery thirteen is well, it's technically it's a satellite, yes, And it was the the it ended up being the first the reentry vehicle for the thirteen ended up being the first one retrieved after it was in orbit. First man made object in

orbit that was successfully retrieved. Yes, not like a Sputnik, which is still out there somewhere. I think, actually I think Sputnik did it crash. I think I think it crashed. I think it burnt up and crashed. I'm pretty sure. I mean, I don't have it right in front of me. But they didn't retrieve it, right, No, that one was not retrieved, nor was it necessary to retrieve it, because

the Sputnik really didn't do anything other than bap exactly. So. Uh. But this this satellite orbited the Earth seventeen times within about twenty seven hours and took lots of color photos of the Earth from space. Yes, um, And it was from up to seven hundred miles so not especially far out space. Nuts um. Nineteen sixty one. Automatic toothbrush made possible by smaller motors. And we're chargeable batteries. Yes, we're

chargeable batteries. Very important. Uh, automatic toothbrush is nothing to sneeze at. I love my automatic toothbrush. Yes. Uh, it's nineteen sixty two. They opened a space center in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Yes, because in sixty two, you know, we're talking about the space race now, so we're talking about the that time in the United States history where they were we were really geared up against the Soviet Union to try and land men on the Moon and and be out in

space before them. And you know, some races, the Russians one and some races the Americans one and uh G played a big part in that. They actually produced a lot of the electrical systems and censors that would be used on during the space race. Yeah. Um. And this also produced the uh, the famous quote, uh, Houston, we have a problem. No, I'm sorry, this is Valley Forge you want and they you know, never mind um. And they also in six all of our jokes are are

are surefire hits. No, No, I changed it in mid air, which I shouldn't. The Luca Locks lamp um, which you probably haven't heard of. They used it in factories in an outdoor environments. But they again this is another chemical uh breakthrough for them because they used translucent ceramics to make this light possible, uh, you know, long lived light that they could put in these environments and leave there

for a while. And the ceramics were really important that they also kept in the heat generated by the lamp, because otherwise running these lamps would just make the whole area really hot. So the ceramics were there really to kind of keep the heat in. But they had to be, you know, transparent. They had to be at least translucent to let through because otherwise you just have really hot ceramic cup in a glass jar, which wouldn't really be

terribly useful. Do not want the In nineteen sixty two, they also ge also had another UH invention come out. A g engineer by the name of Robert Hall invented a semiconductor injection laser, also known as a solid state laser. I am so impressed that you said it twice the normal way. So what's the laser instead lasers? See, if you hadn't pointed it out, you might have gotten away with a whole episode help me doing that. I'm surprised that you didn't talk about the super conducting magnet that

they came up to. Well, they also there's also that as well. I mine, because I pulled my notes from so many different sources, mine are in a slightly different order than yours, UH than Uh, you know, you you grabbed your sources. I grabbed mine. So the next one I had was this, uh, this laser which, by the way, a solid state laser, yes, which which is important. It's what forms the basis of technology like CD ROM drives and t D ROM drives, where you have this solid

state laser as part of the system. It reduced the size that you would need to create a laser. Perhaps if you had one of those diamonds we talked about earlier than you could have your doomsday device. Yes, you could take over the entire Try state area. So you want to talk about some I'm not gonna do dooven sharts. You're gonna talk about some some magnets, yes, well one in particular, they came up with a super conducting magnet that which is amazing to me to think about a

hundred thousand gauss that's a pretty big magnet um. Which is funny that I say that, uh to me at least, because that's only the beginning the reason you might be interested in this. We haven't talked about gees medical stuff much um on this particular podcast, and the last one we we talked about how they were on the forefront of X rays. Right as UH mr or Mr Runton, I have such a trouble with his name. UH came up with or realized that X rays existed and what

they could do. UH. GE almost immediately, UH within the next year came up with a machine that could produce X rays and was used for medical imaging, and UH it started making improvements on this. This giant, huge, enormous magnet that they came up with, superconducting magnet, UH is going to play a huge part in gees medical technology going for word, because it is this type of magnet that they're going to use in their magnetic resonance UH

devices of different types later. So not yet. I've got two other things to round out of going up to nineteen sixty seven. Ones In nineteen sixty three, which is when Fred J. Borch became the president and CEO and he and he replaced cordon Er and UH that's the same year that GE developed the self cleaning oven P. Seven. I had a UM I actually just replaced in my

father's house. A subsequent oven that followed that with the self cleaning stuff, which is a purolytics system, which basically means that you locked down the darn thing and heat it up until it just burns the stuff off, which really smells terrible. UM. However, the engineers involved were granted around hundred patents for the technologies that they used in creating that oven. So that's a big deal. And in sixty seven Fred J. Borch becomes the chairman and CEO,

so transitions from president CEO to chairman and CEO. And that that brings me to the end of this era. Do you have something else you want to add before we wrap up? Jacob G. Roboton our robot in uh came up with a high efficiency X ray phosphor um and and this is not uh exciting exciting, However, it did improve the efficiency of X ray machines that they created. UM that would reduce you know, you guys listening, I'll

probably know that X rays. It's not a good idea to be exposed to X rays UM at high levels you want to be you want the picture to be taken, and then that's it just exposed to film and let's get it over with because it can be dangerous. Yes, it's ionizing radiation. UM. This technology, UH that I just spoke of a moment ago reduces patient exposure to a quarter of what they were being exposed to before. So

that's significant that that's much safer for the patient. Uh. And definite improvement in technology, but not you know, particularly exciting for the man on the street. Yeah, unless that man on the street has just broken a leg. Yes, which get that man off the street. Not glamorous, but very very important. Yes. So this wraps up episode two

of the g E story. We will finish with episode three, so stay tuned for our next episode where we will conclude and talk about all sorts of stuff, starting with a short visit to the moon. And if you guys have any suggestions for topics we should cover. You had it. You held it together so well until like three seconds before I did that. Now, if you guys have any suggestions for a topic that we should cover here on tech Stuff, please let us know. You can write an email.

That address is tech stuff at Discovery dot com or send us a message on Twitter or Facebook. You can find us there. We are, in fact there, we use the handle text stuff hs W track us down, follow us, befriend us, become one of our bosom buddies, and let us know what you would like us to talk about in future episodes, and Chris and I will talk to you again really soon. Be sure to check out our

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