The GE Story, Part 3

always tell when I'm pressed for time. It's the short quotes. Well. Originally, Chris and I when we were talking about doing this series of podcasts, this being the third part on our series on g E, we originally talked about doing two episodes in our two parts series exactly we're gonna do

parts one in parts two. But then as we looked at the history, and it is a long and storied history that we knew that we really couldn't it that into two episodes unless we went super long, and we try and reserve the super long episodes for things like the four episode or talking to Brian Brushwood. So we decided to something that Jonathan's vain pop out on this forehead. Yeah, anything that makes me rant. So we wanted to try

and uh and keep it a little more manageable. So this is part three, um, and we thought we would start with a monumental event in the history of the United States and really in the world in general, or actually not in the world in general. Yes, it was out of this world nineteen sixty nine, the Lunar landing, which, for the purposes of this podcast we are going to say actually happened on the Moon. Yes, it was not a hoax, It was not done in some television studio.

It really did happen, people, and just just just go with this. It did happen, because if you say it didn't happen, there's a chance and astronaut is going to show up in deck. You h you know, I'm not arguing. I'm not arguing either, but I mean you're you know, looking at me when you say that, I completely Well, it's because you're across from me. That's so. Anyway, Yes, the lunar landing in nineteen sixty nine. So you've probably seen the the iconic image of the footprint left behind

by Neil Armstrong on the service of the Moon. Yes, well, the company that made the material that created that boot print silicone rubber. As it turns out that was g e Ge created the silicone rubber that was used in Neil Armstrong's boots as well as the other astronauts, so

that that bootprint is courtesy of GES technology. Yep. Oh. They also did a couple other things like quality control systems, U launch vehicle test facilities, ship to satellite communications for live color TV pictures of splashdown, and recovery systems, engineering support, just little stuff. Sure, but I'm talking about the boot Okay, I'm about that footprint, but no, that is that. It's really cool they did play that was one of the companies that played a large part in getting people to

the Moon. Not the only one, obviously, there were many other companies that all contributed to that effort, but g did make a significant contribution to the space race and it was pretty awesome to see that come together. And if you guys have never watched any video footage of the lunar landing, I highly recommend you check it out. There's tons of it on the internet. Um. I like watching the reactions of the news anchors when the linear

landing set down. Because you see these these these people who have developed very very stately professional personas on the air, and you see them kind of you see that crack just a bit as the enormity of this event hits

them in real time. It's phenomenal. That probably doesn't mean as much to you if you aren't familiar with their previous work, But for those who have seen footage of these newscasters UH reporting all sorts of events, including major tragedies, and see them kind of break down a little bit when they see people land on the moon, it kind of gives you an idea of how big a deal this was. It's easier for us to forget now because we're so far removed from it, but it was enormous.

And also, I just anything that that shows that kind of level of awe in in in human achievement, to me is is really inspiring. So those are Jonathan's feelings in a capsule. There you go. Nineteen seventy the GE sold one of its divisions. This is one of those few times where did divest itself of something. It's sold a computer division to a company called Honeywell, we'll have to do an episode on Honeywell at some point too.

So nineteen seventy they sell this computer division to Honeywell, which is why g E is not really into the whole computer side of of the industry. Um. And in nineteen seventy one they introduced something that is very again really important to those of us in the South. Well, it's especially cool. Yes, it is especially cool, especially when you're on the go because it was it's also handy, the first sup portable air conditioner. Yes, they carry cool, Yes,

very cool. Yes, definitely. Anything where you can move an air conditioner from room to room is awesome. Um. Yeah, very important for those of us who live in warm climates. And in when we were recording this, we had an exceptionally mild winter. Mild is probably even going being generous. It was warm to the point where we were hitting eighty degree temperatures in February, which makes us worry about what the temperatures could be like and say May or

June or Heaven help us August. Um. Uh, we've we've talked about the many businesses with which ge was involved. And in nine and seventy one also um, they worked for the French company actually to pull this off, but the g E F one oh one engine UM became the world's most successful aircraft engine uhich is very very popular machine. UM and you know, just another one of

the transportation businesses that they were involved in. There will be actually some some new ones that we haven't talked about in previous pot well, something we touched on in previous podcasts, but not the same way. Also, the the second of the scientists at the GE laboratories um dr. How would you pronounce his name, Ivar Giver THEE. This last name is spelled g I A E v e R. Now, the funny thing about this is he won this award in ninety three, the Nobel and Physics UH for something

he did in six He discovered super conductive tunneling. And we've talked about that in previous podcasts several times. So if you want to know what's for conductive tunneling is this is one of those weird quantum effects that that is perplexing and can also be very irritating to computer engineers, as the design chips. Super Conductive tunneling is that that tendency for sub atomic particles to pass through barriers as

if the barrier is not there. Uh. And in general, this has to do with the probability of a particle being within a certain area. As the particle approaches a a a barrier, there is a probability that the particle will be on the other side of that barrier. And as long as there's a probability, that means that there is going to be, at least in some instances, a case where the subatomic particle will be on the other side that barrier as if it passed through it. Now,

there is no actual tunnel left behind that. It's not like there's a hole made through the barrier. It's just that there's a point where the subotomic particle is on one side and then it's on the other. And that's crazy, but it's also quantum. I should also point out that, you know, we were talking about nineteen three back in seventy two, just really briefly, uh. Fred J. Borch retired in seventy two and Reginald H. Jones became chairman and CEO. Okay,

so Borch was the chairman and CEO. Yeah, he was president and CEO, and then sixty seven he became the chairman and CEO, and then seventy two, he retires and Reginald H. Jones becomes the chairman and CEO. Okay, just since you know, in case you were just tuning in, yes, yes, yes, because that wasn't the last podcast, so it was like yes, so for you guys, it was a week ago. We're sorry. So seventy eight is the next date I have? Do you have anything between seventy yes? I do. UM. Now

we UH. We've talked about in previous podcast gees interest in medical fields actually from from a pretty early time in its corporate history. The company was involved with different medical technologies UM, electronic medical technologies, and we also talked about a super conductive magnet UH that they created. Well, this is where we're starting to get into the heavy duty UM high end high tech scanners. UH. Seventy six is when they created a computed tomography scanner scanner UM.

And this is a time when GEES units have worked together. There's a group at the research and Development center and and also at the Medical Systems division can do cross section X rays in five seconds. UM greatly speeds up medical diagnoses. So that is a pretty and nifty technology. And also UM something else that was sort of curious back, dating back to our first podcast on GE, is when the company chose to acknowledge its hundred the anniversary. It's

centennial and uh in what year seventy six? I thought, I'm sure it was I had Okay, I'm sorry, Well that yeah, I do too. Sorry I had looked down at the wrong thing. But that's um, yeah, it is coming up because, uh, eighteen seventy six is when Thomas Edison opened his laboratory. Um. But the Edison General Electric Company, which is one of the two companies that that went

in to create General Electric, was founded in eighteen ninety. Yeah, eighteen seventy eight was when he founded the Edison Electric Light Company, which I guess is what GE identifies as being the seed that it grew out of. Um. Yeah,

because sorry about my date incorrection. Oh no, no, no, it just made me think that maybe because again, we we look at different Chris and I both do our research independently, so once in a while, especially for something as complex as a corporate history, you can come up

with some conflicts in dates. But in this case, it is, Uh, nineteen seventy eight was when they were saying they were a hundred years old and apparently, I would say it's the Electric Light Company that they're looking at, not the electric company, hey you guys, but the Electric Light company

that that was the basis for their one years. They counted from that point, even though the Edison General Electric Company didn't start until eighteen ninety and the General Electric Company itself didn't that merger didn't happen until what was it like ninety six, eight ninety six, something like that. Um, I was even after that, well after after Yeah. So anyway, you've got this whole uh, it's you've got this whole uh centennial problem here. When do you trace your history back?

And yeah, same thing with IBM, where they have a date that is slightly different than the date when the company was actually incorporated. But yeah, they celebrate their their uh their centennial. This goes all the way back to the days at Menlo Park, New Jersey, which is now called New Jersey. Uh. It's where Thomas Alva Edison had his own research lab. And uh. That year they also introduced a new kind of a couple of new products, including a new type of technology about helping you wake up. Yes,

the first programmable digital clock radio. That's a great way to celebrate a hundred years. It's been blinking twelve since then. Um no, yeah, So that was one of the two products I had for that year, the other one being an over the range microwave oven. Oh well, yeah, the space Maker. But they also came out with the FP one and FP two food processors. What you're really handy if you need to chop up a whole bunch of

veggies in a hurry. Um. Yeah. One of the things that that we've talked about repeatedly on the other two podcasts is GES diversity and its businesses. Now, of course they're all um, revolving around things you can do with energy, um and uh and in ways to add to them. Uh. So you know, you've got your big stuff. You've got dynam mos and and uh nuclear power plants things to

generate electricity. You've got uh jet engines and other transportations stuff that uses energy to get you from place to place. And you've also got small appliances and and other appliances larger appliances that people using their home to take advantage of energy. So there the idea of one of the things that you identified early on was its desire to come up with a whole range of stuff hot range, um, that that people could use to make their lives better.

And um, so we are are are not teasing them about the digital clock, radio or food processors, but you know it just it really does show that the breadth of stuff that they are doing. Um. Also, in seventy eight, they got eight hundred sixty five patents awarded to them in the United States. They were the first organization to get fifty thousand United States patents. That number is gonna go up, by the way. We'll have We'll have more

on that number as we go on. It's pretty crazy when you look at the number of patents that were awarded to GE over its history. Um, the next year I have is eighty one. Do you have anything between seventy eight one? No, I don't and eighty one was sort of talk about crazy. Yeah, yeah, so well you had you had the the the chairman CEO retired. Jones retired and John elf Welch John F. Welch became the new chairman and CEO Jay Jack. Yeah we're in a first name basis being Jack. Yeah, I'm not. Mr Welch

became chairman and CEO. GE developed a method to create fiber optics strands. They would actually create these, uh, these ingots and would pull strands of material from them that would create fiber optic lines. This, this is what I think is crazy. Yeah. Three ft the the uh they courts ingots. We're talking about our three ft long that's about a meter, and they can be stretched into fiber optics strands twenty five miles in length. Yeah, so it

goes from you know, I mean a miles what five feet? Yeah, give or take nothing, nothing, So that's exactly yes. So I mean that's you know, to put it in perspect I was trying to put in respect because I didn't do the metric translation for the but yeah, that's that's a long stretch. So just multiply by one point six. Uh yeah, so yeah, that's that's pretty impressive. Uh. Then

and I've got three. They developed the signa magnetic resonance imaging system, which is also known as the m r I, which X rays are really good for looking at things like bones. Yes, they're looking good at looking at hard tissue, but not so good at looking at soft tissue. You know, it doesn't show up very well on an X ray. So if you're looking for something that could be a problem beyond just something that's affecting hard tissue. An X

ray is not your best choice. The R I which which is a technology that was born out of this UH, this work that General Electric had been doing with magnets for several decades. UH allowed doctors to look at soft tissue in a way that they could not before without doing like exploratory surgery. So this is a non invasive way to get a look at what is going on within a person's body. And UH, and you know, the early m R I s were less sophisticated. It took

a lot longer to take a full image. We've talked about m r s and another episode of tech Stuff, but UM, this was this was really a revolution in the medical imaging field. UM and UH and we we talked about in a previous episode how the two companies that went into creating GE that merged to create g E. We're actually dueling it out for a very large electrical project back before everybody had electric lights in their homes. UM.

The Chicago World straight at the Columbian Exposition. Um, well, they were chosen in in to participate in another major electrical public electrical project they were lighting up a Lady yes yes, um, and this would be Lady Liberty, the Statue of Liberty um given to the United States by the French a long time ago. Well, they were they were redoing the the Statue of Liberty. They were trying to um uh clean it up, renovated, and they redid

the lighting from scratch. As a matter of fact, um a GE person named Gilbert Riling came up with a completely new metal halide lamp specifically for this project. And um the g E Research Labs and and Howard Branston, yeah, came up with the lighting scheme for the statue and its torch. So um they were instrumental in helping redo the lighting for the for the statue. Also, in fifty six years after the United States government told GE that it had to get rid of our c A, g

E took over our ci A again. So they reacquired r c A the Radio Corporation of America UH in nineteen eighty six, and also as part of that deal acquired in BC, so g E once more has has controlling interest in both r C and NBC. Now then g E turns around and sells that interest in our CI A to a partner company called Bertlesman and r c. A. Then changes names it becomes b MG Music. Yes, b is a German publisher. Yeah, and was again partnered with

General Electric. So yes, now you've got BMG Music and NBC. NBC still falling under the guidance of General Electric also would eventually UM become part of a partnership between the Electric and the company Comcast. Uh. This, by the way, forms the basis of many, many, many jokes found in the television series thirty Rock. So in thirty Rock you have Baldwin's character who is a corporate one, Alec Baldwin's character,

and it wasn't Stephen Baldwin. Uh. Alec Baldwin's character is a corporate executive with General Electric UM, and he is put in charge of many things, including some of the programming at NBC, which involves the show that that UM Liz Lemon works on. So he he talks about how he helped introduce some very innovative products and GEES past, including some crazy microwaves and things of that nature, which

again poke fun at gees history with home electronics and appliances. UM. So if you always wondered where those jokes came from, Well, it's because General Electric owns NBC. And then in more recent episodes, they've talked about a cable company called cable Town taking over more and more of the responsibilities of producing the show. Uh. And and Jack Donneghie, the Baldwin character,

has now become executive with cable Town. Huh. That's the whole reference to g and Comcast rending a partnership together and overseeing in BC. So just giving you that background so that you can understand why those jokes are funny, okay. Uh. And in nineteen nine, they actually launched the Consumer News and Business Channel or c NBC CNBC. It's a twenty four hour news channel. It's sort of a competitor to CNN. I was gonna say, they will never make that work.

Um Uh. Simplicity which spelled with a C, which is a computer system that basically tracks how auto automotive bodies are traveling through uh, the manufacturing process, so they know where parts are headed and where everything is going and where it's been. So they have a good idea and that's been adopted by a lot of the automotive industry today. Yeah. It's an administrative software which really helps you know what's going on at any given time during your whole process.

You can look at the supply chain even and say, well, you know, we're gonna need to address this because it's gonna become a problem if we don't take care of it at this point. So it's it's very useful. Again, one of those things about improving efficiency, so not terribly exciting to necessarily a consumer, but it does ultimately affect the consumer because by improving efficiency you can do things like takedown, you know, keep prices low. So it's it

does end up affecting us in the long run. It's just when at first clients you're like, well that's okay, but I don't see what it's important to me. And then ninety two the Mars Observer rolled out. That was the first newspaper on Mars. It was very effective. Um it's we yard because it came out in ninety two and the only comic strip it's running is Marmaduke. Uh No, this was actually because I had m A r in the names satellite that studies Martian geology and climate and

maps the planets. So it's a satellite. It's not actually a newspaper. I enjoyed the joke though. Um. And then in ninety three, the GE Medical Systems in the R and D Center again went in on creating a magnetic resonance therapy system. Also in ninety three, g E sold off the GE Aerospace division to marry at A. Martin, which would later become Blockheed Martin. Yep. So this is another one of those instances where g did divest itself of part of its business, not didn't do so that frequently,

just once in a while. So um, yeah, it's not not one of those habitual let's purchase everything every company we can see and then sell off stuff that doesn't work, that doesn't that's that doesn't tend to be GAS approach. Yeah, but it's not. It also doesn't herald the end of GES involvement in transportation as we's. Um, I'm gonna let you take lead on this because you took much more detailed notes and during this era. Whereas this is the part where I started to uh, sorry to to check

my Facebook status, this is the part that's really exciting. Okay, g E Plastics. First, you can tell I went to g dot com to get my information g Plastics was the first UM part of the company, which made it the first Fortune five hundred company to go online and had its own website, first Fortune company that was not a computer company, right the way, we need to be specific, sonny, how they admitted that party. She didn't have to be

really careful here. Yeah, g was one of the first Fortune companies to have a web presence, that first Fortune five companies that didn't already deals exclusively with either computers or networks. So they were a non computer, non network company that had a website and that was that was kind of a big deal. Now granted, back in really all they had was a looping midi and an under construction gift, but that's not true, but yeah, it was. It was. Of course, it was much more static than

than future websites would be. But in just two more years, GE the company would launch its own website which would become uh kind of a hub for lots and lots and lots of different businesses. Also, they launched another project, which was a one that was in partnership with Microsoft. Yes, MSNBC, which was part of the Microsoft Network and NBC together working on a project of you know, it's UM a different sort of news station UM and is still on

the air today. UM UM and you c T system UM using new technology that allows them to get multiple images at the same time and speeds things up than other single slice scanners. UM. It was that I find this interesting. It was the first design for six Sigma project that made it, which means fewer than three defects per million opportunities. So it was supposedly, I'm going by GES information, so I don't have anything that says otherwise. UM,

very very reliable. Yeah, I mean that is very significant. It's it's uh, you know, we kind of take it for granted that when stuff is put together that's done so flawlessly, but in real life that that just does not happen. There are going to be flaws, and sometimes companies catch them before they go out to market. Sometimes consumers find out about them and then there's a recall or sometimes there's a patch of some sort of it's a software type thing. UM. We've seen that recently in

with UH Apple. Apple had released UH a new iPad in the spring of and the y five versions of the iPad where some consumers were reporting problems with it, and so Apple has essentially had a capture and release program where you bring your iPad in that's having issues and they'll replace it for you. And that that could be anything from a faulty chip to just a faulty process in the manufacturing line. But that stuff happens. So this that is why this is significant, is that you

might just take it for granted that things work. Things don't just work. We have to work to make them work. Yes, And you remember when we were talking earlier on another podcast about the powerful engines, Um, this is what I meant about them not getting out of transportation entirely. The g B, which is a catchy name, UH, was a a jet engine that Boeing requested of them, A hundred fifteen thousand pound thrust engine used for the seven seventy seven two l R and seven seventy seven ER was

the most powerful mercial jet engine. I have one fact in I want to share that I know is not part of the GE timeline that I would like to mention. So in ninety nine, UH, an interesting company, became a subsidiary of g E, a company that also has a very long history Montgomery Ward. Really yes, GE was a major shareholder in Montgomery Ward. You know, we talked about

how GE would invest money in other companies. Yeah, Montgomery Award was a department store and a catalog company and company in the United States, and so there is a Montgomery Ward that still exists today, but it's a different company than the one that I'm talking about here. In ninety nine, what happened was Montgomery Ward, this catalog company and department store, went into Chapter eleven. GE then ended up taking over and it became a subsidiary of g E.

Now it would it would later fold completely. The company would just fold within a year or two. So but I just thought that was interesting. It's one of those things where you know, it's again shows you that g was diversifying by investing in lots of different businesses, not all of which were successful, but just one of those things that I thought was an interesting fact about g and I wanted to mention it before we said goodbye

to and partied like it was well. They also came out with an anatomical mapping technology that gave people their doctors more uh more vision into what where the locations of disease were. And they were they first, according to g E, to introduce full field digital momography in two thousand, Um,

they also started doing a lot of e business. Uh they were making more than two billion in business, and they opened our global research center in Bangalore in India, So they were you know, really opening it up to uh, you know, becoming a real global company where they had other units in in other countries like that. And then in two thousand they had a power plant on wheels. I saw that it was like a truck trailer truck. However, the TM could produce twenty two point eight megatre yeah

mega watts. UM was the largest gas largest mobile gas turbine generator set available and can be shipped via land or sea. It only takes days to set up. However, it could be very useful if you need a portable generator. I mean you think about like disasters. For example, Hurricane Katrina when it hit New Orleans, there were entire huge sections of that region that were without power. So these sort of of advances are very important for those kind of events, and not just those as well, but there

are others. But yeah, for disaster relief, this would be phenomenal. Um. The two thousands, I would say, are are characterized in GS history with a lot of medical advances well, and I should also say before we jump into that two thousand was so the Centennial for Ges Research and Development Division. They had formed that nine. By two thousand, g S R and D Division held or had had been awarded

sixty seven thousand, five hundred eighty eight patents. That is phenomenal. Now, granted, keep in mind, patents really only protect a a process or a technology for a limited amount of times, so not all of those patents were active. It's not like the E could sue you for making another light bulb because that patent has expired decades ago. Patents tend to last either fourteen or seventeen years, depending on the type of patent. But anyway, I just wanted to mention that.

And also in two thousand one we had another change. In fact, the Welch leaves in two thousand one and Jeffrey R. Emilt becomes chairman and CEO of g E. He's the current head. Yes, you're just staring at me smugly. Yes, I just happened to have been affected by that change, were you. Yes, what happened? Well? And my my previous employer, Yes, I worked for the Home Depot on their website, I worked there during the years that Robert Nardelli um was the CEO of the company. Nardelli and Emilts were in

competition for Welch's job. So I just sort of smirked because go and see this stuff touched me and I you know, you wouldn't have thought it would. Two thousand one also marked an effort with GE trying to merge with another company, a company they had a history with, a little company called Honeywell. I s so Honeywell, you know that was the company they sold their computer division

two back in nineteen seventy one, I think. So they tried to merge with Honeywell, and they were even approved by the United States Department of Justice and eleven other entities, but they encountered a tiny little problem at the European Union. Really yeah, they said that this is violating some antitrust laws, and so the merger was blocked. So it was one of those major events that really kind of opened everyone's

eyes to we are a global entity. Now. It's no longer companies with working within the confines of a single country, because now you're talking about how, uh, almost all the world can approve of something, and one part of the world can say no, No, that violates this law and that will block it. The merger is up and it's blocked. Yeah. I mean it was a big deal because it looked like it was going to go through until the European Union came in and said no, we won't allow this

to happen. And uh, I mean that's a was a multibillion dollar deal that fell through. Yeah, that's amazingly huge. Uh. One. One thing, Um, there were several different imaging systems and other things that were introduced, and you know, touch on a few of those because there are tons of them

in the two thousands. Yes, um, But they did one of the things that I thought was interesting in two thousand before we get too far ahead, was they g developed the first diagnostic agent for objectively identifying Parkinson's um called dat scan, which basically is a liquid that they used to show the contrast between healthy and affected parts of the brain. So they weren't just developing the systems, they were also developing the agents that help those systems

work made it more effective. Also, before we leave two thousand one, I find it kind of funny because uh, after all this GEH invents a new kind of incandescent lightbulb the reveal, which if you look at them, they're kind of blue bluish color if you live in a

country where they still sell incandescent lightbulbs as we do. Um. And they also changed the way that compact fluorescent lights, or as we call them in my house, curly bulbs, um are because they redesigned the geometry the way that the tube itself is shaped, so that it would be more compact and fit in places where a traditional uh, incandescent bulb would fit, which is helpful for those of us who have like fixtures that were made for incandescent bulbs,

but we don't want to replace the entire lighting system, right. UM. And that's you know, again useful because it helps speed the adoption of that technology, which is a more energy efficient technology. Um. They were in space again working on the International Space Station in two thousand two. Um. They also, Uh, did you talk about the four D imaging that the ge vlissann thirty? Yeah, No I didn't. It's kind of neat, Yeah,

they talked. So in two thousand two they introduced this this technology mainly for ultrasounds, which allowed physicians to actually view three D images and an ultrasound live what was happening. So it was rendering live three D images, which is a big deal and it helps a lot when you're trying to to diagnose potential problems or just look at the general health of of a of a patient. So yeah,

that was I thought that was pretty cool. I also thought it was neat in two thousand three how they introduce something that is just now starting to really get a little more traction, which is this idea of having appliances that talk to each other. Yes, the profile harmony closed care system, which you know is marketing jargon, um but yeah, basically, it's a washer and dryer that that talked to one another theoretically to um enable better care

of your clothes. So, for example, if you set your washer to wash things that are designed for permanent press, it would communicate that to the dryer so that the settings would already be there when you transfer the the items from washer to dryer, so that it uses the right amount of temperature and the right duration to get your your clothes dry without damaging them. That's the idea

behind it. Now today we're talking about appliances that have even greater ability to uh send information back and forth between each other and try and personalize your experience to a higher degree. But it was this sort of stuff back in two thousand three. That's kind of the building

the foundation for that. Actually, it's funny you would mention degrees because I was going to mention the TI vecton uh G E profile ovens that combine thermal convection and microwave technology is not if I'm not mistaken, and I didn't watch a lot of thirty Rock, but I think this is one of the specific technologies that he was supposed to have come up with. And UH, I think it also could transform into a dangerous robot that could reek havoc across the city. Well, it is supposed to

speed up your cooking time. UM, let's see. UH. Two thousand three, they came up with the H system, which is the first the jet combined cycle system that UH and the first that can do better than six efficiency UM. And UM the very wise, very wise trucking system using satellite and cellular telematics to track trucks. But sort of like the UH the technology that we're using in the warehouses,

a simplicity from earlier. Yeah, they once they found systems that work, they began to look at ways to apply that across other industries, which you know, that's that's a viable approach. So yeah, again another one those ways of

looking at supply chains. Well, the Centricity was a medical systems release that they worked into the Indiana Heart Hospital, and it was a way to uh use digital patient records data and medical images and basically anybody who was in the hospital, you know, the on the random people could come in and look no doctors and and medical personnel at the hospital could check from wherever they were and see how a patient was doing. Um. So I

mean it's those things are all very similar. Yep. Uh. Skipping ahead a little bit to two thousand four, Uh, they developed a couple of interesting technologies. There was one called street Lab, which was you know, a sort of a portable a portable lab that could uh analyze and identify materials like powders, pills, liquids. So this is sort of the stuff that law enforcement or military officials would

need in order to to identify potentially hazardous or illegal materials. Uh. They also demonstrated that oh, lead technology could be used in lighting applications, which you know that's again you know We're talked about a few times about how they have, UM, how the company has has pushed lighting technology, UH, going beyond just the incandescent bolved which formed the very foundation

of g S business way back in the day. Uh, they've looked at fluorescence and L E ED and O L e D technology as as ways to light areas in your home. Yeah. In two thousand four, UM, they found a new uh application for that plastic that the company invented on accident. Lexan UM the illuminates films, basically something that would interest tech stuff fans. Um. They used them films like this in uh L L c D screens UM to give them a more evenly lit surface.

So UM, you know they used the hard plastic as a very thin film, uh, basically in the guts of the screen to do that. And then I didn't mention that. In two thousand again Lexan shows up SLX. They use a color infused plastic that they were using on car. So they're they're finding new ways to use this plastic and very thin sheets. Uh. They can be used for these different different applications. UM. Let's see, UM go ahead. I was gonna say g Healthcare again with the high

deaf magnetic resonance systems. This is two five. This is where they were able to increase the resolution on those m r I scans so that doctors could get an even better look at what's going on in that soft tissue. Yeah, and and and apparently according to g E, this is very useful for kids and people with Parkinson's disease because, UM, this particular type of machine, this high definition machine is

better at capturing people who can't hold still. If you've never had an m r I done, Um, you're supposed to be perfectly still for quite a whi while it depends on what they're doing, but it generally it could be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. And you hear this loud knocking noise or a buzzing as I did they do give you the warning? People, they gave you headphones, right, they gave me headphones, but

I could hear through them. Um. So yeah, so this is this is a benefit for for doctors because they don't need you to be quite so still. Um. They were in lighting again two thousand seven. They came out with a vo Or vo v I O high power white led and this is UM this is moving towards using these for UH lighting in buildings. Um. They used a proprietary technology to do UH to do a hundred kelvin color shift less than a hundred kelvin's over fifty

thousand hours. That's a big step up from Edison's bamboo filament light bulb of you know, a few hundred hours. That same year they created the cylinder gas engine. They also created did you see the hybrid locomotive. Yes, that's actually pretty cool. Well, it uses a regenerative breaking process and so you know they use this in cars to when they're breaking, the train is storing up energy that it can be used to power the locomotive, and it cuts fuel use by up yeah, and emissions up to

So that's that's significant. You know. It may not be as dramatic as one would hope, but that's every little bit helps well. And and trains are used so much still around the world. Yes, I should try to all about that. My house is right across from some train tracks, so I get to hear it every day. I can't tell what animally made these those are train tracks. Um, let's see, Oh yeah they were. Um well, I was gonna say in uh uh not to jump too far ahead.

Two thousand eight Virgin Atlantic with Richard Branson. One of their jet engines used biofuel from a jaunt over in UH in Europe from Heathrow in in London to Amsterdam. They used coconut and barbassos oil. H And that's just one of those engines. They they wanted to try it out so and it worked. And that same year they labs at GE created a super hydrophobic nanocoating. So hydrophobic means that it repels water. It does not. It does not like hydrophilic would mean it clings the water. Hydrophobic

means it repels. So why would you want a hydrophobic coating, Well, it could be really useful for a coating on things like jet engines. When you're traveling at altitudes where normally ice could form on different components. If you have a hydrophobic coating on top of your equipment, then it helps

prevent that ice formation. Very important, yes, yes, especially for things like jet engines, and also keeps UH dirt build up to a minimum as well, because if it has less moisture than that, you know, the moisture will cause the dirt clump what's irritating is when you try and wash the vehicle, the sponge soaked with water will just jump literally out of your hand and fly fifteen feet across the tarmac. So in two thousand eight printed they they've managed to come up with a way to print Yeah,

this is a lead sheets mainly for lighting. Uh. They're not printing display in the sense of like, you know, I need a seventeen inch display, let me print one up. It's more like printing up these old leads that are meant to just be lights. But yeah, they were using technology that was essentially based on newspaper printing tech, which

is kind of cool. They just, you know, took this this old technology for printing newspapers and found a way to retool it so that they could print sheets of oh lads, Yes, which is nice considering the state of the printing industry. Hopefully some of those can be repurposed. Speaking as a former newspaper reporter, Um, they and two thou found that for the Mars Observer, Yes, it was explains a lot. Um two thousand nine, they found a way to save five gigabytes on a single DVD sized disc. Yeah,

if you want to know how significant. That is, if you were to have a dual side of DVD with four layers of storage, you can hold maybe around seventeen gigs of info. So using the same sized, uh medium, keep in mind this is a DVD sized disc, it's not a DVD itself. Using this holographic storage, you could store five hundred gigs of data. Now you know that is has a huge improvement. Of course, we are moving towards a solid state kind of approach where optical media

are less important for most of us. Uh So, in a way, holographic storage may not become a big deal, but still pretty impressive. Yeah, yeah, um. They also came up with smaller ultrasound devices. There's one that's uh the Venue forty, which is sort of a tablet size, and there's another called v scan, which is pocket size. And

this is this is good for for two reasons. I mean, you would imagine that it would be nice to be able to carry this around without having a wheel around a cart, uh as as I've seen in some places. I imagine it would also be very useful in places where medical equipment is more dear, places where uh it might be hard to get medical equipment of that nature in or out UM. So having these portable devices UM would be easier for doctors to come in to an

isolated area and help diagnose and treat patients. Yeah, they are. They were. Also they started to to work on or continue to actually to work on creating ways to sequence d N a faster UM to make that on the whole DNA sequencing. Of course, we've we figured out how to do it. It's just a question of creating the getting it more efficient and more so we can do it more quickly. But also they developed some interesting wearable sensors I like them designed to test the air for toxins.

So this would be something that you could put on a uniform or other piece of clothing to help indicate when things are going bad, you need to get the heck out of that area. Yeah, it would be like more insensitive than a canary. Yes, you could wear it on a badge on your your uniform or or your coveralls or whatever it is. And if you were an environment where they were toxins, president it would change color or or give you some other sort of notice to

let you know that it's time to go. UM energy smart led bulbs can't end UM so this is this is really impressive. These smart LED bulbs that g has created are more efficient than incandescent bulbs. They use other words, they use seventy seven percent less energy uh, and they can last up to twenty two years under normal use conditions. So think about that, you buy these light bulbs for your house and you don't have to replace them for twenty two years. I want me some of these. Yeah,

they're kind of expensive at this time. However, I imagine that you if you amortize that cost over twenty two years, it probably evens out somewhat. And you also have to think if these are LED bulbs, they have distinct advantages over fluorescent bulbs. Fluorescent bulb is one of the big disadvantages is that there are some very there's some very toxic materials inside fluorescent bulbs. Y. Yeah, if you if you if you were to break one, uh, then you

could potentially expose yourself to very dangerous toxic materials. So led bulbs they don't have that same problem. So there's that advantage as well. So you're like, well, it's more efficient, I don't have to buy them as frequently, and it's not gonna kill me if I break one, Yeah, I might kill my wallet where I think, Oh, I spent so much money on that bulb and I just broke it. But it's not gonna it's not gonna poison you. I'm

feeling like I have to make this joke. So thank you Gee for saving us front by inventing this, uh this product that say so much better than the old product invented by g Yeah. Um, anyway, you brought a good thing to life. Um. Yeah. They also are working on other ways to save energy, such as, uh the Watt station, which is advice for charging electric vehicles on home or at the or on the road. Not on the road, but yeah, I mean they could be uh

stationed delta stationed elsewhere than your house. Um. And uh they've been working on ways to network um smart meters and give you an idea of how much energy you're using. Yeah. They have a Nucleus Energy Manager which has these these little they look like adapters almost for a plug, and then you plug your appliance into that and you plug that into the wall and it helps communicate with the smart meter how much energy each appliance is drawing when

it's drawing it. It's really an idea that lets you ultimately micromanage what your appliances are doing when and and trying to make it as efficient and cost effective system as possible, so that way you're not just spending money keeping something active when it doesn't need to be. And um, that gets us within the last couple of years. Um. But it really shows how amazing, what an amazing, amazing

hundred slightly more years it's been for this company. I mean they really came around at the time when electricity was becoming a household uh necessity. I mean they kind of made it a necessity because all of a sudden gone from uh, hey, wouldn't it be cool if we

had electric lighting in our house too? You know, they've they've made all these products that make our lives uh so much easier and we've grown accustomed to and uh in some cases need especially with a medical talking about medical equipment, where it's made such a difference in our lives. And I can't imagine that that Thompson and and Edison and Houston looking back on it, at the advancements their

company has made in that time. I mean going from Edison's days of you know, a few hundred hours to a bulb that will last twenty two years under normal conditions. Um, it's it's it's just phenomenal. Really, yeah, it really is, it really is. And you know, we're continuing to see innovations from g E H. I'm sure the company will will push for being a leader in things like energy efficiency, uh, in lighting and that sort of stuff. I would be shocked to see them. I see what you did to

get away from that. Um. So yeah, it's this is a definitely an interesting company with a very interesting past. Uh. And you know it's it'll be I'm excited to see what happens in the future with it, especially uh, knowing how they do spend so much money and time in in research pure research that it's always a benefit. I mean, of course, I love to learn and I love finding out new things. So it's always cool when I see

a company that's dedicated to that sort of stuff. Again, even if it's not truly altruistic, Uh, it ends up benefiting us in ways that no one could have anticipated. So I'm all for it. Yeah, And it's it's always fun for us to dig into these companies and their pasts too, I think because we find out things about the company that we didn't know before come and products and services they are involved in or were involved in.

Looking at IBM and some of the companies that I that they rolled off and became huge in their own right. This this is just one of those fascinating things that we discover. We dig into these, and I've enjoyed doing these. Yes so I So, if you guys have a company you think that we should focus on, let us know. Or if there's any other topic you would like us to cover, or in a particular person you would like us to interview, give us a shout, but don't actually

just shout it, because chances are we won't hear you. Instead, why don't you send us an email Our addresses tech stuff at Discovery dot com or track us down on Facebook or Twitter. Our handle at both of those is tech Stuff hs W and Chris and I will talk to you again really soon. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities us tomorrow The House Stuff Works I fine

app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you by the rein into two thousand twelve camera, it's ready. Are you