GEC played a significant role in this project by supplying electrical equipment to the Central Electricity Board. During the 1920s work started on Britain ’s National Grid, a network of power-generation stations built to meet the growing industrial and residential demand for electric power. Thompson, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.īy 1920, electric lighting was universally accepted and the demand for electrical appliances was beginning to grow as new uses for electricity were being discovered constantly. The major change at GEC to come out of the war experience was the establishment in 1919 of a separate research center, headed by Sir J. By the end of the war, more than 90% of GEC ’s business was for the military and its work force had swollen to over 15,000. It was also during this period that GEC introduced its first metal-filament light bulb.ĭuring World War I GEC ’s consumer items took a back seat as the company concentrated on war production -carbon filaments for arc lamps, wireless radios, signaling lamps, motors, and wiring. Called the Peel-Conner Telephone Works, its first big job was the Central Telephone Exchange for the city of Glasgow. GEC ’s business in telephones and telephone equipment was so great that in 1910 a subsidiary operation devoted exclusively to this technology was created. The company provided the Portsmouth Dockyard and London subway system with over 300 electric motors each.Īlong with this expansion of industrial electrical needs was a growth in the demand for telephone systems. The company set up agencies throughout Europe and in Japan, Australia, South Africa, and India, and exported heavily to South America -an additional factory had to be built in order to accommodate the export-stimulated increase in production.īetween 19 the number of factories using electricity in Britain doubled, and GEC was well positioned to take advantage of this tremendous increase in demand. GEC embarked on international expansion at the turn of the century. This first contract was for the Fulham Power Station and included the provision of arc lamps for surrounding streets. Three years later the company won its first contract for a power-generating station, putting GEC in an enviable position as a provider to both consumers and producers of electricity. GEC installed its first commercial alternating-current (AC) motor in 1896 at a grain warehouse in Liverpool. GEC catalogs began to include instructions for customers wanting to wire and equip their own homes for electricity.Īpplications of the new technology abounded in industry. Light bulbs were added to the product line in 1893. One of GEC ’s first successes in developing new electrification technology was the use of china as an insulating material in switches. His ambition was to become a manufacturer of electric products, and so within three years of the founding of their company Hirst and Byng opened a factory in Manchester.įrom the start GEC manufactured devices for both consumer and industrial customers: telephones, electrically activated bells, ceiling roses, switches, and fittings. (The lighting system in the House of Commons had been electrified in the early 1880s and the electrification of several other prominent London buildings soon followed.) Hirst had had experience with several other applications of electrical power -he had driven an electrically powered boat on the River Thames, ridden on an electric cycle, and even developed an electric-powered dog cart for an Indian rajah. However, both men were so enamored of electricity ’s potential that they yearned to expand its applications beyond its early use as an alternative to gas illumination. GEC ’s first catalog was issued that year and became a guide to popular uses of electricity. They originally acted as wholesalers of electrical products made by other companies. GEC was formed in 1886, when two enterprising young men, Hugo Hirst and Gustav Byng, teamed up in London to form a company. GEC ’s stature today as an industrial giant is due in large part to that ability to both create and supply a tremendous demand for electricity over the past 100 years. In fact, both were central to electrification programs and were ideally placed to supply the consumer electrical appliances that increased demand for their machines for generating electricity. Both companies, however, have played similar roles in the development of their respective countries ’ electrical production and consumption. The General Electric Company, PLC (GEC) is entirely separate from the General Electric Company in the United States, although the companies do share several European joint ventures. Stock Index: London Glasgow Birmingham Manchester Incorporated: 1900 as General Electric Co.
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