Company
ReorganizedGeneral Electric
Schenectady, then Boston · Since 1892
The conglomerate was divided in 2023 and 2024. GE Aerospace continues the corporation. Health care and energy are separate companies.
Edison's lamp and power companies, and the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, merged in 1892 to form General Electric. J. P. Morgan organized the combination. The point was to stop a patent war and build a national electrical industry under one roof.
GE made turbines, locomotives, appliances, jet engines, and the credit company that financed them. For much of the twentieth century it was the example business schools taught when they taught management. The example aged badly, which is part of the history.
The electrical trades
Schenectady and Lynn employed machinists, coil winders, and test engineers. The research laboratory in Schenectady, opened in 1900 under Willis Whitney, was among the first industrial labs in the United States. Designing a turbine and winding it were different jobs, and GE employed both for a century. Appliances added a different workforce, seasonal and closer to a consumer brand. The company was several factories that shared a balance sheet.
The split
Jack Welch, chief executive from 1981 to 2001, turned GE toward finance. GE Capital became a large part of the profit and, in 2008, a large part of the risk. The conglomerate was then taken apart. GE HealthCare was spun off in 2023. GE Vernova, the energy business, followed in 2024. The continuing corporation is GE Aerospace. A person can still work for a company called GE. They cannot work for the firm that used to make the toaster and the locomotive and the sitcom.
The work it organized
- Coil winder
- Turbine machinist
- Test engineer
- Lab scientist
On the timeline
Related
- WestinghouseReorganized