c1925. GECoPhone Crystal Radio set and Headphones. Exhibit at the Stephenson Railway Museum.
Late 1930s. GEC Valve Radio. Exhibit at the Stephenson Railway Museum.
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
Exhibit at the Museu de Electricidade, Madeira
The General Electric Co
of Magnet House, Kingsway, London, WC2. Telephone: Temple Bar 8000. Telegraphic Address: "Electricity, Westcent, London". (1937)
- Manufacturers and suppliers in Great Britain.
- 1880 G. Binswanger and Company, an electrical goods wholesaler established in London, by Gustav Byng.
- 1886 Name changed to the 'General Electric Company. Byng was joined by another German immigrant, Hugo Hirst, (later Lord Hirst) the "Father of GEC".
- 1887 The company produced the first electrical catalogue of its kind.
- 1888 The firm acquired its first factory in Manchester, for the manufacture of telephones, electric bells, ceiling roses and switches.
- 1889 The General Electric Co Ltd was formed as a private limited company, also known as GEC, with its head office in Queen Victoria Street, London.
- 1893 The company developed the use of china as an insulating material in switches and manufactured light bulbs from 1893.
- 1896 The company established works in Great Hampton Street and later at Sherlock Street, Birmingham.
- 1900 Public company. GEC was incorporated as a public limited company, The General Electric Company (1900) Ltd. with Gustav Byng as Chairman and Hugo Hirst as deputy. Acquired the site at Witton to make electric machinery. The company was registered on 27 September, to take over the business of a company of similar title. [1]
- 1902 Opened the works covering 45 acres.
- 1903 Name changed. It was styled The General Electric Co Ltd.
- Rapidly growing private and commercial use of electricity, especially in lamps and lighting equipment, ensured buoyant demand and the company expanded both at home and overseas with the establishment of branches in Europe, Japan, Australia, South Africa and India and substantial export trade to South America.
- 1906 Hugo Hirst became Managing Director.
- 1908 Announcement of reduction in price of Osram electric lamp; manufactured by Wolfram (Tungsten) Lamps Ltd; GEC had sole selling rights in U.K. and Colonies[2].
- 1909 Acquired Kramer and transferred the business to Witton and named the business Witton Kramer Tool and Hoist Co.
- 1910 Gustav Byng died and Hugo Hirst became Chairman until his death in 1943.
- 1914 Suppliers of electrical requisites of every description, undertakes the completion of central station equipment. Employees 8,000. [3]
- WW1 During World War I the Company was heavily involved in the war effort with products such as radios, signalling lamps and arc lamp carbons.
- 1919 GEC established Britain's first separate industrial research laboratories at Wembley.
- 1921? GEC moved its head office to new premises in Kingsway, London.
- From the 1920s the Company was involved in the creation of the National Grid.
- During 1920, Hugo Hirst gave a series of lectures to the GEC Debating Society, of which he was Chairman at that time. During these talks he described the events that took place during the five years leading up to the formation of the General Electric Company in 1886, through to the year 1900.
- 1920 Description of the machine shop at the Witton Works in The Engineer. [4]
- 1922 The Osram GEC Lamp works at Hammersmith employed 2100 people; GEC and associated companies had more than 20,000 employees[5].
- Post war purchase of one or two small companies such as the Fraser and Chalmers Turbine Co, it was able to attack at very low prices the markets in heavy types of plant.
- 1927 See Aberconway for information on the company and its history. Associated firms included: Pirelli-General Cable Works, the Osram Lamp Works, Chamberlain and Hookham, Express Lift Co, M-0. Valve Co, and Electricity Supply Companies at Frinton and Macclesfield.
- 1928 Purchased a factory in Landor Street, Birmingham that had previously been the Midland Railway and Carriage Co.
- 1937 Opened the mercury arc rectifier works in Deykins Street, Birmingham.
- 1937 British Industries Fair Advert for 'The Largest British Electrical Organisation in the Empire'. Products: Radio Receiving Apparatus of every description; Moulding; Instruments; Cooking Equipment; Electric Motors, etc; Osram Lamps; Osira street lighting Lamps; Lifts; Transmission Wires and Cables; Fraser and Chalmers Turbines; Plant, etc., etc. (Electricity: Industrial and Domestic Section - Stand Nos. Cb.617 and Cb.514) [6]
- 1937 Manufacturers and suppliers of everything electrical. "Osira" Electric Discharge Lamps. "Osram" Electric Lamps and Wireless Valves.
- 1937 Manufacturers and suppliers of everything electrical. "G.E.C." Batteries and Accumulators. "Osira" Electric Discharge Lamps. "Osram" Electric Lamps and Wireless Valves. "Pirelli-General" Wires, Cables and Flexibles. [7]
- 1939 See Aircraft Industry Suppliers
- WW2 During World War II, GEC was a major supplier to the military of electrical and engineering products. Significant contributions to the war effort included the development of the cavity magnetron for radar, with advances in communications and the mass production of electric lighting.
- 1951 Advert on this page for Cooker. [8]
- 1953 Manufacturer of TV sets [9]
- 1959 After discussions between GEC-Simon Carves Ltd, Atomic Power Group and Atomic Power Constructions Ltd agreed to collaborate on the design and construction of nuclear power stations. The two groups would submit joint tenders for the Dungeness power station[10].
- 1961 GEC took over Radio and Allied Industries (RAI), and with it emerged the new power behind the company. Michael Sobell and his son-in-law Arnold Weinstock became directors and major shareholders.
- 1961 Manufacturers of electricity generating plant, electric motors, switchgear, transformers, rectifiers, traction and ship propulsion equipment, complete nuclear power plant, mining and materials handling plant. Electric furnaces, electric tools, lifting magnets, hoists and cranes. Plastic mouldings, conduit, steel fabrication, electrical porcelain, high temperature furnace elements, and foundry strainer cores. Passenger lifts, good lifts, escalators, industrial and domestic fans. Printing machinery, domestic and industrial glassware. X-ray equipment, neon signs and associated equipment. Agricultural, horticultural and dairy equipment. Domestic and industrial refrigerators, cookers and ovens, airline and railway catering equipment. Industrial domestic heaters, electric kettles, irons, washing machines and other domestic equipment. Lamps of all types, fluorescent tubes, electric light fittings and accessories, switches and plugs. [11]
- 1963 Arnold Weinstock, who took over as Managing Director, moving the headquarters of the electrical giant from Kingsway to Stanhope Gate. Weinstock embarked on a program that was to rationalize the whole British electrical industry, but began with the rejuvenation of GEC. In a drive for efficiency, Weinstock made cutbacks and mergers, injecting new growth and confidence in GEC - reflected in the profits and financial markets.
- 1967 The electrical industry was revolutionised as GEC acquired Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), which encompassed Metropolitan-Vickers, BTH, Edison Swan, Siemens Brothers and Co, Hotpoint and W. T. Henley.
- 1968 GEC merged with the English Electric Co, incorporating Elliott Brothers, the Marconi Co, Ruston and Hornsby, Stephenson, Hawthorn and Vulcan Foundry, Willans and Robinson and Dick, Kerr and Co. The background was the rationalisation of the UK heavy electrical industry. The desire of the Central Electricity Generating Board, the principle buyer, was to have only two principal manufacturers for turbo-alternators, the main elements in power stations. A merger of the English Electric Co and GEC-AEI would give "The General Electric and English Electric Companies Limited" almost exactly half of the turbo-generator business. On 6th September the two companies issued a joint statement announcing that ‘a total merger should be effected between them ... under the chairmanship of Lord Nelson with Arnold Weinstock as managing director’.
- 1974 Acquired Yarrow Shipbuilders.
- 1979 Acquired W. and T. Avery.
- 1980s The late 1980s witnessed further mergers within the electrical industry, with the creation of GPT by GEC and the Plessey Co in 1988, and the joint acquisition of Plessey by GEC and Siemens the following year. An equal investment by GEC and Compagnie General D'Electricitie (CGE) formed the power generation and transport arm, GEC ALSTHOM, in 1989.
- The movements towards electronics and modern technology, particularly in the defense sector, showed a marked digression from the domestic market for electrical goods.
- 1990 GEC acquired parts of Ferranti.
- 1995 Acquired Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering. (VSEL).
- 1996 Lord Weinstock retired to become Chairman Emeritus after 33 years at the helm of GEC, having become the undisputed leader of the British Electrical Industry.
- George Simpson, took over as Managing Director of GEC, and with him came a wave of new corporate management. A major reorganisation was aimed at focusing on profitable businesses in which GEC had strong competitive positions. This involved the sale of Express Lifts, Satchwell Controls, A. B. Dick, the Wire and Cables Group, Marconi Instruments and GEC Plessey Semiconductors, reducing the proportion of the Group that was operated under joint venture management, and increased investment in R&D and acquisitions.
- January 1999 saw the announcement of a proposed demerger of GEC's Marconi Electronics Systems business, and its merger with British Aerospace. Marconi completed this transaction on 29 November 1999, driving Marconi’s new focus on communications and IT.
See Also
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Sources of Information
- Birmingham’s Industrial Heritage by Ray Shill. Published by Sutton Publishing 2002. ISBN 0-7509-2593-0
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ The Times, 25 November 1908
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ The Engineer of 28th May 1920 p558
- ↑ The Times, 17 February 1922
- ↑ 1937 British Industries Fair Advert p574; and p367
- ↑ 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- ↑ [1] History World
- ↑ Choosing your Television Set. Published by Freelance in 1953.
- ↑ The Times, 25 September 1959
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE