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October 1953 QST
 Table of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
QST, published December 1915 - present (visit ARRL
for info). All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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By 1953, General Electric had already
been in business for 75 years, according to this full-page advertisement that ran
in the American Radio Relay League's (ARRL) QST magazine. It highlights
a few key electronics-related accomplishments by the company since Thomas Edison
in 1883 built the first electronic tube as the result of a discovery that came to
be termed the "Edison effect." Interestingly, the terminology "a founder of G.E."
is used to describe Edison. Upon researching the company's origin, I found this
on Wikipedia: "In 1889, Drexel, Morgan & Co., a company founded by J.P. Morgan
and Anthony J. Drexel, financed Edison's research and helped merge those companies
under one corporation to form
Edison General
Electric Company, which was incorporated in New York on April 24, 1889."
75 Years Old This Month, General Electric Has Written Tube History
With a Long Series of "Firsts"!
 1883 - First electronic tube was built by
Thomas A. Edison, a founder of G. E., in connection with his discovery of what was
termed the "Edison effect."
1913 - High-vacuum, high-voltage tube was developed, and work was begun on thoriated
filaments.
1915 - G-E tube research, toward modulating h-f for radio voice transmission,
resulted in the design and construction of a successful phone transmitter operated
from a-c.
1918 - Quantity tube production. Over 100,000 radio vacuum rubes were built by
G. E. for the U. S. Army and Navy.
1923 - Superheterodyne circuit was announced. This remains the basis of modern
radio reception.
1925 - First special-purpose tube for loudspeaker operation was developed by
G. E. (Type UX-120). Glow tubes were introduced for voltage regulation, and rectifier
tubes made for radio receivers.
1927 - Screen-grid tube, for r-f amplification.
1942 - Lighthouse tube, for radar and u-h-f communications.
1951 - Ceramic u-h-f power-amplifier tubes were introduced commercially.
* * *
These and many other primary G-E developments - continued over the long history
of ham radio - have helped build a unity of interests with amateurs. G. E. gratefully
acknowledges the debt which the electronic industry owes to forward-thinking amateurs,
and invites them to share in the dedication of G.E.'s 75th birthday to the promise
of still greater progress to come.
Posted November 6, 2022
(updated from original post
on 11/2/2016)
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