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Institutional History
AbstractImportant DatesPlacesSubjectsRelationships
PeopleInstitutionsResources
Archival as AuthorArchival as SubjectPublished as AuthorPublished as SubjectGeneral Electric Company. Research Laboratory
Dates
1900 – 1965
Authorized Form of Name
General Electric Company. Research Laboratory
Additional Forms of Names
General Electric Company. Research Laboratory
Institutional History
Abstract
General Electric Company's Research Laboratory was founded in 1900 before being renamed the General Electric Research and Development Center in August 1965 when the Research Laboratory and Advanced Technology Laboratory were merged. Corporate interests include: broadcasting; electric components; household appliances; lighting equipment; motors; telecommunications; electromedical industry.
Important Dates
1900Laboratory was founded, Schenectady (N.Y.).
1905William Coolidge was on staff.
1909 – 1950Irving Langmuir was on staff.
1913Vannevar Bush was on staff.
1914 – 1965Albert Hull was on staff.
1916 – 1918Jesse DuMond was on staff.
1917Louis Slichter was on staff.
1925 – 1926Harold Edgerton was on staff.
1930 – 1965C. Guy Suits was on staff.
1937 – 1939Frederick Seitz was on staff.
1941 – unknownLeroy Apker was on staff.
1948 – 1950Martin Perl was on staff.
1951 – 1965Roland Schmitt was on staff.
1951 – 1965Charles Bean was on staff.
1952 – 1965George Watkins was on staff.
1953 – 1965Gert Ehrlich was on staff.
1954 – 1964John Cahn was on staff.
1956 – 1961Maurice Webb was on staff.
1956 – 1965Ivar Giaever was on staff.
1960 – 1965P. Buford Price was on staff.
1963 – 1965Charles Duke was on staff.
1964 – 1965Gerald Mahan was on staff.
August 1965General Electric Company's Advanced Technology Laboratory and Research Laboratory were merged to create the Research and Development Center.
Places
Headquarters
Subjects
Physics -- Industrial applications.
Physics -- Industrial applications.
Relationships
People
Employees & Officers
Physicist.
Researcher.
Engineer, Testing Department.
Research Associate, Metallurgy and Ceramics Department.
Coolidge, William David, 1873-1975
Physico-Chemist; Assistant Director; Associate Director; Director; Vice President and Director of Research; Consultant on X-Rays; and Emeritus Director.
Physicist.
DuMond, Jesse W. M. (Jesse William Monroe), 1892-1976
Staff Member, Testing Department and Consultant, Engineering Department.
Edgerton, Harold Eugene, 1903-1990
Member, Test Laboratory.
Researcher, Metallurgical Research Department.
Applied Mathematician and Researcher.
Hull, Albert Wallace, 1880-1966
Physicist; Assistant Director; and Consultant.
Kerst, Donald William, 1911-1993
Physicist.
Researcher and Associate Director.
Physicist.
Chemical Engineer.
Physicist.
Research Associate in Physics and Manager, Materials Studies Section.
Research Physicist.
Slichter, Louis B. (Louis Byrne), 1896-1978
Assistant Test Engineer.
Suits, C. Guy (Chauncey Guy), 1905-1991
Research Physicist; Assistant to the Director of Research; and Vice President and Director of Research.
Von Kármán, Theodore, 1881-1963
Consultant.
Research Scientist.
Webb, M. B. (Maurice Barnett), 1926-
Researcher.
Zimm, Bruno Hasbrouck, 1920-2005
Research associate.
Associates & Members
Abbot, C. G. (Charles Greeley), 1872-1973
Alexanderson, Ernst Fredrik Werner, 1878-1975
Alpher, Ralph, 1921-2007
Anderson, John M., 1924-2007
Becker, Howard I., 1895-1978
BenDaniel, David J.
Bennett, Ralph D.
Berg, Ernst Julius
Blewett, John P. (John Paul), 1910-
Broughton, William Gundry
Cobine, James Dillon, 1905-
Cohen, Karl
Consultant.
Compton, Arthur Holly, 1892-1962
Crane, H. R. (Horace Richard), 1907-2007
Davey, Wheeler P. (Wheeler Pedlar), 1886-
Duffendack, Ora S. (Ora Stanley), 1890-
Ewald, Paul Peter, 1888-1985
Falconer, Raymond
Fessenden, Reginald Aubrey
Feynman, Richard P. (Richard Phillips), 1918-1988
Fong, Kouan
Frank, Charles, Sir
Goldman, Stanford
Green, Cecil Howard, 1900-2003
Grisdale, Richard Orvis, 1908-
Grover, Frederick W. (Frederick Warren), 1876-1973
Hall, John S. (John Scoville), 1908-1991
Harrison, Walter A. (Walter Ashley), 1930-
Hayner, Lucy Julia, 1898-1971
Hewlett, Clarence Wilson, 1886-1976
Holonyak, Nick, 1928-
Johnson, Vivian A. (Vivian Annabelle), 1912-
Keenan, Joseph Henry, 1900-
Kron, Gabriel, 1901-1968
Luckiesh, Matthew, 1883-1967
Manley, John Henry, 1907-
Morgan, Stanley Owen, 1900-
Mott-Smith, Harold Meade, 1897-
Navias, Louis, 1897-
Nolte, Henry J.
Nordlander, Birger W.
Norton, Francis J., 1899-1994
Paine, Thomas O., 1921-1992
Ramo, Simon
Rowland, Henry Augustus, 1848-1901
Ruder, William Ernst
Schaefer, Vincent J.
Steinmetz, Charles Proteus, 1865-1923
Thomson, Elihu, 1853-1937
Tonks, Lewi, 1897-1971
Walker, Robert M., 1929-2004
White, William
Whitney, Willis Rodney, 1868-1958
Woodyard, John R., 1904-1981
Institutions
Institutional Hierarchy
General Electric Company
General Electric Company. Research and Development Center
Created when the Advanced Technology Laboratory and Research Laboratory were merged in 1965.
Associates
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Office of the President.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Engineering.
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Department of Physics
Resources
Archival Resources
Author
General Electric Company records, 1892-1989.
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
General Electric Company technical records.
Research and Development Center. Whitney Library
General Electric
Schenectady, NY, USA
General Electric General Engineering Laboratory papers, 1918-1926.
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
General Electric photograph collection, 1890-1960.
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Selected records, including letters, reports, and notebooks by Arthur Holly Compton, Saul Dushman, Irving Langmuir, Frederic Saunders, and Willis R. Whitney.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Spencer Weart research material for his book, Nuclear Fear: A History of Images, 1957-1987.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Trade catalogs of scientific and industrial instruments, 1855-1937.
Library. Dept. of Special Collections
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
Subject
Albert W. Hull papers, 1920-1964.
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Birger W. Nordlander papers, 1923-1962.
Schaffer Library. Special Collections
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Charles B. Duke career highlights [autobiographical materials], 1959-2006.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Charles B. Duke correspondence and notes, 1960s.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Charles Greeley Abbot papers, 1918-1920.
Kelvin Smith Library. Special Collections
Case Western Reserve University
11055 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106-7151, USA
Charles Proteus Steinmetz papers, 1898-1923.
Schaffer Library. Special Collections
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Charles Proteus Steinmetz papers, circa 1855-1923.
Schenectady County Historical Society
32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12305, USA
Clarence Hewlett papers, 1907-1958.
Schaffer Library. Special Collections
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
David Lazarus papers, 1945-1987.
University Archives
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1408 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Elihu Thomson papers, 1853-1955.
Library
American Philosophical Society
105 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
Elihu Thomson papers.
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Ernst Fredrik Werner Alexanderson papers, 1901-1975.
Schaffer Library. Special Collections
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Ernst Julius Berg papers, 1898-1938.
Schaffer Library. Special Collections
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Francis J. Norton papers, 1930-1986.
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Gabriel Kron papers, 1935-1968.
Schaffer Library. Special Collections
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Henry Augustus Rowland papers, 1793-1970.
Special Collections, Milton S. Eisenhower Library
Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Henry H. Nolte papers, 1915-1960.
Folsom Library. Institute Archives and Special Collections
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY 12180, USA
Howard I. Becker papers, 1917-1957.
Schaffer Library. Special Collections
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Irving Langmuir papers, 1911-1959.
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
James Dillon Cobine papers, 1950-1980.
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
John M. Anderson papers, 1911-1993, 2001-2006.
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Joseph H. Keenan autobiographical notes, circa 1964.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Karl P. Cohen papers, 1931-2010.
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Louis Navias papers, 1924-ca. 1975.
Schenectady Museum
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
Lucy Julia Hayner papers, 1922-1937.
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Columbia University
Butler Library, 6th Floor East, New York, NY 10027, USA
Matthew Luckiesh papers, 1887-2013 (bulk 1910-1965).
Western Reserve Historical Society
East Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
MIT Office of the President records of Karl Taylor Compton and James Rhyne Killian, 1930-1959.
Institute Archives and Special Collections
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.I.T. Libraries, Rm. 14N-118, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
MIT School of Engineering Office of the Dean records, 1943-1989.
Institute Archives and Special Collections
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.I.T. Libraries, Rm. 14N-118, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Ora S. Duffendack intellectual autobiography, 1963.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Betty Compton, 1968 April 11 and 15.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Cecil Howard Green, 1994 October 17.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Charles B. Duke, 2007 January 23.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with David BenDaniel, 2008 October 20.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with David Lazarus, 1981 December 4.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Denis Morrell Robinson, 1978 May 23.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Frederick Seitz, 1981 January 26, 27, March 24 and 1982 March 16.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Frederick Warren Grover, 1964 March 23.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with H. M. Mott-Smith, 1977 March 1 and 2.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with H. R. Crane, 1973 March 28 and 1974 June 18.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with John Henry Manley, 1976 July 9 and 11.
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, 94720-6000, USA
Oral history interview with John P. Blewett, 1979 March 22 and May 11.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with John R. Woodyard: Cyclotron and Klystron development: oral history transcript, 1974 October 18 and 1975 December 17.
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, 94720-6000, USA
Oral history interview with John S. Hall, 1979 February 21.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Lyman Spitzer, Jr., 1978 March 15.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Merle Antony Tuve, 1967 March 30.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Morrel H. Cohen, 1981 March 31 and June 5.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Nick Holonyak, 2005 March 23.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Norman Ramsey, 1960 July 19 to August 4.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Paul Peter Ewald, 1968 May 17 and 24.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Richard Orvis Grisdale, 1975 July 10.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Stanley Owen Morgan, 1975 July 3.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Oral history interview with Vivian Annabelle Johnson, 1981 July 13.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Raymond Falconer papers, 1942-1999.
Archives
State University of New York at Albany
University Libraries, B-43, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, USA
Reginald Fessenden papers, 1887-1935.
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
North Carolina State Archives
Raleigh, NC 27611, USA
Reminiscences about accelerators: Brookhaven lecture, 1980.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Reminiscences of Albert Wallace Hull, 1951.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Reminiscences of Simon Ramo : oral history, 1984.
Oral History Research Office
Columbia University
Box 20, Room 801 Butler Library, New York, NY 10027, USA
Research at General Electric, 1979.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Richard Feynman papers, 1933-1965.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Robert M. Walker papers, undated.
Libraries. University Archives
Washington University
Campus Box 1061, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA
Scientific experience of Ralph D. Bennett, 1963.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Sir Charles Frank papers and correspondence, 1905-2001.
Arts and Social Sciences Library. Special Collections
University of Bristol
Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 ITJ, England, UK
Stanford Goldman response to early 1930s Ph.D.s Survey, 1980.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
The Princeton years and beyond, 1930-1940: Invited paper for the March 1992 meeting of the American Physical Society, 1992.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Thomas O. Paine papers, 1931-1992 (bulk 1960-1982).
Manuscript Division
Library of Congress
James Madison Memorial Building, First Street and Independence Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20540, USA
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission records (Record Group 326), 1923-1975.
Office of the National Archives
National Archives and Records Administration
8th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408, USA
University Archives
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1408 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Vincent J. Schaefer papers, 1891-1993.
Archives
State University of New York at Albany
University Libraries, B-43, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, USA
Walter A. Harrison Tunneling into Physics, 2015.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Wheeler P. Davey notebooks [microform], 1914-1926.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Wheeler P. Davey papers, 1907-1945.
Libraries. Special Collections Division
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802, USA
William D. Coolidge autobiographical notes, circa 1962.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
William Ernst Ruder papers, 1907-1950.
Schaffer Library. Special Collections
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308, USA
William G. Broughton papers, 1875-1964.
Carl A. Kroch Library. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University
2B Carl A Kroch Library, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
William White papers, (circa 1920-1940)
Antique Wireless Museum
Main Street, Holcomb, New York 14469, USA
Published Resources
Author
Adventures in electricity. No. 4 prepared for General Electric by General Comics, Inc.
Adventures in electricity. No. 6 prepared for General Electric by General Comics, Inc.
Chart of the nuclides : [with physical constants, conversion factors and periodic table].
Nuclides and isotopes / revised 1989 by F. William Walker, Josef R. Parrington, and Frank Feiner.
Science in your future / General Electric.
Subject
Adventure into the unknown : the first fifty years of the General Electric Research Laboratory.
From the archives of the Hall of History : a catalogue of GE photographs, 1890-1940.
Image worlds : corporate identities at General Electric, 1890-1930 / David E. Nye.
Men and volts at war : the story of General Electric in World War II / by John Anderson Miller …
Pioneering in industrial research : the story of the General Electric Research Laboratory.
Willis R. Whitney, General Electric, and the origins of U.S. industrial research / George Wise.