general electric

Toshiba to Split Into Three Companies After Years of Scandal

Activist shareholders had been campaigning for the split.

GE Breaking Up Into Three Separate Public Businesses

The company plans to spin off its healthcare unit in 2023 followed by its energy business the next year in an effort to trim down and pay off debt.

Amazon Is Building a Smart Fridge That Knows What You Eat

Not content with just knowing your face, your voice, your fingerprint, and the blueprint of your home, Amazon also wants to know what you're eating.

It’s All Coming Together for Floating Wind Turbines

Everything’s coming up floating wind turbines. On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced plans to open up the waters off California to wind energy, signalling that the new technology is going to emerge. “Today’s announcement reflects months of active engagement and dedication between partners who are committed to advancing a clean energy future,” Interior Secretary Deb…

Mike Rowe’s New Discovery+ Show Is Big Oil-Funded Propaganda

Reality show host Mike Rowe’s new series Six Degrees, which is currently streaming on Discovery+ and will soon air on television, begins how I expected it would: with him on screen in a t-shirt, jeans, and baseball cap, and smiling wryly. It’s classic Rowe, posturing as an avatar for the “average” American. The conceit of…

Charles Steinmetz’s Predictions About 2021 From the Year 1921 Were Amazingly Accurate

Back in 1921, Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, the pioneering inventor and mathematician, was published in a Massachusetts newspaper predicting what the fantastical world of 2021 would look like. Steinmetz made some amazingly accurate predictions about things like air conditioning, cooking, electric bicycles, and home entertainment in the future. At first glance, the predictions may not…

General Electric Finally Manages to Jettison Its Historic Lighting Business

General Electric is no longer in the light bulb business, the company announced on Wednesday. GE said that its 129-year-old lighting unit—which was formed in 1892 from the merger of Thomas Edison’s Edison General Electric Company with two other firms—will be sold off to smart home manufacturer Savant Systems in a deal with undisclosed terms.…

GE Aviation Workers Demand That Inactive Plants Begin Manufacturing Respirators

Today, aviation factory workers for General Electric staged two protests in Massachusetts, demanding that the company reconfigure its aircraft manufacturing facilities in order to make ventilators. Last week, General Electric Aviation announced that it would be laying off a large contingent of its workforce, while officials and medical workers have been calling on the federal…

This ‘Smart’ Light Bulb Video Is the Most Ridiculous Thing We’ve Ever Seen

People of the 20th century imagined that Americans of the future would be zipping around in flying cars and jetpacks. Instead, we’ve got a plummeting life expectancy, the rise of measles, and even a resurgence of concentration camps on U.S. soil. But if you really want a reminder of just how dumb everything is in…

Here’s the World’s Largest Jet Engine

Between the two huge chunks of concrete in the moody dusk photo above is the world largest jet engine, which was recently assembled by General Electric engineers. It’s the first working prototype of the GE9X turbofan engine, which GE is putting through the paces at the company’s test range near Peebles, Ohio. You might be…

Look at the Monster Magnet Made for America’s First Offshore Wind Farm

Now this is a gadget. Just look at the 6-megawatt direct-drive generator, equipped with a huge permanent magnet rotor: it was designed by General Electric’s engineers and it is one of the largest of its kind that ever built. The numbers are impressive. The 150-ton generator is 24-feet wide, and it will be sitting hundreds…

Watch a Snowball Miraculously Survive a Bath in Molten Steel

So just how heat-resistant are the highly-engineered materials developed for use in things like jet engines, nuclear reactors, and gas turbines? Tough enough to change the meaning of the old saying, “a snowball’s chance in hell.” Apparently, its odds are quite good of surviving—when dressed appropriately. To help celebrate Thomas Edison’s birthday this year, GE…

GE Will Stop Making CFL Lightbulbs Because LEDs Are Better

GE just announced that it no longer make or sell compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) lightbulbs in the US. The company will wind down the manufacturing of CFL bulbs by the end of 2016, and it will begin to shift its focus on making the newest and most energy-efficient lightbulbs, LEDs. This is good news for…

The Very American History of Christmas Lights

Christmas lights are a uniquely American tradition. That’s not just because the first electric Christmas lights appeared in America. The tradition embodies a certain American-ness, an ingenuity and hunger for innovation, that’s easily overlooked. America doesn’t just make things. America makes things spectacular. The tradition of light and Christmas dates further back than America and…

This Captain America-Style Shield Makes Wind Turbines More Powerful

The larger you can build a wind turbine, the more power it can generate. But you can only build them so large before they’re impossible to transport across the country. So GE’s engineers have found a better way to improve their efficiency: a giant 20,000 pound dome strapped to the front of the blades. It’s…

The Massive Proving Ground Where Extraordinary New Trains Are Tested

General Electric’s development team just completed a year of field-testing for the new Evolution Series Tier 4 locomotive. Some of the tests took place at the Federal Railroad Administration’s high-altitude testing circuit near Pueblo, Colorado at an elevation of 5,000 feet. These photographs capture the train’s grueling journey. This harsh desert testing ground is considered…

Naturally, the funniest lightbulb ad ever stars Jeff fucking Goldblum

Kudos to General Electric for hiring actor Jeff Goldblum and directors Tim and Eric to make this hilarious commercial to promote their new LED lightbulbs. I’m a fan of Philips’ LEDs but, after this, I will be checking GE again. Because I’m that easy to convince and it’s Jeff fucking Goldblum, ok? SPLOID is a…

DJ Matthew Dear Sampled Thousands of GE Machines to Make This Banger

DJ Matthew Dear teamed up with General Electric acoustics engineer Andrew Gorton to sample the tones created by the churn of “thousands” of different GE machines, from turbines to medical equipment. The sounds were then chopped up and reassembled into “Drop Science,” a frantic, meticulous music experiment. Matthew Dear’s career in weirdo music has taken…

The magnet in GE’s new MRI machine is 140,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field. Called 7 Tesla, it’s five times stronger than conventional MRIs and nearly as powerful as magnets found particle accelerators. The souped-up MRI will be used to investigate diseases and disorders in unprecedented detail. Image: GE.

Watch GE Torture-Test Supermaterials in the Most Vicious Ways

The heat of an active volcano. A 5,000 pound weight dropped from above. A sandstorm that lasts ten years. These are just some of the ways GE torture-tests the super-strong materials that go into jet engines, wind turbines, and more. And thanks to the company’s fascinating YouTube channel, we get an up-close view of the…