by J. Man

This week, we want to celebrate General Electric’s 133rd birthday  and pay tribute to a true giant in the world of electronics.

The name GE, or General Electric, is pretty much synonymous with the use and history of all things “electric” in the USA. Of course, founder Thomas Edison, best known as the inventor of the lightbulb, is nearly as well known as the guy that brought electricity to the people - creating the first distributed system of electricity for homes and businesses.

General Electric: Founding & Early History

Edison was involved in a number of electricity-oriented businesses near the turn of the 20th century. At the suggestion of his financiers, including banker and industrialist J. P. Morgan, many of these companies were brought together under one roof as the Edison General Electric Company. After a few more acquisitions, and a merger with Connecticut-based Thomson-Houston Electric Company, General Electric was officially formed on April 15, 1892. GE’s original founders included Edison, Morgan, and Boston Symphony Orchestra founder Henry Lee Higginson. When the Dow Jones was formed soon after, in 1896, GE was one of the original twelve companies listed. It remained on the index almost continuously for the next 122 years.

In 1919, the US Navy suggested to General Electric that if they could create an American-owned radio company, then the Navy could secure a commercial monopoly on long distance radio communication. Hence, General Electric bought out the U.S. subsidiary of the Marconi Company and organized what we now know as RCA. Owen D. Young, GE's general counsel and vice president at the time, founded RCA through GE. RCA was the biggest domestic manufacturer of consumer radio receivers, with help from GE, during a time of huge demand from the 1920s to the 1950s.

By 1932, antitrust litigation forced GE, as well as other companies, to divest themselves of any ownership of RCA, citing patent-infringement, amongst other allegations. RCA went on to sell radios, and build a giant tube business, while GE focused on other endeavors, including experiments in broadcast television, and building jet-aircraft engines during WWII.

GE continued to diversify over the decades and remains one of the leading electric energy companies in the world. Today, GE boasts innovations and technology in the areas of aerospace, healthcare, renewable energy, computing and power generation.

General Electric Vacuum Tubes: A 5-Star Reputation

The development and proliferation of tube technology was a core part of GE’s mission. While the earliest vacuum tube patents were issued to inventor Lee DeForest in 1908, it was Nobel Laureate Irving Langmuir, of the General Electric Research Laboratory, who discovered the theories at the basis of electronic emission in 1913.  This breakthrough work made the first reliable electronic tubes available by 1916.  Langmuir’s work resulted in the formulation of the laws governing the flow of electrons in a vacuum.

The General Electric “5-Star” Vacuum Tube

GE’s renowned 5-Star vacuum tubes were originally born out of the aviation industry’s need for more reliable tubes in navigational & communications applications in the mid-1940s. Standard commercial tubes weren’t cutting the mustard.

In 1945, GE acquired the beleaguered Kentucky Radio Company, a maker of high quality mil-spec vacuum tubes under the “Ken-Rad” brand. Ken-Rad already had government contracts for their vacuum tubes, as they were reliable, quiet in audio applications and exhibited a linear response. Now all GE had to do was reverse engineer the 12AX7!

Fortunately, Ken-Rad accomplished this in just a couple of short years. GE then introduced their own versions of the most popular tubes of the day, including the 12AX7 (black plates and long plates), 12AU7, 12AT7, 6L6 and many more. Building on the experience gained from Ken-Rad’s government contract work, GE was able to easily create longer-lasting, better-performing and more reliable versions of these tubes. They dubbed this new range the “GE 5-Star.”

From the GE 5-Star tube catalog:

“G-E Five-Star tubes are specially designed, manufactured and tested; they are not ‘selected’ tubes. The Five-Star high-reliability line includes tubes capable of performing virtually every electronic function required of (broadcast equipment) in critical applications where operational dependability of tubes is essential to protect life, customer’s investment or product reputation.”

Original GE 5-Star tubes have now become some of the most sought after for audio enthusiasts, guitar slingers and pro audio engineers alike. The 5-Star 12AX7 produced between 1949 and the early 1960s defined, probably more than any other vacuum tube, the sound of American rock and blues - considering Fender used it in their early amplifiers, like the legendary Princeton in the mid-1950s. GE 5-Star tubes were also the choice for manufacturers of broadcast equipment, and could be found in products by Gates, Fairchild and others (even RCA!).

At AudioScape, we continue to use NOS GE 5-Star tubes in nearly every legacy tube product we make. Their unparalleled tone and reliability make them an indispensable choice for us in bringing you our legacy recreations.

Thanks, GE, and Happy 133rd Birthday!