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You think you have weird stuff in your attic, imagine if you were a 130 year old company who is responsible in part for some of the world’s greatest inventions. The company has released a gallery of photographs that illustrate some lost but not forgotten gadgets including a 100 year old car charger and early solar cells.
GE called on photographer Hans Gissinger to shoot items from GE’s archives as well as more modern projects being worked on right now. Most of these items are stored in GE’s Global Research Center in Niskayuna, New York, near Schenectady, though they plan to head to other manufacturing plants across the country to capture the goodies stored elsewhere.
Hate cleaning the refrigerator? You’re not alone – most Americans clean their fridges only once or twice a year.
Instead of changing our habits, appliance makers are coming up with new technology that keeps fridges cleaner longer … so we can clean ‘em once every two years! Go USA!
Now, appliance makers like Whirlpool, Viking Range Corp. and Sub-Zero Inc. are tackling the messy fridge problem with a host of new features including souped-up shelves, bacteria-killing devices and better lighting. General Electric Co., for example, says it is rolling out new refrigerators in May with 10 lighting sources inside instead of its usual three—so food that might be forgotten in a corner and spoil will be easier to spot. The new GE models sell for $1,599 or $1,799 for stainless steel.
Manufacturers aiming to create a cleaner, tidier fridge are likely facing an uphill battle: Currently, most Americans don’t clean their fridges until something triggers them to act, such as a spill or a pungent odor. They also don’t devote much effort to the task, even when they come home with bags of new groceries. In Whirlpool’s 2005 refrigerator habits survey of 2,571 consumers, 33% said they don’t spend any time cleaning the refrigerator before grocery shopping. In order to make room for items just purchased, 27% reported shoving everything in and not worrying about organization.
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Could flexible organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs, be the future of lighting? Don’t worry; I don’t understand that sentence either. Keep reading for a jargon-free explanation.
On General Electric’s research campus in Niskayuna, NY, there is a machine that prints lights. This machine is so good at its job the lights it creates could make traditional lamps and lighting fixtures obsolete. In what sounds to be a relatively simple process, the semitrailer-size machine coats an 8” wide plastic film with chemicals and seals it with a layer of metal foil. When an electric current is applied to the plastic sheet, be prepared to throw on a pair of shades as it emits an ethereal blue glow.
Light from the sheet is produced using compounds known as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). OLEDs are currently used in television and cell-phone displays and have been embraced by large
manufacturers such as Siemens and Philips.
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