Schenectady, NY: GE Power Generation and Research & Development

Manufacture: (Satellite)

Building 273: (Satellite)

R&D: (Satellite)

Street View

That sign makes me feel nostalgic. When I lived in Fort Wayne, IN, in the 1950s and 60s, GE was still there. And there was a comparable sign that had a lot of lightbulbs.

Dennis DeBruler

ge
GE was founded in 1892 by merging Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric. The first sign for this plant faced the NYC tracks. Additional signs were added to buildings along the tracks. Today's sign was built in 1926 in recognition of the "growing use of the automobile and the newly constructed Erie Boulevard and Western Gateway Bridge....The 168-foot-long sign with 36-foot diameter monogram is comprised of 1399 25-watt incandescent bulbs." It takes about 24 man-hours to change the normal clear bulbs to colored bulbs such as red and green for December and red, white and blue for special events.

 

Hudson River Valley Institute posted

On April 15, 1892, General Electric Company was formed by the merger of Thomas Edison's General Electric Company with Thomson-Houston Electric Company. The deal was arranged by J. P. Morgan and incorporated in NY with the Schenectady plant used as headquarters for many years thereafter. Around the same time, General Electric's Canadian counterpart, Canadian General Electric, was formed. 

Image: General Electric in Schenectady, New York, aerial view, 1896 (wiki commons)

Tim Treacy: Thanks for the PCBs.

Ken Gay: Tim Treacy Sadly true. Cleanup of river bottom not feasible. So, letting it silt over is the only plan. Seems like the Striped Bass have been doing good.

Bob Johnson: Ken Gay not sure that's how it went... one spot up river was ordered to be dredged about 20 years ago...thus spewing tons of PCBs back into the water system that had settle deep in the bottom of the river.... I always wonder if that wasn't what caused the canvasbacks to stop using the river.... their departure seems to happen about the same time

[There are several more comments about dredging.]

Wayne Karberg posted three photos with the comment: "The origin of many, many powerful machines, Building 273, GE, Schenectady,NY.  When I worked there, you could not see to the end of the high bay due to all the fumes from machining.  A REALLY impressive operation.  Lunch in the Italian neighborhood just outside the subway entrance (south side) was a real treat!  Anyone remember the onion rings at the place in Scotia across the Mohawk River??"

Travis Dixon: Not directly related but the company I work for used to forge a TON of turbine blades and nozzles for GE Turbofans. Most have now been sourced to Wuxi in China.

[Building 237 was built in 1949, and it became known as the “Grand Canyon of Industry.” [ge]]

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That would be a rotor for a generator. This closeup answers a question that has been on my mind: how do they fasten the generator to the turbine. It confirms that the shaft is made with a huge flange that has a lot of big bolt holes. The shaft in an 800mw unit is transferring over a million horsepower!

Riccardo Liviabella, Nov 2018

Sean Brady posted
A steam turbine rotor receives finishing treatment in a machine lathe at the Tampa Electric Power Company. 1960
Bruce Berman: I doubt if this photo was taken at the utility. My guess is it was shot at either GE in Schenectady, NY; Westinghouse in Pittsburgh; or Allis-Chalmers in Milwaukee. They were the only manufacturers in the U.S. at the time of large turbine-generators for the electric power utility market.
Ben Hess: Bruce Berman you are correct. I can confirm this is the Schenectady location. This is E bay.
[Several comments debate whether they are cutting metal or measuring ("truth check"). Evidently the safety rules have changed as to weather or not an operator can be that close to the turbine if they are cutting metal.]
Mikeys Millworks: I'm a little surprised there are no mid supports (steady rest).
Ben Hess: Mikeys Millworks zoom in and you will see a steady rest in-between body and the first smaller fan ring. It’s an older style than anything similar to a hydro that we use now. Two brass pucks that it slides on with the aid of grease. This doesn’t have steady rests past that because there are more features behind what you see that put the center of gravity closer to where the machinist is working. In addition, if this is a 3rd lathe (likely), everything is ready except for a few finishing ops. They have what’s called clam-shells installed to protect the bearing surfaces they are riding on right now, and don’t want to set up anything on a finished surface that could potentially damage it

A couple of smaller units that are ready to ship.

3D Satellite

Their R&D facility pays homage to Thomas Edison.

Christoph B., Sep 2019

But Thomas Edison was fired because of his continued insistence on using DC. Westinghouse and Tesla had won the "current wars" and established multi-phase AC as the way to go. GE hired Charles Proteus Steinmetz to be their "resident genus" comparable to Tesla. Steinmetz created the precursor to the first corporate research lab in 1910. [Video] (At 25:25, Kathy tells the $10,000-bill Steinmetz story. I remember the essence  of the story ("Making chalk mark on generator $1. Knowing where to make mark $9,999"), but I had forgotten that it was a Westinghouse generator at a Ford plant that he had fixed.)

This is obviously an older plant layout. What caught my eye was the Erie Canal along the north side of the plant. I know that rather big pleasure boats can still travel between Lake Erie and the Hudson River. Did they channelize the Mohawk River with locks and dams or did they dig a new canal?

SchenectadyHistory
"Total Ground Area; 130.41 Acres     Total Floor Space: 57.82 Acres"
The parent web page has an 1886 photo and a newer photo.

DailyGazette (paycount 3)
General Electric commuters walk along the Erie Canal in downtown Schenectady in the early 1900s in this photo from the collection of the Efner History Center.
"General Electric’s history in Schenectady dates back to 1886 when inventor Thomas Edison set up the Edison Machine Works here."

blog_erie_canal, 1 of many photos on this webpage
"Erie Boulevard in 1937, looking south from State Street. The General Electric plant is clearly visible in the distance, and the cars of shoppers are parked in front of local businesses. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. "
[The GE  buildings are barely visible in the two older photos of this view.]

This article talks about employment figures by GE in Schenectady in 1917 (20,000), 1994 (8,000) and today (2,000 at GE Power and 2,000 at Global Research Center).

The above referenced DailyGazette guesses today's number is 3,000 because GE won't provide a number. The WWII peak was 45,000, and it settled back down to 32,000 in 1952. In the 60s and 70 it was around the mid-20,000s.