Science History: A Look At General Electric's Early Guest Book
Monday, June 6, 2011 - 13:00
in Physics & Chemistry
What do Ivan Pavlov, Guglielmo Marconi and Thomas Edison all have in common? Not much, you might think - but after the creation of General Electric’s first Global Research Laboratory in the barn behind Chief Engineer Charles Steinmetz’s house in Schenectady, NY, numerous top scientists began to visit to see what GE was working on next.MIT Chemistry professor Wilis Whitney was hired as the Global Research Laboratory's first director and each famous mind that visited would stop to sign the VIP guest book, which he kept at that desk from 1914 to 1935. The signatures are a veritable Who’s Who of inventors, physicists, chemists, physiologists, and businessmen of the period.read more