we pass on the left the main
establishment of the General Electric Co., the largest electrical
manufacturing plant in the world, with 200 buildings and 26,000
employees.

In the years before 1886 Schenectady had been suffering from a
long period of stagnation. In that year an official of the Edison
Machine Works of N.Y.C. happened to pass through Schenectady and
noticed two empty factories, the former Jones Car Works. The
Edison Company had been established in N.Y.C. about 1882 by
Thomas A. Edison, and it was now looking for an opportunity to
remove elsewhere. Accordingly Schenectady was chosen, and in 1892
the Edison Co.--which had been renamed the Edison General
Electric Co.--and the Thompson Houston Electric Co. of Lynn,
Mass., were consolidated and formed the General Electric Co. The
main plant was at Schenectady, but other plants were retained at
Lynn, Mass., and Harrison, N.J. The early electrical apparatus
was crude and the output of the factory was small, but this
consolidation marked the beginning of a world-wide business. In
1893, the book value of the General Electric Co. factory was less
than $4,000,000. Since then the company has spent more than
$150,000,000 improving and enlarging its plant. Branch factories
are now maintained at Lynn, Pittsville, and East Boston, Mass.;
Harrison and Newark, N.J.; Erie, Pa.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Toledo
and Cleveland, Ohio. At Schenectady one may see the latest
development in practically every variety of electrical apparatus.
There are in the General Electric plant individual factories
devoted to generators, motors, turbines, transformers,
switchboards, rheostats, wire and cable, and searchlights, as
well as pattern shops, machine shops, brass and iron foundries,
and testing, shipping and power stations. The company pays
considerable attention to welfare work among its employees and
free instruction in electrical engineering is given on a large
scale.

The American Locomotive Co., which likewise has a factory here, with
5,000 employees, turns out some of the largest and fastest locomotives
produced in America or abroad. During the last 35 years Schenectady has
become one of the greatest industrial centers in the United States; its
total annual output has a value of nearly $100,000,000, the output of
the General Electric Co, alone being about $75,000,000.