Six Sigma (6¦Ò) ¨C A Revolution for the G.E. Culture
The history of General Electric and it's products and research is one that is outstanding
and marked by inventions which serve as milestones in technological advancement
throughout time. Such inventions and technological advancements span from Edison's
invention of the light bulb to jet-engines. Specifically, General Electric's entrance into the
refrigeration market around 1923 (Cowan 132) can be further analyzed by first focusing
on the times leading up to the invention and further production of refrigerators.
Prior to any type of mechanical refrigeration, families and commercials alike utilized ice
to keep their foods cool. Such practices required large amounts of ice making ice a
"commodity for export"(Lynes, 123) giving rise to ice manufacturing. Households and
businesses would have ice blocks delivered to them where they would then be stored in
ice boxes. This early form of refrigeration was costly and required maintenance, but
began to expand the capabilities of shipping and preserving food. Cowan states that "the
need for mechanical refrigeration was growing as cities began to expand, both in Europe
and in the United States, and ever larger quantities of food had to be preserved for longer
periods of time as people continued to move farther from the places where it was
grown."(Cowan, 129). The emergence of the mechanical refrigerator in the 1900's
revolutionized the preservation, transportation and refrigeration of food and had far
reaching effects on the economy, the national diet, and home life of America.
The mechanical refrigerator can be divided into two types, the gas refrigerator also
known as absorption refrigerator, an ...