River Works , formerly known as Air Force Plant 29 , is a plant of General Electric 's aviation division located in Lynn, Massachusetts . It is serviced by the River Works station on the MBTA 's Newburyport/Rockport Line . It was purchased by General Electric in 1983 from the United States Air Force .
14-559: The Thomson-Houston Electric Company moved its operations to a new factory building on Western Avenue in West Lynn in 1883. By 1892, it had expanded into a sprawling factory complex between Western Avenue and the Boston and Maine Railroad Eastern Route tracks. That year, the company merged with Edison General Electric to become General Electric (GE). By 1894, the Lynn plant was known as
28-498: A fall in sales and market value. The abandonment of two well known trademarks and the replacement with the unfamiliar AEI branding lost the company significant work to competitors and resulted in a market weakening of the company. These problems paved the way for a takeover in 1967 with the recently restructured General Electric Company (GEC) under Arnold Weinstock . The following year GEC merged with English Electric . GEC took over AEI Cables and Hackbridge Cables Co. in 1967, forming
42-585: A new building on Lynn's Western Avenue. Coffin led the company and organized its finances, marketing, and sales operations. Edwin Rice organized the manufacturing facilities, and Elihu Thomson ran the Model Room, a precursor to the industrial research lab. With their leadership, the company grew into an enterprise with sales of $ 10,000,000 (equivalent to about $ 339,000,000 in 2023) and 4,000 employees by 1892. In 1884, Thomson-Houston International Company
56-549: A scheme of workers' control of production in one area of the plant. Immediate results in increased output and machine utilisation, and a reduction on manufacturing losses but was eventually terminated by the management. The plant had operations boosted in the late 1980s after General Electric decided to close the General Electric Everett Plant and move operations there. Thomson-Houston Electric Company The Thomson-Houston Electric Company
70-723: The arc lamp and dynamo patent disputes between them. In 1892, Thomson-Houston was merged with the Edison General Electric Company of Schenectady, New York (arranged by John Pierpoint Morgan ), to form the General Electric Company. The Lynn plant, along with one in Schenectady, remain to this day as the two original GE factories. British Thomson-Houston (BTH) was created as a subsidiary of (American) General Electric in May 1896. It
84-558: The "river works" after its position along the Saugus River . The factory was expanded in 1943 as a supercharger facility (Air Force Plant No. 29), and helped to build the first jet engine during World War II . Activities performed at the plant originally included aircraft engine testing, disassembly, lubricating, cleaning and assembly. Operations included, degreasing, electrochemical grinding, engine maintenance, metal washing, parts cleaning and stress fracture testing. The workers at
98-701: The Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH) was formed in Paris , a sister company to GE in the United States. It is from this company that Alstom would evolve. A demerger in 1999 formed what is now Vantiva and Thomson-CSF . Associated Electrical Industries Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) was a British holding company formed in 1928 through the merger of British Thomson-Houston (BTH) and Metropolitan-Vickers electrical engineering companies. In 1967 AEI
112-705: The company AEI Cables Ltd. in 1968. GEC also went through substantial restructuring, including in 1989 forming GEC Alsthom and Cegelec Projects. GEC Alsthom was created from the GEC's Power and Transport businesses (originally AEI (previously BTH and Metrovick) and English Electric) and the French Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE). The merger was to enable both companies a gain a greater export potential into Europe. The GEC facilities in Rugby were split into GEC Alstom and Cegelec Projects, but in 1998
126-480: The facility were known for leftist politics, joining the new United Electric Workers union in 1936. They were targeted by state and federal governments during the Second Red Scare ; in 1954, Joseph McCarthy subpoenaed five employees. From 1968 to 1972, the 'Pilot Program' was introduced. Faced with rising tensions on the shop floor, bottle-necks in production and low-quality products, GE management tried
140-597: The two companies were reunited under the Alstom banner. An issue relevant to UK employment and insolvency law arose in 2011, when there was a steep increase in the price of copper ; AEI Cables Lid. experienced difficult trading conditions and declared itself insolvent . Considering making some staff redundant , they were challenged in the Employment Tribunal for failing to comply with the requirement for 90 days of consultation under TUPE law (section 188 of
154-649: Was a manufacturing company that was one of the precursors of General Electric . The company began as the American Electric Company, founded by Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston . In 1882, Charles Albert Coffin led a group of investors—largely shoe manufacturers from Lynn, Massachusetts —in buying American Electric from investors in New Britain, Connecticut . They renamed the company Thomson-Houston Electric Company and moved its operations to
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#1732790337556168-573: Was acquired by GEC , to create the UK's largest industrial group. A scandal that followed the acquisition is said to have been instrumental in reforming accounting practices in the UK. Rivalry existed between Metrovick and BTH brands in the Electrical Engineering field, resulting in internal competition and duplicated management. In 1959 AEI decided to remove those brands and consolidate both as AEI brands, resulting in internal problems and
182-700: Was organized to promote international sales. In 1885, the Lynn G.A.R. Hall was constructed using electric incandescent lighting by Thomson-Houston. In 1888, Thomson-Houston supplied the Lynn & Boston Railroad with the generation and propulsion equipment for the Highland Circuit in Lynn, the first electric streetcar in Massachusetts . In 1889, Thomson-Houston bought out the Brush Company (founded by Charles Brush ) which resolved
196-674: Was previously known as Laing, Wharton, and Down which was founded in 1886. BTH became part of Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) in 1928, which saw BTH merged with its rival Metropolitan-Vickers . This deal made AEI the largest military contractor of the British Empire during the 1930s and the 1940s, so during World War II . AEI would itself be acquired by the General Electric Company (GEC) in 1967. GEC demerged its defense businesses in 1999 to become Marconi plc and Marconi Corporation plc, now Telent . In 1893,
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