The Rice Legacy, Family of Pioneers

Watch the first modern documentary on the beginnings and growth of General Electric through the life of early founding father E.W. Rice Jr. and his family.

E.W. helped develop electric arc light systems with legend Elihu Thomson. Together they went on to make other monumental moves such as the hiring of C.P. Steinmetz, the founding of the GE Research Lab, dealing with the first labor unions, and founding RCA. Martin Rice was a founder of modern corporate communications and public relations at GE. Chester W. Rice, E.W.'s son, led the world into a new age of scientific engineering with his development of the hydrogen filled condenser and the world's first audio amplifiers and speakers.

This documentary was carefully crafted over a year and a half by the Edison Tech Center. It uses information gathered from historic books, documents, and oral histories. Interviews and photos were gathered from archives of the Rice Family, the Schenectady Museum, the Schenectady County Historical Society, and National Archives. It features a voiceover by reknown storyteller Joe Doolittle.

This documentary was made possible in part by the Schenectady Foundation

DVD Length: 1 hour

Documentary Sample Excerpts

Introduction and open of the show, begins in Philadelphia with the exposition at the Franklin Institute where Charles Brush and others first demonstrate the early arc lamp.

GE Moves to Schenectady: excerpt from the middle of the E.W. Rice Documentary:

 

E.W. Rice's Electric Car:

 

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