ABSTRACT
The General Electric X-ray Company played a dynamic role in developing X-ray therapy. General Electric (GE) established its Research Laboratories in 1900 in order to develop in-house engineering expertise. GE was running in the "million volts or bust" race that had, mostly for PR purposes, set that milestone as its goal. Although contestants knew there was nothing clinically significant about crossing the million-volt line—and that radium emitted more than an equivalent energy—each X-ray power increment escalated the prestige, price, and competitive advantage of its manufacturers and purchasers. GE maintained market presence—and pressure—by expanding the network of sales and service stations it had inherited from Victor Electric. It reinforced medical specialization's functional division of labor. Educational institutions combined with industry to convert their research into products and with physicians willing to use them experimentally on patients.
