Jefferson Welds

The Jefferson Welds Plant of the General Electric Company of America did not produce complete lamps, but was a component factory that supplied materials to other final-assembly lamp, electronic and cathode ray tube plants. Its main products were welded wire assemblies, in which a number of different metal wires are welded together end-to-end. These are employed as the electrical feedthroughs in lamps of all kinds. Additionally it produced transistor headers, on which the company's early semiconductor devices were fabricated. Another high volume component part was the plastic channel incorporating an ignition wire for the company's popular BrightStik fluorescent luminaire, introduced in 1978. The site was opened in 1939 and rapidly grew to one of the largest manufacturers of lead wires in the world, supplying not only GE's American plants with leadwires, but also a large number of competitors around the world who relied on GE for the supply of these specialised components. It is believed to have replaced GE's original Cleveland Welds plant, and in its later years operated as a sister factory of the related Carolina Welds plant. Following GE's takeover of the Hungarian Tungsram company in 1990, much of the component manufaturing was transferred to those considerably lower cost East-European facilties. In 2010 GE announced its intention to close the facility, and production is believed to have come to an end in 2011.