these overpowered transmitting stations. The Navy argued that instead of allowing a foreign company exclusive control over global communication, the United States government should force the Marconi Company to divest from all American holdings and transfer control to General Electric. [1] Which they did.
efforts to expand and strengthen it, including ensuring an effective and reliable communication infrastructure. The United States Navy wanted the American Marconi Company to replace its 50 kW transmitter stations with 200 kW transmitters, allowing the Navy to communicate with all ships at sea. The Marconi company reluctantly pushed back, not wanting to invest in the new equipment. Rather than further negotiation, the Navy commandeered the transmitter stations and transferred control to General Electric for national security. It turns out General Electric was glad to pay for the cost of the new 200 kW transmitters. Following the war's end, the American Marconi Company attempted to regain control of
Radio Corporation of America
In October 1919, General Electric merged all these assets together into the Radio Corporation of America, better known as RCA. The founding charter for the new company stated that ' no person shall be eligible for election as a director or officer of the corporation who is not at the time of such election a citizen of the United States', to keep the US Navy satisfied. [1] RCA started out already owning a majority of wireless radio patents worldwide. With an army of lawyers on its payroll, RCA pursued any company using its patents without a license, swiftly suing them into bankruptcy. They often purchased the company after it crashed into the ground and picked it apart. Not above industrial espionage, they would do anything to ensure that other companies could not succeed. Much later, RCA would face legal action in the Supreme Court for violating antitrust laws over the decades.
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