GE (originally Edison General Electric) started out as a power company; it was only with time that it became an appliance company renting, and then later selling, people stuff that needed to be plugged in to work. Money was made twice over, first with the sale of the refrigerator and second with the ongoing sale of electric power necessary to make it run. This shift in vision involved both imagining a whole new set of demands, beyond lighting for elites, for which electricity might be used and seeing a whole new population—everyone—as a potential market. Not elite light but popular light,
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