IEEE Atlanta Section History
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IEEE Atlanta Section Centennial History – Key Events
January 19, 1904 - The Atlanta Section of the AIEE holds its first meeting. The section consists of 19 members, 5 of which are students.
June 23, 1914 - The Georgia Tech AIEE student chapter holds its first official meeting.
1923 - Charles Adist, a widely recognized hydroelectric expert and official of the Georgia Railway and Power Company, is named an AIEE Fellow. (He is believed to be the first AIEE Fellow named from the Southeast U.S.)
1924 - The Atlanta Association of Radio Engineers, predecessor to the IRE, is organized.
July 16, 1927 - The Atlanta Section of the IRE is established and holds its first meeting. The section is the first in the Southeast U.S.
1946 - The Georgia Tech student chapter of the IRE is established.
January 1, 1963 - The AIEE and the IRE merge to become the IEEE. At the time, there are 918 registered members in the Atlanta Section.
North Georgia Electrical/Electronics Technology – Key Events
1906 A 66 kV transmission line connecting Gainesville to Atlanta is completed. It is only the 2nd such line to be completed in the U.S.
1913 The connection of the Georgia system to the Southern Power Company distribution lines in South Carolina attracts national attention and sets an important precedent for the large scale exchange of electrical energy between independent systems and across state lines.
1942 Just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government announces plans to build a major new bomber plant – Air Force Plant #6 – in Marietta, GA. The plant is operated first by the Bell Aircraft Co. and later by Lockheed.
June 30, 1968 The largest aircraft in the world, the Lockheed C-5A, manufactured in Georgia, makes its first flight. Its complex avionics suite includes 38 antennas.
1969 The Western Electric Corporation announces plans to build “the world’s largest cable-producing plant” in Norcross, GA. The plant is completed and opens in 1972.
November 14, 1975 The first successful laboratory demonstration of a telephone system using fiber optics is conducted at Bell Laboratories, Atlanta.
December 6, 1976 The nation’s first “superstation,” Ted Turner’s WTBS in Atlanta, begins relaying its TV programs via satellite to North America.
1977 Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington begin shipping modems out of Hayes’ home near Ogelthorpe University. Their new firm quickly becomes one of the most popular and successful producers of modems.
September 15, 1980 The first permanent commercial telephone system (totaling 6.5 miles in length) to use fiber optic cable is installed by Southern Bell in the metro Atlanta area.
1994 Charles Brewer founds Mindspring Enterprises, an Internet Service Provider (ISP), in Atlanta. He starts his business with only 8 modems and 32 non-paying customers.
Sources - IEEE Headquarters - IEEE Region 3 Centennial Compendium, compiled by Robert Duggan (1984)
