CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 2002--When President Bush flips the switch to turn on the 2002 National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C., on Thursday evening, December 5, the event will mark the 40th consecutive year that GE and its Cleveland-based lighting operations of GE Consumer Products (GECP) have created the design and donated the lighting and ornaments for the tree.
The nation's tree, which grows on the Ellipse (also known as Presidents' Park) between the White House and the Washington Monument, is a 50-foot Colorado Blue Spruce.
The lighting ceremony and entertainment program, which herald the start of the holiday season in the U.S. capital, are sponsored by Christmas Pageant of Peace, Inc. -- a nonprofit Washington, D.C., organization.
This year, the lighting design emphasizes tradition, using a holiday favorite color scheme of red, green and gold lights and decorations. GE Consumer Products lighting specialist Kathy Presciano, who has designed the lighting and decorations for the National Christmas Tree for the past eight years, called on the expertise of two other GE businesses for their high-technology products and materials.
She said, I thought ... how could we take advantage of the diversity of GE and the benefits and features of GE products and translate those products typically used in industrial applications into a decorative application like the National Christmas Tree design project? asked Presciano rhetorically. And that's exactly what we did.
Describing the design, Presciano said, This year, we are using a cross-fading technique that will give the tree two distinctive appearances, creating the effect of two virtually different decorated trees. Over a few seconds, the tree will appea gold. A gradual change by means of a cycling mechanism will then fade the tree from gold as brilliant green lights emerge.
The cross-fading technique will provide a gradual, but constant, dynamic visual effect.
Creating much of the sparkle will be approximately 200,000 gold and green traditional holiday lights woven throughout the tree. New this year, adding considerable brilliance, will be numerous strands of high-tech, red LEDs -- light-emitting diodes -- intertwined with gold garland.
The product, called GE Tetra LED System(TM), was donated by GELcore of Valley View, Ohio - GE's joint venture with EMCORE of New Jersey.
In addition to energy efficiency, advantages of these LEDs are solid state design, no heat, resistant to inclement weather, tremendous brightness, and long life ... 100,000 hours versus the 1,000-hour-life of traditional, incandescent holiday lights.
The gold garland, lighted with the bright red LEDs and punctuated with lighted wreath ornaments, will remain on consistently through the gold-to-green cross fading. Presciano noted that a typical application for the LEDs is outdoor retail sign lighting or cove lighting. Creatively using the LEDs for this decorative purpose was quite different from its intended use ... and fun to do, she said.
Resistant to just about any tough weather that could possibly come its way are the ornaments, made of Lexan(R) resin. Donated again this year by GE Plastics of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Lexan resin is a transparent and highly-durable engineering thermoplastic.
The material was used in the hand-fabrication of the 100 specially-designed wreath ornaments with big red bows, and gold bulbs with greenery, as well as the tree topper.
The tree topper, literally the star of the project, said Presciano, also incorporates LEDs. The design idea originated from a rhinestone broach I saw in a little shop, she explained. I remembered seeing a display of GELcore's LED traffic signal lights.
The lens pattern on the traffic lights was beautifully artistic with lots of facets. I thought ... perfect! So we incorporated 10, round, LED traffic lights into the tree topper design for a very powerful beacon of light at the top.
The tree topper, as well as all ornaments, use a special holographic-like material for added sheen and brilliance, particularly for daytime viewing when the tree is not lighted, but still needs to look spectacular for visitors.
Concluded Presciano, The National Christmas Tree design is simple, but very colorful and dynamic. I hope citizens of Washington, D.C., and visitors to the capital, enjoy it.
She noted that a replica of the National Christmas Tree lighting will be displayed at GE's world headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut, through the holidays.
Among the General Electric Company's major businesses, GE Consumer Products, GE Plastics, and GELcore are global leaders in technology, manufacturing and marketing in their industries. Operations of these businesses span the globe -- in North and South America, Europe and Asia.
(For more information on the lighting operations of GE Consumer Products, GE Plastics, GELcore, and GE, visit web sites www.GELighting.com, www.geplastics.com, www.GELcore.com, and www.ge.com.
(Note to editors: To schedule an interview with GE Consumer Products' National Christmas Tree lighting designer, Kathy Presciano, please call Janice Fraser, GE Consumer Products, at 216-266-2185.)
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CONTACT: GE Consumer Products
Janice Fraser, 216/266-2185
KEYWORD: OHIO DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: RETAIL CONSUMER/HOUSEHOLD GOVERNMENT
SOURCE: GE