3 - MATERIALS BUSINESSES Another area of exceptional Company growth has been in man-made materials. Price and profit equations have substantially changed in the materials industry in favor of General Electric's stable of proprietary high-performance materials. Carbide cutting tools, man-made diamonds, silicones, and engineering plastics satisfy such growing needs as higher productivity in metalworking and lower weight in automobiles. And they are increasingly price competitive with the materials that they replace. General Electric's research and development laboratories, spending nearly a billion dollars this year, continue to produce more patents daily than any other company. And many of their patents are in proprietary materials. Over the past ten years, our earnings from the materials businesses have been growing about 14% a year. When we add to these man-made materials our new participation, through Utah, in the mining and processing of natural materials, you can see a decidedly new dimension emerging for General Electric. Back in 1966 service and materials businesses were producing only 14% of Company earnings. In 1976, they are producing about 27%. Adding in the Utah earnings, the ratio should be something like 40% services and materials, and 60% equipment manufacture. Quite a change. EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURE Of course the design and manufacture of high-quality equipment is still