Prolific inventor George Westinghouse (1846-1914) influenced the course of history by enabling the growth of the railroads through his inventions and by promoting the use of electricity for power and transportation. His electric company became one of the greatest electric manufacturing organizations in the United States, and his influence abroad was evident by the many companies he founded in other countries.
When George was 10 years old, his family moved to Schenectady, New York where his father started the firm of G. Westinghouse & Company to manufacture farm implements. While working with his father, young George acquired a realistic sense of tools, materials, machinery and structures.
After three years of military service during the Civil war, he enrolled as a sophomore at Union College. Within three months, however, he convinced himself and his teachers the college curriculum had little to offer to one with his mechanical learning’s. He dropped out of the college at Christmas vacation and returned to his father’s factory. One important thing did happen during his short stay in college; he obtained his first patent, for a rotary steam engine, at age 19.While traveling on the trains for his fathers business, he observed the problem of derailed cars, and that led to his inventing a device for replacing derailed cars with greater ease and in shorter time. He formed a business in Schenectady with two men who put up $5000 each to finance the manufacture of the “car replacer.”
A HISTORY CHANGING INVENTION FOR THE RAILROADSWestinghouse knew that railroads could never be truly successful until trains had a more effective brake. For three years he worked at improving train brakes without success. But then inspiration struck. An air compressor could be installed in the engine cab, with pipes caring the air to the brakes on each of the cars. The engineer could let compressed air into the system to stop the train and release the air when he wanted to move. Previously, train accidents were frequent since brakes had to be applied manually on each car by different brakemen following a signal from the engineer.
In April 1869, he obtained a patent for the air brake system, and in July, 1869, at age 22, he organized the Westinghouse Air Brake Company in Pittsburgh. The company, with Westinghouse’s inventions for braking and signaling systems, helped to revolutionize the railroads. He continued to make many changes in his air brake design and later developed the automatic air brake system and the triple valve.
His industry expanded as he opened companies in Europe and Canada. In the United States, in 1881 he started the Union Switch and Signal Company to manufacture devices — based on his own inventions and the patents of others — to control the increased speed and flexibility of trains which was made possible by the invention of the air brake.
ENERGY CATCHES H
IS EYENatural gas caught Westinghouse’s attention after a well drilled on his own property produced a large flow of gas, and in 1885 he purchased the charter of the Philadelphia Co., which supplied gas to thousands of private houses in Pittsburgh through many miles of pipe lines.
His interest in electricity was piqued by the obvious disadvantages of Edison’s DC system. He obtained the U.S. rights to Gaulard and Gibbs system of distributing AC and hired William Stanley to redesign and improve the Gaulard-Gibbs “secondary converter,” or transformer, as the device was later called.
Westinghouse organized the Westinghouse Electric Company to manufacture and promote the use of alternating-current system equipment, and became a spirited competitor of Edison and his DC system. He acquired exclusive rights to Nikola Tesla’s patent for the polyphase system in 1888 and lured Tesla to join the electric company and continue his work on the AC motor he had been developing. Interestingly, Tesla had one been an employee of Edison’s, but left when he did not receive the money he believed was owed him.In 1892 Westinghouse won the contract to light the 1893 Columbian Exposition at Chicago. He manufactured over 200,000 lamps for lighting and replacements. The Westinghouse exhibit also included a complete working model of a polyphase system, including step-up and step-down transformers, a short length transmission line and switch board. At about the same time Westinghouse successfully negotiated with the Cataract Construction Co. of Buffalo, NY, to supply AC generators to harness the energy of Niagara Falls. The generator specs called for three 5000 horse-power, two-phase generators, 2200 volts, 250 rpm, complete with switchboard and auxiliaries. The system was placed in commercial service in the fall of 1895. There followed many successes for Westinghouse’s company in the fields of power generation and the application of electricity to industry, rail and marine transportation, the military and to the home.
In 1895, he began the development of gas engines and built high-speed steam engines designed by his brother, Herman. He acquired the American rights of the Parsons steam turbines in 1896, and made many improvements in turbine construction.
AND INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURYAt the turn of the century, the various Westinghouse companies were worth about $120 million and employed approximately 50,000 workers. By 1904, he had nine manufacturing companies in the U.S., one in Canada, and five in Europe.
Westinghouse made further industrial history by acquiring exclusive rights to manufacture the Parsons steam turbine in America and by introducing the first alternating current locomotive in 1905. The first major application of alternating current to railway systems was in the Manhattan Elevated railways in New York, and later in the New York subway system. The first single-phase railway locomotive was demonstrated in the East Pittsburgh railway yards in 1905, and soon after, the Westinghouse Company began the task of electrifying the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad with the single-phase system between Woodlawn, NY, and Stamford, CT.
The financial panic of 1907 caused Westinghouse to lose control of the companies he had founded. In 1910, he found his last major concern, the invention of a compressed air spring for taking the shock out of automobile riding. By 1911, he had severed all ties with his former companies.
Spending much of his later life in public service, Westinghouse showed signs of a heart ailment by 1913 and was ordered to rest by doctors. After deteriorating health and illness confined him to a wheelchair, he died on March 12, 1914 with a total of 361 patents to his credit.
His last patent was received in 1918, four years after his death.
Phil Robertson, Editor
