GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE

Inventor and Businessman, made electricity practical

Among the inventions of this sometimes overlooked man were: the air brake and other apparatus which allowed railroads to develop into the economic force they became; the use and transmission of natural gas for lighting and heating; and alternating-current, a safer way of transmitting elecricity than Thomas Edison and others had pushed strongly for. Westinghouse received a total of 361 patents.

George Westinghouse was born in Central Bridge, NY, Oct. 6, 1846. In 1856, the family moved to Schenectady and opened a machine shop, where George received invaluable training. He served in both the Union army and navy during the Civil War. He received his first patent in 1865 for a rotary steam engine. A chance meeting on a train led to his marriage to Marguerite Erskine Walker, his lifelong love, on August 8, 1867.

Westinghouse was first famous and important for his engineering work that helped make railroads so important. Westinghouse came to Pittsburgh in 1868, and in that same year he tested a revolutionary air brake which used the steam from the locomotive to operate it. In 1869 the Westinghouse Air Brake Company was producing a practical automatic braking system for the nation's railroads, revolutionizing that industry by allowing trains to operate at much higher speeds. Before this invention, many accidents happened because each railroad car had to have its brakes applied separately and manually by individual brakemen. He also soon invented a uniform control system for the operation of switches and signals. This led to the creation of the Union Switch and Signal Company.

Westinghouse made electricity practical for lighting and power by developing the alternating current, going against the predominate view that direct current was best. Nicola Tesla had developed alternating current. Westinghouse was interested, so he bought Tesla's patents, hired him, and started Westinghouse Electric Company to manufacture the equipment needed to use this new power. Thomas Edison fought this new idea, and tried to discredit alternating credit. Edison had produced the practical light bulb, but he insisted on using direct current to transmit the electricity. Direct current, however, was not reliable over long distances. In 1886, Westinghouse had successful experiments in Pittsburgh, and by 1890 demonstrated practical street lighting, also in that city, by using the new alternating current. He demonstrated its usefulness by lighting the Chicago World's Fair. Altogether, Westinghouse received more than 400 patents.

Westinghouse also harnassed the power of Niagra Falls for electricity by building and installing three huge generators at the falls. This project was completed in 1896. Westinghouse also introduced the first alternating current locomotive in 1905. The first major application of it was in the Manhatten Elevated Railways in New york, and later the New York subway system, and then also the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad.

He was also responsible for the world's first company planned community. In 1890, he moved his air brake company east of Pittsburgh, where he had a new factory built, and along with it a planned urban community for the workers. Westinghouse had lost control of all his companies by 1911, due largely to the financial panic of 1907. He died March 12, 1914, after declining health from a heart ailment.

George Westinghouse is, of course, a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the Engineering and Science Hall of Fame. The George Westinghouse Museum is located at the former general office of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company in Wilmerding, PA, near Route 30 just east of Pittsburgh.