GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE Biography - Pioneers, Explorers & inventors

 
 

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GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE

Westinghouse, George. Inventor and manufacturer. Born in New York in 1846.       
Educated in public and high schools. Westinghouse spent much time in his father's 
machine shop, inventing, at 15, a rotary engine. Served in Union Army, 1863-64.   
Assistant engineer in United States Navy, 1864-65. Attended Union College to     
sophomore year (Ph.D., 1890). Invented a device for replacing railroad cars on   
the track in 1865; invented and successfully introduced the Westinghouse air     
brake in 1868, which he later greatly improved. Also made other inventions in     
railway signals, steam and gas engines, steam turbines, and electric machinery.   
George Westinghouse was a pioneer, against great opposition, in introducing       
alternating current machinery in America, which rendered possible the great       
development of water power for long distance electrical transmission. Built the   
great generators at Niagara Falls and those for elevated railway and rapid       
transit system in New York. Established large works in United States, Canada,     
England, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, and Italy for manufacturing air       
brakes, electrical and steam machinery. Was president of numerous corporations,   
employing about 50,000 men, and with a capitalization of about $200,000,000. His 
inventions of the air brake and of automatic railway signals have been largely   
instrumental in the possibility and safety of modern high speed railroading.     
Westinghouse died in 1914.