George Westinghouse

American inventor

• Born: October 6, 1846
• Birthplace: Central Bridge, New York
• Died: March 12, 1914
• Place of death: New York, New York

An ingenious inventor and a shrewd entrepreneur, Westinghouse developed mechanical and electrical inventions that permitted the United States to emerge as a major industrial nation during the late nineteenth century. His inventions include the air brake, signaling systems, and other important innovations for railroads, and as an entrepreneur he supported the creation of electric light and power systems, using alternating current.

Early Life

George Westinghouse was the eighth child in a family of ten. His mother, Emaline Vedder, was of Dutch-English stock, while his father, George Westinghouse, Sr., was German. A mechanic and an inventor, George, Sr., operated a machine shop in Schenectady, New York, where he manufactured agricultural equipment, mill machinery, and small steam engines. Along with his brothers, young George received most of his education by working in his father’s shop. Although he briefly attended Union College in Schenectady in 1865, he soon decided that he preferred to learn by experimenting with machines rather than by reading books. Throughout his career, Westinghouse perfected his many inventions by drawing more on his mechanical skills than on any formal training in science or engineering.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Westinghouse was anxious to set out on his own and win glory as a soldier. Though only fourteen, he attempted to run away and join the army, only to be stopped by his stern father. Two years later, he overcame his father’s opposition and enlisted as a private. After passing a competitive examination in 1864, he transferred to the United States Navy and became an engineering officer. While serving on board ship, Westinghouse installed a small lathe, which he used to fashion various gadgets.

After the war, Westinghouse returned to work for his father but devoted his free time to invention. In 1865, he received his first patent, for a rotary steam engine that was an improvement over the common reciprocating (up and down) engines then in use. Rather than put this invention into production, however, Westinghouse was soon attracted by the challenges of improving railroad technology. Because of their scale of operations and importance to American business, railroads offered the greatest technological challenges and, consequently, attracted creative and ambitious Americans during the late nineteenth century.

After witnessing a train accident in which a number of cars were derailed, Westinghouse designed a car replacer that permitted repair crews to use a special set of rails to slide derailed cars back onto the main tracks. Joining with two local businesspeople, he began manufacturing his car replacer in Schenectady. Hoping that this new enterprise would succeed, Westinghouse married Marguerite Erskine Walker in 1867. However, Westinghouse did not prosper in Schenectady and his partners succeeded in pushing him out of the business. Disgusted, Westinghouse moved in 1868 to Pittsburgh, where he found a more cooperative group of business associates.

Life’s Work

From the 1870’s to the first decade of the twentieth century, Westinghouse was a major figure in Pittsburgh industry, designing numerous new products and establishing more than sixty different companies. Of his many inventions, perhaps the most original was the air brake. Shortly after he had perfected the car replacer, Westinghouse began giving serious thought to preventing accidents by developing better brakes for trains. At that time, trains were stopped by the engineer shutting off the locomotive and by brakemen in individual train cars applying mechanical brakes. With this arrangement, it was possible to bring a train to a scheduled stop at a station but it was impossible to stop in case of a sudden emergency. To remedy this, Westinghouse explored various mechanical and electrical schemes, all of which he found unreliable.

By chance, Westinghouse happened to read a magazine article about how compressed air was being used in boring the Mount Cenis tunnel in the Italian Alps. Inspired by this article, Westinghouse designed a brake system consisting of a series of brakes in each individual car, all of which were powered by an air compressor in the locomotive. By opening or closing a single valve, the engineer could apply the brakes throughout the train and bring the train to a quick stop. Westinghouse patented this device in 1869 and established the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. For the next two decades, Westinghouse continued to improve this invention, so that by 1890 it was the standard braking system used on all American trains. Not satisfied with the national market, Westinghouse went on to establish factories worldwide, and soon his air brakes were to be found on trains in Europe, Australia, and Russia.

Experience with the air brake led Westinghouse to develop other inventions for the railroad industry. To keep train cars from crashing into one another when the train was stopped, he perfected friction draft gear. To help coordinate the movement of numerous trains on railroad networks, Westinghouse designed an improved signaling system in which electricity and compressed air were used to control signals along the track. To manufacture his signaling system, Westinghouse organized the Union Switch and Signal Company in 1881 and hired a number of talented engineers.

Drawing on this team of engineers, Westinghouse decided in 1884 to plunge into the newly emerging field of electric lighting. At this time, the electrical industry was dominated by Thomas Alva Edison, who had perfected the incandescent lamp and a distribution system using direct current (DC). To compete with Edison, Westinghouse bought up the patents of other inventors and had his engineering staff convert the patents into successful products. Following this strategy, Westinghouse purchased the patents for an incandescent lamp and dynamo from William Stanley, an alternating current (AC) transformer from Lucien Gaulard and John Gibbs in Europe, and an AC motor from Nikola Tesla .

Working with Stanley and Tesla, Westinghouse engineers combined these individual inventions into a coherent system of light and power using AC. Perceiving this new system as a threat to his DC technology, Edison attacked the Westinghouse system, claiming that the high voltages used with AC would lead to unnecessary accidents and death by electrocution. In response to this attack, Westinghouse steadfastly maintained that his system was safe; to demonstrate its great potential, he undertook an impressive installation at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

At the fair, twenty-four giant AC generators delivered power safely to one hundred thousand lamps, which lit up the fair buildings in a spectacular fashion. Although the Chicago installation impressed the general public, Westinghouse convinced professional engineers of the value of his system by using AC to harness and transmit the tremendous power of Niagara Falls in 1896. Largely as a consequence of Westinghouse’s entrepreneurial vision and the skill of his engineers, America came to enjoy the benefits of AC power.

The success of the Chicago and Niagara installations ensured that the Westinghouse Electric Company (organized in 1886) would grow and prosper. Rather than manufacture only AC equipment, however, Westinghouse encouraged this company to introduce new products. Drawing on his extensive experience with the railroads, he and his engineers developed both electric streetcars and locomotives. This work led the Westinghouse Company to build large-scale generating equipment and special motors for the New York subway system and to undertake the electrification of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford railroads in 1906.

Still fascinated by steam engines, Westinghouse purchased the patent rights to the steam turbine perfected by the English inventor Charles A. Parsons. Under his direction, the horizontal steam turbine was adapted first for use in electric generating stations in 1900 and then to power ships in 1912. Much more efficient than the reciprocating engine, the steam turbine has been used extensively in both nuclear power plants and steamships. Westinghouse acquired some 360 patents for these many inventions.

In developing his inventions, Westinghouse moved easily from the machine shop, where he often worked with his hands, to the boardroom, where he met with financiers and businesspeople from around the world. In both contexts, his physical appearance and intellectual power commanded immediate attention. Photographs taken at the height of his career reveal a tall, portly man with a strong face and a walrus mustache. Generally soft-spoken and patient, he expressed dissatisfaction by raising his large right hand and quietly saying, “But you don’t understand”; such an admonition from Westinghouse was usually enough to change the mind of any opponent.

From his earliest days as a manufacturer, Westinghouse took a special interest in the welfare of his employees. He was among the first major employers in the United States to give his men a half day off on Saturday. In 1889, when the Westinghouse Air Brake Company moved to Wilmerding, fourteen miles east of Pittsburgh, Westinghouse built a new town, complete with houses, churches, schools, and parks. With regard to his professional staff, Westinghouse advised his executive vice president, “I want you to employ none but gentlemen.” In general, he succeeded in hiring only honest and hardworking young engineers, and many of the technical achievements of the Westinghouse organization can be attributed to Westinghouse’s ability to hire, supervise, and motivate a strong engineering staff.

Although Westinghouse amassed a large fortune from his many inventions and enterprises, he generally regarded money as a resource for future projects and invested much of his money back into his companies. Throughout his career, he was always at work and seldom indulged in luxuries such as vacations. In 1913, however, at the first signs of a heart condition, his physician prescribed rest, and the great inventor reluctantly retired to his estate in Lenox, Massachusetts. To occupy himself, Westinghouse occasionally went fishing in a nearby pond. One day, his rowboat capsized and he was thrown into the chilly water. In the course of this accident, he strained his heart and caught a severe cold from which he never recovered. He died quietly in New York City on March 12, 1914. Curious and creative to the end, he spent his last days designing an electrically operated wheelchair, which he intended to use during his convalescence.

Significance

As an inventor and entrepreneur, Westinghouse helped bring about a series of profound changes in American business and technology. When he began his career during the late 1860’s, most American business firms were small-scale partnerships or family enterprises, employing at most a few hundred people. With the exception of the railroads, most technology was personal and familiar, developed and used by average Americans in small workshops and on family farms. By the time Westinghouse died in 1914, American industry was dominated by huge corporations with thousands of workers. By then, American technology was characterized by gigantic plants using complex machines and large amounts of electric power. Based on science, this new technology was essential yet incomprehensible to most Americans.

Westinghouse contributed to these fundamental changes in American business and technology by combining the strengths of the nineteenth century with the opportunities of the twentieth century. From his father’s generation, he had learned about technology by working with his hands, and he used his skills as a machinist to perfect remarkable new devices such as the air brake and the steam turbine. From the past, he also carried forward a personal and fatherly concern for his workers, which translated into a policy of decent working conditions and which elicited deep respect from his employees. Finally, he was one of the last heroic entrepreneurs who insisted on presiding over all aspects of business. Westinghouse refused to specialize or delegate authority and took a lively interest not only in invention but also in finance, manufacture, and marketing.

However, Westinghouse was not simply a nineteenth century figure: He was also a visionary who vigorously shaped the business and technology of the twentieth century. He correctly perceived that as American industry expanded rapidly, it would require a better transportation network as well as new sources of power; consequently, he concentrated on improving railroad technology and introducing AC power. Although a craftsperson himself, he saw clearly that new technology would be continually improved through the application of science and he did not hesitate to hire college-trained engineers and scientists. Finally, like other twentieth century industrialists, Westinghouse realized that American business must serve both national and international markets, leading him to create several large, well-organized corporations with branches worldwide.

Thus, in the broadest sense, Westinghouse was a transitional figure in American business and technology. Through his personality and career, one can see how traditional nineteenth century values and practices were used to shape the modern industrial world of twentieth century America.

Bibliography

American Society of Mechanical Engineers. George Westinghouse Commemoration. New York: Author, 1937. Consists of papers given by leading engineers on the occasion of the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of Westinghouse. Although the papers are anecdotal, they provide valuable details about Westinghouse’s personality and accomplishments.

Chandler, Alfred D., Jr. The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977. Provides a broad overview of the changes occurring in American business and technology during the period in which Westinghouse was active.

Hughes, Thomas P. Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. Discusses the role of Westinghouse in developing AC for use in electrical utilities.

Jonnes, Jill. Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World. New York: Random House, 2003. Explains how the three inventors sought to create businesses that would provide safe, reliable electricity. Jonnes describes the inventions and careers of Westinghouse, Edison, and Tesla, and relates how they worked with bankers, lawyers, and financiers to create electrical “empires.”

Leupp, Francis E. George Westinghouse: His Life and Achievements. Boston: Little, Brown, 1918. Though lively and entertaining, this biography contains many conversations made up by the author. Although accurate for general information, it should be used cautiously.

Moran, Richard. Executioner’s Current: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and the Invention of the Electric Chair. New York: A. A. Knopf, 2002. Chronicles the battle between Westinghouse and Edison over the source of power for the electric chair. After Edison suggested that Westinghouse’s AC power this new form of execution, Westinghouse fought back, fearful of the negative stigma this would cause his business.

Passer, Harold C. The Electrical Manufacturers: 1875-1900. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953. Includes a full history of the Westinghouse Electric Company and its efforts to develop and promote AC.

Prout, Henry G. A Life of George Westinghouse. London: Benn Brothers, 1922. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1972. Commissioned by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, this biography includes detailed descriptions of Westinghouse’s inventions as well as a list of his patents. A business associate of Westinghouse, Prout provides insight into Westinghouse as financier and manufacturer. This is generally regarded as the standard biography of Westinghouse.

Usselman, Steven W. “Air Brakes for Freight Trains: Technological Innovation in the American Railroad Industry, 1869-1900.” Business History Review 58 (Spring, 1984): 30-50. The best single source available on how Westinghouse developed and promoted the air brake.

Wilmerding and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2002. A history of the company and its impact upon Wilmerding, the southwest Pennsylvania town where Westinghouse’s air brake business was based.