GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE
WESTINGHOUSE, GEORGE, inventor, manufacturer, capitalist, was born at Central Bridge, Schoharie county, New York, October 6, 1846, son of George and Emeline (Vedder) Westinghouse. He is descended on his father's side from German ancestry, the American branch of which first settled in Massachusetts. His father was a successful manufacturer of agricultural machinery, an inventor of some note, who subsequent to 1856 and until his death, resided in Schenectady, New York, where he established the firm of George Westinghouse and Company.
His education was obtained in the public schools, in his father's machine shop, and at Union college, Schenectady, which latter institution he attended until the close of the sophomore year. While still a boy he joined the Union forces during the Civil war, and served in the 12th New York infantry, afterward in the 16th New York cavalry, and finally as an engineer officer in the United States navy, where his mechanical aptitude found congenial occupation.
He exhibited a marked bent for practical mechanics at an early age and when but fifteen he invented and constructed a rotary engine that clearly marked him as a mechanical genius. From this time forward his career was one of evolutionary growth. In 1865, he invented a railroad frog, which was quite successful, and while exploiting this his attention was drawn to a number of railroad problems, chief of which was that of car brakes, in connection with which his name is now universally known. At that time the brake was a very crude affair, and his first thought was to manipulate it through the application of steam, but his knowledge as an engineer soon demonstrated that condensation would make this a failure. Compressed air was the next agency tried, and the result was the air brake. The first invention was of course very different from the perfected brake of today, but it revolutionized railroading by greatly increasing the safety of operation and by making higher speed possible. His later invention of the triple valve and of setting the brakes by releasing the pressure in the train-pipe, was almost as important
