George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 - March 12, 1914) is an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who invented the railroad brake and was the pioneer of the electrical industry, earning the first patent at the age of 19. Westinghouse sees potential in alternating current, turning as an electrical distribution system in the early 1880s and putting all its resources to develop and market it, a move that puts its business in direct competition with the direct Edison current system. In 1911, Westinghouse received the Edison AIEE Medal "For meritorious achievement in relation to the development of an alternating current system."
Video George Westinghouse
Initial years
George Westinghouse was born in 1846 at Central Bridge, New York, son of Emeline (Vedder) and George Westinghouse Sr., machine shop owner. Since his youth, he has talented in engineering and business. At the age of fifteen, when the Civil War broke out, Westinghouse enrolled in the New York National Guard and served until his parents urged him to return home. In April 1863 he persuaded his parents to allow him to re-register, then he joined Company M of the 16th New York Cavalry and gained promotion to the rank of corporal. In December 1864 he resigned from the Army to join the Navy, acting as Acting Assistant to the Third Assistant on the warship of the USS Muscoota until the end of the war. After his military return in August 1865, he returned to his family at Schenectady and enrolled at Union College. However, he lost interest in the curriculum and dropped out of school in his first semester there.
Westinghouse was 19 when he invented his first invention, a rotating steam engine. He also designed the Westinghouse Farm Engine. At the age of 21 he finds a "car replacement", a tool to guide the railroad car back to the track, and an invertible frog, a device used with a railroad switch to guide the train to one of two tracks.
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Air brake
At around this time, he witnessed a train accident in which two engineers saw each other, but could not stop their train in time using the existing brakes. Brakemen had to run from car to car, on a catwalk over the car, braking manually in every car.
In 1869, at the age of 22, Westinghouse created a railway braking system using compressed air. The Westinghouse system uses a compressor on locomotives, special reservoirs and valves on each car, and a single pipe that runs the length of the train (with flexible connections) that recharge the reservoir and control the brakes, allowing engineers to apply and release brakes simultaneously in all cars. This is a failsafe system, where any disconnection or disconnection in the train pipe will apply the brakes throughout the train. Patented by Westinghouse on October 28, 1873. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) was later organized to produce and sell Westinghouse invention. It was in time almost universally adopted by trains. Modern trains use brakes in various shapes based on this design. The same concept design of unsafe air brakes is also found on large trucks.
Westinghouse pursues many improvements in rail signals (which then use oil lamps). In 1881 he founded the Union Switch and Signal Company to produce the signaling and transfer of his invention.
Power distribution
Westinghouse's interest in gas distribution and telephone transference made him interested in the new field of power distribution in the early 1880s. Electrical lighting is a thriving business with many companies building current and outdoor-based street lighting (AC) lighting systems (AC) and Thomas Edison launching the first DC power designed to illuminate homes and businesses by its patented patent light. In 1884, Westinghouse began to develop its own domestic DC lighting system and hired physicist William Stanley to work on it. Westinghouse became aware of the new European alternating current system in 1885 when he read about them in the British technical journals Engineering . AC has the ability to "upgraded" the voltage by the transformer for long-distance distribution and then "resign" by the transformer for consumer use enabling a large centralized power plant to supply long-distance electricity in cities with a more diffuse population. This is an advantage over low voltage DC systems marketed by Thomas Edison electric utilities that have limited range due to the low voltage used. Westinghouse sees the potential of air conditioners to achieve greater economies of scale as a way to build a truly competitive system rather than simply building other almost non-competitive DC lighting systems using quite different patents to get around Edison's patents.
In 1885, Westinghouse imported a number of Gaulard-Gibbs transformers and Siemens AC generators, to begin experimenting with the AC network in Pittsburgh. Stanley, assisted by engineers Albert Schmid and Oliver B. Shallenberger, developed the Gaulard-Gibbs transformer design into the first practical transformer. In 1886, with the support of Westinghouse, Stanley installed the first multi-voltage AC power system in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a demonstration lighting system powered by a hydroelectric generator that generates 500 volts of AC down to 100 volts to bright, incandescent light at home and business.. That same year, Westinghouse formed "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company"; in 1889 he named it "Westinghouse Electric Corporation".
Current war
The Westinghouse Company installed 30 more air-conditioning systems within a year and by the end of 1887, it had 68 alternating current power generators to the 121-based DC-based Edison station. This competition with Edison was led in the late 1880s to the so-called "War of Currents "with Thomas Edison and his company joining the widespread public perception that the high voltages used in the AC distribution are not safe. Edison even suggested the Westinghouse AC generator was used in the new State of New York electric chair. Westinghouse also had to deal with AC rivals, Thomson-Houston Electric Company who had built 22 power plants by the end of 1887 and in 1889 had bought another competitor, Brush Electric Company. Thomson-Houston expanded their business while trying to avoid a patent conflict with Westinghouse, arranging deals such as coming to an agreement over the territory of the lighting company, paying royalties to use Stanley's transformer patents, and allowing Westinghouse to use their incandescent Sawyer-Man incandescent patents. The Edison company, in collusion with Thomson-Houston, managed to arrange in 1890 that the first electric chair was powered with an AC generator Westinghouse, forcing Westinghouse to try to block this step by hiring the best lawyers of the day to (unsuccessfully) defend William Kemmler, the first man which is scheduled to die in a chair. The War of Currents will end with financiers, such as J. P. Morgan, pushing Edison Electric toward the AC and pushing out Thomas Edison. In 1892, the Edison company joined the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric, a conglomerate with the Thomson-Houston board in control.
Development and competition
During this period Westinghouse continued to pour money and engineering resources into the goal of building fully integrated air-conditioning systems, acquiring Sawyer-Man lamps by purchasing Light Electric Consolidation, developing components such as induction meters, and obtaining the rights to the inventor Nikola Tesla AC brushless induction motor together with a patent for a new type of electric power distribution, polyphase alternating current. The acquisition of a decent AC motor provides Westinghouse a patent for the system, but the financial strain purchases a patent and employs the engineer needed to build it means the development of Tesla's motorcycle has to be retained for a while.
In 1890, the Westinghouse company was in trouble. The devastation near Barings Bank in London triggered financial panic in 1890, causing investors to call their loans to W.E. Shortage of money suddenly forced the company to refinance its debt. New lenders demanded Westinghouse reduce what looked like excessive spending on corporate acquisitions, research, and other patents.
In 1891, Westinghouse built a hydroelectric AC power plant, Ames Power Plant. The plant supplies power to the Gold King Mine 3.5 miles away. This is the first successful demonstration of industrial long-distance transmission of alternating current power and used two 100Ã, Westinghouse alternator hp, one working as a generator producing 3000-volt, 133-Hertz, single-phase AC, and the other is used as an AC motor. Early in 1893, Westinghouse engineer Benjamin Lamme has made great progress in developing an efficient version of induction motors Tesla and Westinghouse Electric embarked on the branding of their complete polyphase AC system as the "Tesla Polyphase System", announcing Tesla's patents gave them priority patents over the air conditioning system others. and their intention to sue patent infringers.
In 1893, George Westinghouse won an offer to illuminate the 1893 Colombian World Exposition in Chicago with General Electric's fluid and slightly unbinding electric current to get the contract. The World Exhibition devotes a building to an electric exhibition. It was a key event in the history of AC power, as Westinghouse demonstrates the safety, reliability, and efficiency of an alternating current system that is fully integrated with the American public.
The Westinghouse demonstration that they can build a complete air-conditioning system at the Colombian Exhibition was instrumental in getting them a contract to build a two-phase AC generating system, Adams Power Station, in Niagara Falls in 1895. At the same time, the contract to build a three phase phase AC distribution system which required the project to be given to General Electric. The early to mid 1890s saw General Electric, backed by financier J. P. Morgan, involved in costly takeover efforts and patent battles with Westinghouse Electric. The competition was a very expensive patent-sharing agreement signed between the two companies in 1896.
More projects
In 1889, Westinghouse purchased several mining claims in the Patagonia Mountains in southeastern Arizona and formed Duquesne Mining & amp; Reduction Company. A year later he founded what is now Duquesne ghost town to be used as the headquarters of his company. He lives in a Victorian-style mansion, which still stands, but is in disrepair. Duquesne grew to over 1,000 inhabitants and the mine peaked in the mid-1910s.
With the development of the air-conditioning network, Westinghouse turned its attention to the production of electricity. Initially, the available source of the producer is hydroturbines where water falls are available, and the reciprocating steam engine is not available. Westinghouse felt that the reciprocity steam engine was awkward and inefficient, and wanted to develop some "rotating" engine classes that would be more elegant and efficient.
One of his first inventions was the rotating steam engine, but proved to be impractical. British engineer Charles Algernon Parsons began experimenting with steam turbines in 1884, beginning with a 10-horsepower (7.5 kW) turbine. Westinghouse purchased the rights to the Parsons turbine in 1885, improved Parsons technology, and increased its scale.
In 1898, Westinghouse demonstrated a 300-kilowatt unit, replacing the reciprocating engine at its braking plant. The following year he installed a 1.5-megawatt unit, 1,200 rpm for Hartford Electric Company.
Westinghouse then developed a steam turbine for maritime propulsion. Large turbines are most efficient at about 3,000 rpm, while efficient propellers operate at about 100 rpm. That requires reduction of gearing, but building a reduction gearing that can operate at high rpm and at high power is difficult, since a little misalignment will shake the power train to pieces. Westinghouse and his engineers devised an automatic alignment system that made turbine power practical for large ships.
Westinghouse remained productive and inventive for most of his life. Like Edison, he has a practical and experimental nature. At one time, Westinghouse began working on heat pumps that could provide heating and cooling, and believed that he might be able to extract enough power in the process to allow the system to run on its own.
Westinghouse pursued a perpetual driving machine, and British physicist Lord Kelvin, one of the Westinghouse correspondents, told him that he would violate the law of thermodynamics. Westinghouse said it might be the case, but it made no difference. If he can not build a perpetual motion machine, he will still have a heat pump system that can be patented and sold.
With the introduction of the car after the turn of the century, Westinghouse returned to its previous discovery and designed a compressed air absorber damper for a car suspension.
Next personal life, life and death
In 1867, Westinghouse met and soon married Marguerite Erskine Walker. They married for 47 years, and have one son, George Westinghouse III, who has six children. The couple made their first home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They then acquired homes in Lenox, Massachusetts, where they summarize, and in Washington, District of Columbia.
Westinghouse remained the captain of the American industry until 1907, when financial panic led to his resignation from the control of the Westinghouse company. In 1911, he was no longer active in business, and his health declined.
George Westinghouse died on March 12, 1914, in New York City at the age of 67. He was originally buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY and was later removed on December 14, 1915. As a Civil War veteran, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, along with his wife Marguerite, who survived with him for three months. He was also originally buried in Woodlawn and removed and reinterred at the same time as George.
Working relationship
Six weekdays a week is the rule when George Westinghouse inaugurated his first half-Saturday vacation at his factory in Pittsburgh in 1881.
Awards and awards
In 1918, his former home, Solitude, was destroyed and land was given to the City of Pittsburgh to establish Westinghouse Park. In 1930, the Westinghouse Memorial, funded by its employees, was stationed at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh. Also named in his honor, George Westinghouse Bridge near the site of his Turtle Creek plant. The plaque reads:
The George Westinghouse Jr. Birthplace and Boyhood Home at Central Bridge, New York, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
In 1989, Westinghouse was sworn in as National Inventors Hall of Fame.
References
Patent
Note
Bibliography
External links
- Westinghouse Corporation
- Book Notes interview with Jill Jonnes about Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse and Race to Electrify the World, October 26, 2003.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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