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George Westinghouse - Family Background & Short Biographical Sketh by Ed Reis

George Westinghouse (1846-1914)

*****George Westinghouse, inventor, engineer, businessman and humanitarian, was born at Central Bridge, Schoharie County, New York, October 6, 1846. He was the son of George Westinghouse and Emmeline (Vedder) Westinghouse. The family is of very ancient German origin. As long ago as the ninth century the Westringhausen family was prominent in Westphalia, Germany. In the fourteenth century the family branched out into three wings; one of these emigrated into Russia, another into Holland, and the third into England. The English branch, however, did not remain in England very long, but crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and it was one of the earliest settlers in the state of Vermont. In the early 1800’s George Westinghouse, Sr., who was of an enterprising nature, left the ancestral homestead of his father, John, in Vermont, and went West as far as the state of Ohio. But the unsettled condition of that country prompted him to turn back East, and he then settled at Central Bridge, New York as a farmer. As he was of inventive mind, he made various valuable improvements in farming implements, and this induced him to move in 1856 to Schenectady, N.Y., where he established The G. Westinghouse Company for the manufacturing of farming implements. He married Emmeline Vedder, a descendant of a Dutch-English family of New York settlers. George Westinghouse, Jr. was the eighth of ten children and was raised first in Central Bridge and later in Schenectady, New York. George Westinghouse, Jr. joined the Union Army just prior to his seventeenth birthday and served for a period of two years during the Civil War. At first he was a private who served in both the Twelfth Regiment and Sixteenth Regiments of the New York Volunteer Cavalry. Later, after having passed a special mechanical examination, he transferred to the Union Navy where he became an officer. He was appointed Third Assistant Engineer on the steam powered gunboat U.S.S. Muscoota. He also served on the steam powered U.S.S. Stars and Stripes. Both these ships were used to blockade the Southern ports during the Civil War. George Westinghouse’s first patent, for a rotary steam engine, was issued to him at the age of 19 shortly after the end of the Civil War. A year after the war ended in 1865 George Westinghouse, Jr. invented two railway appliances, a device for replacing derailed cars upon the track, and a reversible steel railroad frog. The formation of a partnership between George Westinghouse, Jr. and two men in Schenectady and the manufacture of these devices in New Jersey did not prove successful. George then went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to have a steel firm in that city make the articles for him, while he went on the road to sell them to railroad companies. This was the beginning of his long stay in Pittsburgh. George Westinghouse, Jr. married Marguerite Erskine Walker, of Kinston-on-the-Hudson, New York, on August 8, 1867, in Brooklyn. She originally stayed with her new husbands parents in Schenectady but later moved to Pittsburgh when George Westinghouse, Jr. established himself well enough to send for her to join him. George Westinghouse’s major breakthrough came with his invention of the Westinghouse air brake. The brake was tested for the first time in April, 1869, on the Burgettstown Accommodation of the Steubenville division of the Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, which was commonly called "The Panhandle Railroad". After the successful trial he formed the Westinghouse Air Brake Company in July of 1869. The first Westinghouse Air Brake Company plant was located on the corner of Twenty-Fifth Street and Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh. George Westinghouse, Jr. went on to form 59 other companies during his lifetime. George and Marguerite Westinghouse had a single child who was born 16 years after they were married. His name was George Westinghouse, III. George Westinghouse, Jr., was truly a pioneer of the industrial age. He had a major impact on railroad transportation, shipping; with the invention of the marine turbine engine, the development of natural gas and electricity. George Westinghouse’s work with alternating current electricity, sometimes referred to as "Westinghouse Current" in the early days, was another of his crowning achievements. It was Westinghouse’s alternating current (ac) that was used to electrify the world. George Westinghouse, Jr. passed away on March 12, 1914 and was buried in New York City. A year later his body and that of his wife Marguerite, who only survived him by 90 days, were moved to Arlington National Cemetery. George Westinghouse, Jr. was a very patriotic American and had made it known before his death that he wanted to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The moving of his body and that of his wife fulfilled that wish. America and the World had lost a great man .... a man who’s efforts had truly benefited mankind. "Long Live the Memory of George Westinghouse"

Born in Central Bridge, New York, in 1846, Westinghouse moved with his family to nearby Schenectady when he was ten. At his father's machinery shop, the young Westinghouse learned to work with steam engines and other machines. At the age of fifteen, Westinghouse began service with the Union Army, which continued through the Civil War (1861-65).

Looking back later, Westinghouse would claim that his apprenticeship and his military service were the "greatest capital" with which he developed his various enterprises. After the War, Westinghouse enrolled at Union College, but soon left to rejoin his father's business. Westinghouse began a prolific career of inventing (over 300 inventions), with a patented rotary steam engine, a system for righting derailed railroad cars, and a railroad frog (a switch that allows a train's wheels to "leap" across intersecting rails at a junction).

George Westinghouse, Jr (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914), was an American entrepreneur and engineer who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry. Westinghouse was one of Thomas Edison's main rivals in the early implementation of the American electricity system. Westinghouse's system ultimately prevailed over Edison's insistence on direct current. In 1911 Westinghouse received the AIEE's Edison Medal "For meritorious achievement in connection with the development of the alternating current system."[1]

Early years[edit]

He was born in Central Bridge, New York, in 1846. He was the son of a machine shop owner and was talented at machinery and business. At the age of fifteen, as the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in the New York National Guard until his parents urged him to return home. Two years later in 1863, he persuaded his parents to allow him to re-enlist and joined the New York Cavalry. In December 1864 he resigned from the Army to join the Navy, serving as Acting Third Assistant Engineer on the USS Muscoota through the end of the war. In 1865 he returned to his family in Schenectady and enrolled at nearby Union College. However, he lost interest in the curriculum and dropped out in his first term there.

Westinghouse was 19 years old when he created his first invention, the rotary steam engine.[2] He also devised the Westinghouse Farm Engine. At age 21 he invented a "car replacer", a device to guide derailed railroad cars back onto the tracks, and a reversible frog, a device used with a railroad switch to guide trains onto one of two tracks.[2][3]

In 1867, Westinghouse met and soon married Marguerite Erskine Walker. In their nearly forty-seven years of marriage they had one son, George Westinghouse 3rd.[4] The couple made their first home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They later acquired houses in Lenox, Massachusetts and in Washington, District of Columbia. Mrs. Westinghouse died only a few months after her husband.

At about this time, he witnessed a train wreck where two engineers saw one another, but were unable to stop their trains in time using the existing brakes. Brakemen ran from car to car, on catwalks atop the cars, applying the brakes manually on each car.

Westinghouse Steam and Air Brakes (U.S. Patent 144,006)

In 1869, at age 22, he invented a railroad braking system using compressed air. The Westinghouse system used a compressor on the locomotive, a reservoir and a special valve on each car, and a single pipe running the length of the train (with flexible connections) which both refilled the reservoirs and controlled the brakes, applying and releasing the brakes on all cars simultaneously. It is a failsafe system, in that any rupture or disconnection in the train pipe will apply the brakes throughout the train. It was patented by Westinghouse on October 28, 1873.[5] The Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell Westinghouse's invention. It was in time nearly universally adopted. Modern trains use brakes in various forms based on this design. The same conceptual design of fail-safe air brake is also found on heavy trucks.

Westinghouse pursued many improvements in railway signals (then using oil lamps), and in 1881 he founded the Union Switch and Signal Company to manufacture his signaling and switching inventions.

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Father: George Westinghouse, Sr. (machine shop owner, b. 20-Mar-1809, d. 1884)
Mother: Emeline Vedder (b. 19-Sep-1810, m. 4-Jul-1830)
Brother: Henry Herman Westinghouse (Westinghouse executive, b. 16-Nov-1853, d. 18-Nov-1933)
Brother: Albert Westinghouse (Union soldier, d. 1864 Civil War)
Brother: John Westinghouse (schoolmaster)
Wife: Marguerite Erskine Walker (m. 8-Aug-1867, d. Jun-1914)
Son: George Westinghouse III (b. 1883, d. 1963)
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