A Life Of George Westinghouse

GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE the man may be overshadowed by his inventions, company, or legend. But in this biography by Henry G. Prout, Westinghouse's personal life and history are recounted along with his many inventions and enterprises -- and his inventions and enterprises were enormous. "He dealt in the same week, and often in the same day, with organization, financial and executive affairs, commercial affairs, and the engineering details of half a dozen companies in two hemispheres," Prout noted. "They were as far apart in kind as the air brake and natural gas, and as far apart in geography as San Francisco and St. Petersburg." This biography covers topics as diverse as power signaling and switching, Westinghouse's use of the alternating current, his activities at Niagara Falls, his European enterprises, his financial methods, and his overall impact on rail transportation and the power industry.

The story of businessman and engineer George Westinghouse is fascinating; his inventions revolutionized rail transport, and his pioneering distribution of electrical power changed life for Americans forever. Brought up in the small town of Central Bridge in upstate New York, Westinghouse showed talent from a young age, learning much of his father's mechanical knowhow. Filing his first patent at the tender age of 19, it was through his gifts in engineering and knack for business that Westinghouse rose to become one of the biggest names in cutting-edge American invention and technology. Though he built a variety of induction motors, steam and gas engines, it was his mechanical air braking system for trains that endured - its descendants are still used in modern locomotives worldwide. In maturity, Westinghouse competed with Thomas Edison for the electrical market; the staggering possibilities of delivering electricity to buildings meant the two fought intensely for contracts to roll out electrification, culminating in the World's Fair of 1893. There, George Westinghouse convincingly demonstrated how alternating current (AC) could deliver power at great scale to homes and businesses consistently, safely and efficiently. All these events and more comprise Henry G. Prout's biography, which delves into the schematics of Westinghouse's inventions, the resulting enterprises and the nature of the man himself.

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This Is A New Release Of The Original 1921 Edition.

Excerpt from A Life of George Westinghouse Many officers and members of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers have thought that the Society ought to publish the lives of some of its great men. In 1912 it published a special edition of the Autobiography of John Fritz, Honorary Member and Past President. This life of George Westinghouse, Honorary Member and Past President, is the second in what may be a series of such biographies. The activities of George Westinghouse were many and varied, and many different activities went on simultane ously. He dealt in the same week, and often in the same day, with organization, financial and executive affairs, com mercial affairs, and the engineering details of half a dozen companies in two hemispheres. They were as far apart in kind as the air brake and natural gas, and as far apart in geography as San Francisco and St. Petersburg. That being so, it seemed that a chronological narrative would of necessity lead to some confusion, not to say fatigue, for the reader. It was decided to treat each topic by itself without regard to what might be going on at the same time in other fields, with a short preliminary chapter to which the reader might return to orient himself should he care, for instance, to know what other serious things were in hand at a critical moment in the history of the air brake. It was hoped that by this treatment a certain continuity of impression might be kept in each story told by itself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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