George Westinghouse

Time Line of George Westinghouse's Life

• Born on October 6, 1846, in Central Bridge, NY
• Westinghouse worked in his early years in his father's shops in Schenectady where they manufactured agricultural machinery.
  He served as a private in the cavalry for 2 years during the Civil War before being made Acting Third Assistant Engineer in the Navy in 1864.
  He attended college for only 3 months in 1865, dropping out soon after obtaining his first patent on October 31, 1865 for a rotary steam engine.
  Later, he invented an instrument which replaced derailed freight cars on the train tracks and started a business to manufacture his invention.
• In April of 1869, he obtained a patent for one of his most important inventions, the air brake.
• Westinghouse saw the potential for electricity and formed the Westinghouse Electric Company in 1884, later known as the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company.
  He obtained exclusive rights to Nikola Tesla's patents for a polyphase system of alternating current in 1888, persuading the inventor to join the Westinghouse Electric Company.
• At the turn of the century, the various Westinghouse companies were worth about $120 million and employed approximately 50,000 workers.
  By 1904, there were 9 manufacturing companies of his in the U.S., 1 in Canada, and 5 in Europe
• The financial panic of 1907 caused Westinghouse to lose control of the companies he had founded. In 1910, he found his last major concern,
  the invention of a compressed air spring for taking the shock out of automobile riding. By 1911, he had severed all ties with his former companies.
• pending much of his later life in public service, Westinghouse showed signs of a heart ailment by 1913 and was ordered to rest by doctors.
  After deteriorating health and illness confined him to a wheelchair, he died on March 12, 1914. With a total of 361 patents to his credit,
  his last patent was received in 1918, four years after his death.