Edison hired an outside engineer named Harold P. Brown, who could pretend to be impartial, to perform public demonstrations in which animals were electrocuted by AC power. The electric chair became a common form of execution for decades, even though it had proven from the first to be an unsatisfactory way to do the job. The worst of this came in 1890 in which, through dealings by both Edison and Thomas-Houston, it was arranged that convicted murderer William Kimmler5 would be executed via electrocution powered by a Westinghouse AC power generator. This led him to later start looking into heat pump technology, endeavoring to find a perpetual energy source in a pump so efficient that it could power itself with the heat it collected. George Westinghouse, Jr. (October 6 1846 – March 12 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer now best known for the brand of electrical goods that bear his name. Near the tail end of 1865 at only 19 years of age, he used his knowledge of steam power to create the rotary steam engine, patenting it shortly after. The feud became known as "the War of Currents." Death and legacy. The alternating current will kill people, of course. As quoted in Francis Ellington Leupp. While Thomas-Houston made efforts to get along with Westinghouse generally, Edison and his people were far less agreeable. With cars beginning to develop, Westinghouse looked back to his earlier air brake system for trains and found a way to scale it for the automobile, resulting in compressed air shock absorbers in 1910. Home Donate The Memorial Story Westinghouse Legacy Restoration Contact. While these early days seemed largely uneventful for the young George, it was noted by family and friends how keen an interest the boy took in technology like the steam engine. That same year he organized the Westinghouse Air Brake Company to manufacture and market his air brake. He later used this same technology for ships, figuring out a way to upscale the turbine technology to work with even the largest vessels. However, he enlisted once again in 1863, this time as part of the 16th New York Cavalry. The problem was that such large turbines were most efficient at about 3,000 rpm, while an efficient propeller operated at about 100 rpm. [2] That same year, Westinghouse formed the "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company," which was renamed the "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in 1889. Even before his numerous inventions, patents and fortune, he'd met Marguerite Erskine Walker years earlier, the two marrying in 1867 and having a son, George Westinghouse III. Westinghouse hired him as a consultant for a year and from 1888 onwards the wide-scale introduction of the polyphase AC motor began. In 1911, he received the AIEE's Edison Medal “For meritorious achievement in connection with the development of the alternating current system for light and power.”. It was his last major project. He continued to improve its design over the years and he eventually was awarded more than 20 patents for the air brake and its modifications. With the Barings Bank situation in London still dire, many of Westinghouse's early investors began calling in their debts, all demanding money that Westinghouse simply did not have. Westinghouse got in touch with Tesla, and obtained patent rights to Tesla's AC motor. The George Westinghouse Legacy is dedicated to preserve and share the history but most importantly, the memory of George Westinghouse and his companies. Westinghouse then turned his attention to using such large steam turbines to drive big ships. He combined the best devices with ones of his own invention and produced an innovative system that made use of both electricity and compressed air. Westinghouse hired the best lawyer of the day to defend Kemmler and condemned electrocution as a form of "cruel and unusual punishment." Even Westinghouse himself had dabbled in DC just a year prior with the help of physicist William Stanley. Though typically discussed in relation to his rival, Thomas Edison, Westinghouse's own contributions to the railway and electrical technology make him far more than a bit player in the legacy of industrial America. The execution was messy and protracted, and Westinghouse protested that they could have done better with an axe. His prestige was so great that his recommendation was adopted. Westinghouse saw this as a chance to make a large amount of money by taking advantage of then-untapped areas of the market rather than put himself in direct competition with Thomas Edison and other DC power providers.3. In 1918, his former home was razed and the land given to the City of Pittsburgh to establish Westinghouse Park. Though Edison still controlled a greater number of power stations than Westinghouse, the relative benefits of AC power for home usage still made the two bitter rivals. An AC power system allowed voltages to be "stepped up" by a transformer for distribution, reducing power losses, and then "stepped down" by a transformer for use. Westinghouse's interests in gas distribution and telephone switching logically led him to become interested in electrical power distribution. George Westinghouse is best known for inventing an air brake system that made railroads safer and promoting alternating current technology, which revolutionized the world's light and power industries. The work led to the standard modern U.S. power-distribution scheme: three-phase AC at 60 Hertz(cycles per second), chosen as a rate high enough to minimize light flickering, but low enough to reduce reactive losses, an arrangement also conceived by Tesla. Let's explore George Westinghouse's life, accomplishments and legacy to detail just how critical he was in making the world what it is today. In 1888, Westinghouse and his engineer Oliver Shallenger developed a power meter, which they designed to look as much like a gas meter as possible. This demonstrated the safety and reliability of his products to the public, eventually catching the eye of the developers for the Adams Power Plant at Niagra Falls, an 1895 creation powered by Westinghouse's technology. Art, Music, Literature, Sports and leisure, Previous (George Washington and Jefferson National Forests), https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=George_Westinghouse&oldid=1005200, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. His change of focus to AC power came after learning of its more versatile uses, allowing power to be distributed to less centralized areas over longer distances. In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. Edison then told the state board that AC was so deadly that it would kill instantly, making it the ideal method of execution. Westinghouse was forced to hire lawyers to defend Kimmler due to the public relations nightmare this could cause. Friend to Nikola Tesla and one of Thomas Edison's main rivals in the early implementation of the American electricity system, he was also active in the railroad and telephone industries. However, an Irish engineer named Charles Algernon Parsons began to experiment with steam turbines in 1884, beginning with a 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) unit. At the outset, the available generating sources were hydroturbines where falling water was available, and reciprocating steam engines where it was not. Edison bounced back quickly from the setback to invent the phonograph, which was a public sensation nobody had dreamed possible and made him famous. Edison tried to have legislation enacted in several states to limit power transmission voltages to 800 volts, but failed. (1890) On the first use of the electric chairthe horrendously botched execution of William Kemmler, condemned murderer. With AC networks expanding, Westinghouse turned his attention to electrical power production. Kimmler was eventually executed as planned, his death at the hands of the electric chair going extremely poorly and painfully. Whereas previous models took a long time to engage the wheels and could be operated only by the engineer, Westinghouse’s model worked much faster and could be operated by either the engineer or the conductor. By stopping railcars faster, his air brake permitted trains to travel faster and safer. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here: The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia: Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed. The voltage was stepped up to 3,000 volts for transmission, and then stepped back down to 100 volts to power electric lights. However the partnerships he set up to market these devices both fell through, and in 1868 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 'Opasnosti elektricheskogo osveshcheniia', Quotes by others about George Westinghouse. George Westinghouse dies, leaving a legacy that includes 361 patents and the founding of 60 companies. As quoted in 'Warden Durston's Record: The Man Who Botched the Kemmler Execution'. He investigated Edison's scheme, but decided that it was too inefficient to be scaled up to a large size. It is our hope that "The George Westinghouse Legacy" Facebook page will educate current and future generations about all things Westinghouse. Forced to refinance his loans and reassess his business, Westinghouse needed to cut corners. (1884). The Westinghouse Memorial in Schenley Park. After the Civil War, Westinghouse returned to his father’s machine shop; in 1867 he married Marguerite Walker with whom he had one son, George Westinghouse III. At first, Edison wanted nothing to do with the matter, declaring his opposition to capital punishment. That meant reduction gearing, but building a reduction gear system that could operate at such high rpm and at high power was tricky. In general, life was good for Westinghouse in this era. In 1869, he made one of the most significant breakthroughs in his career with the advent of the improved air brake, streamlining the previously inefficient and life-threatening process of braking train cars by centralizing the brakes into a single lever, using pipes running along the whole length of the train and its cars to simultaneously slow them all at once. Edison's next step, in 1878, was to invent an improved incandescent light bulb, and consider the need for an electrical distribution system to provide power for light bulbs. Westinghouse remained productive and inventive through almost all his life. - book suggestion. While he had used the then-recent developments in electrical engineering to improve train signals before, this was the time when his curiosity with the power source grew into a full-blown obsession. eval(ez_write_tag([[728,90],'newworldencyclopedia_org-medrectangle-4','ezslot_2',162,'0','0'])); Having developed an interest in railroading, he invented one device for setting derailed freight cars back on the track and another to extend the service life of railroad switches. As a Civil War veteran, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, along with his wife Marguerite. Tesla and Edison did not get along well. Meanwhile, Westinghouse had turned his attention to the communications aspects of railroading. Thirty more AC lighting systems were installed within a year, but the scheme was limited by the lack of an effective metering system and an AC electric motor. Even today with the many improvements technology has made, most modern railway braking systems still rely upon Westinghouse's early concepts as a base.