WESTINGHOUSE HONOURS FOUNDER

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14252, 28 December 1946, Page 4

WESTINGHOUSE HONOURS FOUNDER

PRESENT ELECTRICAL

AGE

Year-Long Celebration Planned

One Hundredth Anniversary

Westinghouse Electric Corporation recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of George Westinghouse, founder of the concern, states the Christian Science Monitor.

It really is a year-long celebration which began in the, spring with a centennial gathering of natural scientists from all over the world to honour the man who, perhaps more than any other engineer, helped bring about the present electrical age. Leading natural scientists and engineers, whose names and achievements dominated the headlines dur : ing World War II sat down for the first time since fighting ended to plan for the common objective of making the world a better place in which to live. Final event of the year will be the. awarding on December 27 of the George 'Westinghouse Medal for distinguished service to natural science in the field of journalism. The award carries with it a prize of 1000 dollars to the' reporter whose work is judged the best writing in the field of natural science for 1946. A . native of Central Bridge, New York, in' 1846, Westinghouse received his first patent, at the age of 19. The last of the 360 patents that followed was issued four years after his passing in 1914. It was he who, against fierce opposition, championed the cause of alternating current in order to make cheap electric power- available for all. He proved to skeptics of his day the universal utility of alternating current, which has become the basis of so many conveniences now a part cf every-day living, including radio. His was the first really effective method of stopping trains. The Westinghouse air brake was a pacemaker in modern railway electrification. He also developed machinery for generating electricity from water power and perfected a steam turbine geared to drive ships, thus paving the way for the world’s powerful fleets.

Pounded Sixty Companies

In the course of his business career Westinghouse founded 60 companies. By 1914 the industrial empire he founded was worth 200,000,000 dollars. His’major undertaking, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, was started with 200 employees 60 years age. Daring the war it hit a peak of 11,7,000.

4 It was a thrilling experience, the perfection of the first air. brake. Lack of any effective means for stopping the “iron horse” which was just beginning to gain public acceptance gave Westinghouse his first grea.t opportunity. On that April day in 18 69 when ycuiig George was out to prove his brake on a run between Pittsburgh and Dteuhenville, Ohio, he had all t%e leading officials of the Panhandle Railroad aboard and the 50 dollar bill he pressed into the hand of the engineer before the “take-off” was his last piece of folding money.

Everyone along the route had been warned to watch out and keep away from the tracks lest something go wrong'. It did. As the engine and observation coach emerged from Grant Hill tunnel hitting 30 miles an hour (that was going like GO in these days) the brakes- went on with a jolt that tossed passengers on the floor and ruffled the white shirts cf the dignitaries.

As the engineer climbed out of the engine cab the. dismay-of young Westing house gave way to relief. There on the track scarcely four feet:-from the cowcatcher was a drayman, thrown from - big cart. to. the railroad bed by his frightened horse and saved in the nick of time by tile first practical application cf the air brake.

The angry moods ..of the train guests changed to wonder and admiration. Bruises were® forgotten.

George Westinghcuse was an extraordinary product of that era of expansion, development, and conquest of frontiers which marked the close of the 19th century. His were thb unquenchable thirst for new things and undaunted courage in the face of failure- that have characterised the whole nation’s technological progress. For more than. 50 years he was at the forefront of affairs concerning industrial progress and was honoured by his fellows many times a.s “the- world’s greatest living engineer.” - ;