FAMOUS INVENTOR DEAD

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 32, 14 March 1914, Page 8

FAMOUS INVENTOR DEAD

MR GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE.

, yJBy Cabjjg. — Press Association. — Copyright. LONDON, March 13. Mr George Westinghouse, the famous -inventor, is dead, heart disease being the cause. . [George Westinghouse, the well-known Snventor, was 68 years of age. He was born at Central Bridge, Schoharie County, New York State, in 1846, the son of George Westinghouse, an engi- > i meer and manufacturer of agricultural _ \ machinery. He was educated at the :/ local public and high schools, and at Union College, which granted-' him the . '' degree of PhJD. in 1890. In the war of emancipation, 1863-64, he served with the 12th New York National Guard and .'_, the 16th New York Cavalry. During p. -: the*followihg two years he was an assistant engineer in the United States I • Navy, ,In 1865 .he invented; a device for replacing derailed railroad «ars, • and three years later patented his famous brake device. Later he applied i pneumatic devices to switching and signalling, using electricity as an aid. •Through this he became interested in the development of electric machinery, s and later he built the first ten dynamos for the great power works at Niagara Falls. His was the brain that started this tremendous enterprise, and to-day, as a result of his work, the waters of; Niagara furnish power used in making innumerable articles of commerce, from biscuits to carborundum. Westinghouse ; . also devised a complete system for controlling natural gas, and conveying v it .through pipes for long distances, •' "thereby establishing the practicability of utilising, natural gas as a fuel in ', homes, mills,.and factories. This was „_ largely responsible for the supremacy of Pittsburg in the manufacture of iron, / i steel, and* glass. He founded great »' works in Wilinerding, East Pittsburg, Bwiesvale, U.S.A., Hamilton, Canada; Manchester, London, Havre, Hanover, St. Petersburg, Vienna'and Vado, Italy. -> His works in Manchester employ about 6000 hands. He was the president of thirty corporations with an aggregate eapital of 25 million pounds sterling. These same works would give employ- " ment to every man, woman, and child in Dunedin. He has many decorations, including the Legion of Honour, the Boyal Crown of Italy, and the Belgian _.--Order of Leopold. In-1861, when he was only 1 18 years of age, he invented e steam engine, and ever since his fertile brain has continued to turn out numberless- mechanical devices. From the Argentine to Hudson Bay, from Ctipe Town to Cairo, from Flushing across Siberia to Vladivostok his worldfamous air brages are in operation on all the railroad cars.]