Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/memagazineselect/article-pdf/130/10/32/6383558/me-2008-oct3.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 he case can be made that by the late nessed in 1895 using Westinghouse alternating current. 1800s George Westinghouse was Amer­ Trains were longer, heavier, and faster, and yet much, ica's greatest living engineer. He had 361 much safer w ith Westinghouse air brakes. Natural gas patents issued to him during his lifetime. had been discovered in 1878 in Murrysville, Pa., and the Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/memagazineselect/article-pdf/130/10/32/6383558/me-2008-oct3.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 Hundreds more patents bore the names early patents of George Westinghouse helped to rapidly of engineers who worked for him. develop it into a new clean-burning fuel. Ship propul­ Beginning with the railroad air brake, sion had gained a great leap forward with the Westing­ Westinghouse's inventiveness formed the basis of a com­ house geared steam turbine engine. mercial empire. George Westinghouse believed that his engineers de­ He surrounded himself w ith good people, including oth­ served the credit for their hard work and successes. If a er great engineers of the time-Benjamin Lamme, Oli­ Westinghouse engineer developed a new product, it was ver Shallenberger, Charles Scott, William Stanley, Lewis the inventor's name, not the boss's, that went on the pat- Stillwell, and Albert Schmid. ent. N ew products from the They were loyal to him and Westinghouse companies were got credit for their work. referred to as Shallenberger Given the evidence of his meters, Scott voltage regula­ companies w hen he controlled tors, Schmid dynamos, Stan­ them, there is another case to ley transformers, and Stillwell be made for George Westing­ voltage regulators. house: that he may also have Benjamin Lamme invented been America's greatest living 162 devices that were patented industrial manager. during his career at the West­ Many today recognize West­ inghouse Electric & Manufac­ inghouse as a great inventor turing Co. Every single one of and a great engineer. His skills those patents was issued in the as a business manager are some­ name of Benjam in Lamme. times overlooked. It took con­ ... "If you treat your workers with respect ... then your company will be George Westinghouse saw siderable managerial skill to successful." Workers at a Westing house factory early in the 20th century. the potential in ideas. Ideas organize and run companies in like using air to stop a train. many different countries at a time when transportation was H e also saw the potential in people. He was quite w illing limited to trains and ships. to purchase the patents of others if he thought they had Westinghouse's companies spanned the world. Besides potential. The best example perhaps is the case where he his holdings in the United States, he had an air brake purchased the patents rights to Nikola Tesla's alternating company and an electric company in England. He also current induction motor and polyphase system of alter­ had air brake companies in Canada, France, Italy, and nating current. Russia. He was the president of34 separate companies at Westinghouse had been working on alternating current the same time, w ith a total of 50,000 employees. for four years before he purchased these patents from the Although he became a wealthy man, greed and money great Serbian inventor. The Tesla patents were an impor­ did not motivate him. The forces that drove Westing­ tant part of the alternating current puzzle that George house were those that engineers share-his strong per­ Westinghouse had painstakingly been putting together. sonal belief that his efforts, his successes, his m any and H e bought plenty of ideas and rights, and eventually varied accomplishments were going to benefit mankind. controlled over 15,000 patents. Westinghouse was also a great engineer. From ea rly WALKING THROUGH FIRE childhood he loved all things mechanical. In his father's The old-timers used to say that his engineers and other workers were willing to "walk through fire" for George Ed Reis is the Westing house historian at the Senator John Westinghouse. How could they not be enthusiastic? After Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. He was advisor and par­ all , they were on a w inning team. ticipant in the documentary film Westinghouse. produced by The awesome power of Niagara Falls had been har- Inecom Entertainment Co . October 2008 I mechanical engineering 33 out saying a word, he walked over, took off his gloves, and stepped into the water and mud, where he helped the young man right the wheelbarrow and reload it. The story goes that George Westinghouse then walked away without a glance and without a word. Westinghouse always treated his workers well. In fac t, it was his high-powered contemporary, Andrew Car­ negie, who said, "George Westinghouse could have A memorial in Pittsburgh to George made a lot more money during his lifetime if he hadn't Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/memagazineselect/article-pdf/130/10/32/6383558/me-2008-oct3.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 Westinghouse was funded by donations from cur­ treated his workers so well." rent and former workers of companies that he founded. There was never a strike at any of the Westinghouse shops he tinkered conti nuously. As a young boy, he made companies in all the time he had control of them. T he a working model water wheel. He made a working mod­ company's record was set in an era of violent clashes el steamboat at age 14. He made a violin. between labor and management. T here were the Great His first patent was for a rotary steam engine. He start­ Railroad Strike of 1877, the Homestead Steel Strike of ed to work on it at age 15 and the patent was granted to 1892, and the Pullman Strike of 1894. Strikers burned him at age 19, shortly after he returned home in 1865, Union Station in Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania R ailroad's aft er having served in the U. S. Army and N avy fo r a Roundhouse and numerous locomotives and railroad ca rs period of two years during the Civil Wa r. burned with it. T he destruction took place within a H e was never able to make this rotary engine a com­ stone's throw of the Westinghouse Air Brake Co. fac­ mercial success, but it's interesting to see the role of tory, which remained untouched. high-speed rotating generators, turbines, and electric motors in the overall success of electrical power. George LOOKING OUT FOR HIS OWN W estinghouse's involvement in the development of the George Westinghouse once spelled out a fai rly simple Westinghouse geared steam turbine engine for the ship­ rule of management. "If you treat your workers well," he ping industry also is assoc iated once again with a high­ said, " if you treat your workers with respect, give them speed rotating device. a nice place to work, with the best of tools, then your Later in life, George Westinghouse sa id that his great­ company will be successful." est educational experience was the mechanical skills he learned while tinkering in his fa ther's shop. He sa id that these skills, learned when he was a young boy, fo rmed the fo undation of mechanical skills that served him well throughout his li fe ti me. GREAT MEMORIES Westinghouse is legendary for the good personal rap­ port he maintained with his workers. In 1935 , Westinghouse Electric wrote to older re tir­ ees from the Westinghouse companies and even from the railroads, asking them to write back with personal remembrances of George Westinghouse. This was more tha n 20 years after George Westinghouse had died, but the 200 or so returned letters are quite fasc inating because they detail many personal stories and provide insight into George's personality and business prac tices. O ne of the letters told the story of how the writer and .A. The Shallenberger meter: Inventions by Westinghouse's engineers were patented in the inventor's name, not the boss·s. some others were outside eating lunch one day when a newly hired foreign-born worker was moving a wheel­ He offered pension plans to his workers. His £lctories barrow of material into the plant. It had rained and there became showpieces of adva nced practices, like having was a boa rd placed over a wet and muddy area. The doctors and nurses in the plants so injured workers could wheelbarrow slipped and tipped over. The letter writer receive immediate help. He even had small hospitals in told how he and the other young men laughed at their his pla nts, open not only to his employees, but also to co-worker's misfortune. their families. By chance, George Westinghouse appeared, and with- When he built the towns of Wilmerding, Eas t Pitts- 34 mechanical engineering I October 2008 burgh, and Trafford in Pennsylvania, he would sell the THE MOST CHERISHED HONOR homes to his workers w ith a monthly deduction from George Westinghouse was honored in many ways dur­ their paychecks. And he had the workers' homes insured, ing his lifetime. In 1874, he was awarded the Scott Legacy so that, if the breadwinner died, his wife and children Medal by the Franklin Institute. He was awarded the Order had a home that was paid off. of Leopold by Leopold II, King of the Belgians, in 1884, Standard practice in coal mining towns of western and in 1889 received the Order of the Royal Crown of Pennsylvania was to evict the wife and children within Italy from Umberto 1.