American engineer and industrialist who publicly demonstrated a compressed-air railway braking system in Pittsburgh in 1869, at age 23, and patented it the same year. Within a few years he redesigned it so that any loss of air pressure in the brake line, whether from a deliberate application or an accidental break between cars, automatically applied the brakes rather than releasing them, a fail-safe principle that became the standard for railway braking worldwide and remains in use today. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
George Westinghouse
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What was wrong with Westinghouse's first air brake, and how did he fix it?
A broken air line left the train with no brakes, so he redesigned it so that losing pressure applies them.
The first system, demonstrated in Pittsburgh in 1869, used one compressed air pipe running the length of the train so the engineer could apply and release the brakes on all cars at once. It was not fail-safe, because any rupture or disconnection in the air line left the train without brakes. Over the next two years Westinghouse and his engineers inverted the process, designing valves so that constant pressure in the lines kept the brakes disengaged, and they placed an air reservoir on each car. With that design, any interruption or break in the line automatically caused the train to stop.
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Pioneered
Rail Transport, Modes Westinghouse pioneered the fail-safe air brake, one safety-critical element of rail transport, rather than the mode as a whole; recorded associated rather than holds for that reason.
Source Wikipedia: George Westinghouse
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Source Wikipedia: George WestinghouseLead sentence 1tier 2Quote, Lead sentence 1
George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was a prolific American inventor, engineer, and entrepreneurial industrialist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: George Westinghouse
WikipediaRailroad air brakes and signaling/switching systems
In 1869, at age 23, Westinghouse first publicly demonstrated his revolutionary new railroad braking system in Pittsburgh.
Lead section (full name)
George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846
In Group: Railway Inventors and Industrialists, Lead sentence
George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846, March 12, 1914) was a prolific American inventor, engineer, and entrepreneurial industrialist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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