"that condition, George Westinghouse invented the quick action triple valve in 1887. It automatically vents air from the brake pipe locally on each car, which applies the brakes more quickly. For the air brake to be employed on electric railways, an air compressor that is powered by electricity is required. Powerful electric locomotives were produced by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company and by other companies. Westinghouse Air Brake Company The Westinghouse Air Brake Company (sometimes nicknamed or abbreviated WABCO although this was also confusingly used for spinoffs) was founded on September 28, 1869 by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania."
"George Westinghouse George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, gaining his first patent at the age of 19. Westinghouse saw the potential in alternating current as an electricity distribution system in the early 1880s and put all his resources into developing and marketing it, a move that put his business in direct competition with the Edison direct current system. In 1911 Westinghouse received the AIEE's Edison Medal ""For meritorious achievement in connection with"
"and Boyhood Home in Central Bridge, New York, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. In 1989, Westinghouse was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. George Westinghouse George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, gaining his first patent at the age of 19. Westinghouse saw the potential in alternating current as an electricity distribution system in the early 1880s and put all his resources into developing and"
"age 22, Westinghouse invented a railroad braking system using compressed air. The Westinghouse system used a compressor on the locomotive, a reservoir and a special valve on each car, and a single pipe running the length of the train (with flexible connections) which both refilled the reservoirs and controlled the brakes, allowing the engineer to apply and release the brakes simultaneously on all cars. It is a failsafe system, in that any rupture or disconnection in the train pipe will apply the brakes throughout the train. It was patented by Westinghouse on October 28, 1873. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company"
"the rotary steam engine. He also devised the Westinghouse Farm Engine. At age 21 he invented a ""car replacer"", a device to guide derailed railroad cars back onto the tracks, and a reversible frog, a device used with a railroad switch to guide trains onto one of two tracks. At about this time, he witnessed a train wreck where two engineers saw one another, but were unable to stop their trains in time using the existing brakes. Brakemen had to run from car to car, on catwalks atop the cars, applying the brakes manually on each car. In 1869, at"
"Edison had been awarded a patent for the third rail almost two decades earlier, in 1882. Woods is also sometimes credited with the invention of the air brake in 1904 for trains, however, George Westinghouse patented the air brake almost 40 years prior. Over the course of his lifetime Granville Woods would obtain more than 50 patents for inventions including an automatic brake and an egg incubator and for improvements to other inventions such as safety circuits, telegraph, telephone, and phonograph. He died on January 30, 1910 in New York City, having sold a number of his devices to such"
"the brake system that rail vehicles used was one of the most problematic parts of vehicle development, due to trains' increasing speed and mass. In 1869, George Westinghouse designed a brake on compressed air with direct action and improved it in 1872, producing a single-chamber, automatic brake with indirect effects. Božić's research was interrupted during the First World War. After the war, he worked in Kraljevo, Belgrade and Zagreb. He applied to the International Union of Railways for a patent for the Božić brake through the Yugoslav railway in 1925. His patent was approved in 1928. Božić's invention resolved then"
"Dobrivoje Božić Dobrivoje Božić (23 December 1885 – 13 November 1967) was a Serbian mechanical engineer, inventor and constructor of the first air brakes for trains. Dobrivoje Božić was born in Raška in the Kingdom of Serbia. He studied in Germany at the Technical University of Karlsruhe and Dresden. While at Karlsruhe, he was a student of Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of diesel engines. After graduation in 1911, Božić returned to Serbia. His engineering work began immediately upon his return to the railway workshop in Niš. He simultaneously started his research in the field of railway braking. Božić learned that"
"brake brought together the ideas of Prussian senior surveyor, Bruno Kunze (1854–1935), and preparatory work by the founder of Knorr-Bremse, Georg Knorr (1859–1911). It was the first, continuous, compressed-air brake that, even on long goods trains, enabled the brake force not only to be applied gradually, but also released again gradually. By combining a single-stage and a two-stage brake cylinder with a compound brake a significant increase in brake effort was achieved. Three versions of the brake were developed: for goods trains (KKgbr), passenger trains (KKpbr) and express trains (KKsbr). The goods wagon variant offered the option of switching between"
"Georg Knorr Theodor Georg Knorr (October 19, 1859 in Ruda bei Neumark, West Prussia – April 15, 1911 in Davos, Switzerland), was an engineer and entrepreneur on the field of railroad technology and founder of the company Knorr-Bremse. He is particularly remembered for his role in the development of the compressed air brake. After studies in mechanical engineering, Georg Knorr worked at Krefeld's railroad administration. In 1884 he joined the Berlin branch of the American engineer Jesse Fairfield Carpenter's enterprise (at ""Schöneberger Ufer 17"" in Berlin Zoologischer Garten), which promoted the introduction to the German market of the bicameral air"
"men ages 18–21 and promoted them internally until a man reached the status of locomotive engineer, conductor, or station agent at age 40 or so. Career tracks were invented for skilled blue-collar jobs and for white-collar managers, starting in railroads and expanding into finance, manufacturing, and trade. Together with rapid growth of small business, a new middle class was rapidly growing, especially in northern cities. The United States became a world leader in applied technology. From 1860 to 1890, 500,000 patents were issued for new inventions—over ten times the number issued in the previous seventy years. George Westinghouse invented air"
"Charles Adler Jr. Charles Adler Jr. (June 20, 1899 – October 23, 1980) was an American inventor and engineer. He is most known for developing devices meant to improve transportation safety, including sonically actuated traffic lights, colorblind road signals, pedestrian push-buttons, and flashing aircraft lights. Adler was born to a wealthy family in Baltimore, Maryland. As a child he exhibited a vivid imagination. For this reason, Adler’s father encouraged him to pursue inventing. At age 14, he developed his first documented invention—an automobile brake—which he received a patent for 5 years later. After high school, Adler attended Johns Hopkins University"
"(Westronic, in various ""styles"") initially for the railway market but then extending into oil, water, gas, electricity and sewage. The railway air brake was patented in the United States of America by George Westinghouse in 1869 (straight air brake) and 1872 (automatic air brake), see Westinghouse Air Brake Company. Predecessors of the British company included Evans O'Donnell Limited and Saxby and Farmer. Saxby and Farmer was started by John Saxby and John Stinson Farmer in the mid-19th century as pioneers in the manufacture of railway signalling equipment. In 1875 Saxby and Farmer had developed a mechanical linked braking system, which"
"invented the automatic air brake by inventing the triple valve and by equipping each car with its own air cylinder. Air pressure is maintained in the auxiliary reservoirs and in the train pipe at all times when the brakes are not applied. An equilibrium of air pressure is maintained in the train pipe and in the auxiliary air cylinders. To apply the brakes to all of the cars at about the same time, pressure is released from the train pipe, causing the triple valve on each car to apply the brakes. To release the brakes on each car, pressure is"
"George Washington Whistler George Washington Whistler (May 19, 1800 – April 7, 1849) was a prominent American civil engineer best known for building steam locomotives and railroads. He is credited with introducing the steam whistle to American locomotives. In 1842, Czar Nicholas I hired him to build the Saint Petersburg–Moscow Railway, Russia's first large-scale railroad. One of Whistler's important influences was the introduction of the Howe truss for the Russian railroad's bridges. This inspired the renowned Russian engineer Dmitrii Ivanovich Zhuravskii (1821–1891) to perform studies and develop structural analysis techniques for Howe truss bridges.<br> He was the father of American"
"may have been influential in the development of the tank. Diplock Glacier in Antarctica is named after him. Bramah Joseph Diplock Bramah Joseph Diplock (27 April 1857 – 9 August 1918) was an English inventor who invented the pedrail wheel in 1903 and the pedrail chaintrack, a type of caterpillar track, in 1910. Diplock was born in Chelsea, London to Thomas Bramah Diplock, a coroner, and Eleanor Diplock. Diplock founded the Pedrail Transport Company of Fulham, which at the outbreak of World War I was the only British company still manufacturing ""caterpillar"" continuous tracks. A demonstration of the system's ability"
"Joseph Bramah Joseph Bramah (13 April 1748 – 9 December 1814), born Stainborough Lane Farm, Stainborough, Barnsley Yorkshire, was an English inventor and locksmith. He is best known for having invented the hydraulic press. Along with William George Armstrong, he can be considered one of the two fathers of hydraulic engineering. He was the second son in the family of Joseph Bramma (note the different spelling of the surname), a farmer, and his wife, Mary Denton. He was educated at the local school in Silkstone and on leaving school he was apprenticed to a local carpenter. On completing his apprenticeship"
"11/12"" (which was later named ""Alte Fabrik"") at Boxhagen-Rummelsburg in autumn 1904. In 1905 he eventually established the enterprise ""Knorr-Bremse Gmbh"" and also bought the neighbouring plot of land no. 13/14 so he could expand the production. There he built the so-called New Factory (""Neue Fabrik""). Because this plant as well could soon no longer satisfy the increasing demand, annexes were erected in the ""Hirschberger Straße"" beyond the train tracks. Together with engineers Kunze and Hildebrand, Knorr pushed the development of railway air brake systems. They developed the ""Kunze-Knorr brake"" (a graduated-release composite brake, which can be tightened and released"
"Carl Roman Abt Carl Roman Abt (16 July 1850 – 1 May 1933) was a Swiss mechanical engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He made groundbreaking innovations in rack-and-pinion railways, giving his name to one of the most widely used systems developed for mountain railways, the Abt rack system. Abt was born on 16 July 1850 in Bünzen. In 1882, while working in Paris, he designed and patented his rack-railway system that enabled at least one tooth of the rack to be permanently engaged. It was first used on the Blankenburg to Tanne narrow-gauge railway in the Harz mountains of Germany. Abt"
"acclaim for his development of railway brakes, where he preferred the use of compressed air brakes. He carried out this work in conjunction with the firm of ""Gebrüder Hardy A.G."", on whose board he sat until his death. In addition he invented the spark arrestor and the exhaust steam preheater. He published numerous articles in the magazines ""Organ für Fortschritte des Eisenbahnwesens"", ""Zeitschrift des österreichischen Ingenieur- und Architektenverein"", ""Die Lokomotive"" and ""Eisenbahn"". Rihosek died on 21 November 1956 in Vienna. Johann Rihosek Johann Rihosek (5 June 1869 – 21 November 1956) was an Austrian engineer and locomotive designer. Johann Rihosek"
"take lightly what he considered an illegal use of his patent rights. Westinghouse Air Brake Company acquired National Electric, renamed the company the National Brake & Electric Company, which refused to pay royalties to Niels Christensen. Christensen promptly countersued, starting a 24-year legal battle that went before the US Supreme Court on three separate occasions over the rights to manufacture compressed air brake systems for streetcars. In 1933, working in his basement, Christensen discovered by trial and error that a ring-shaped piece of rubber in a groove one and a half times long as the minor radius of the ring"
"Frederick Ellsworth Sickels Frederick Ellsworth Sickels or Sickles (September 20, 1819; Gloucester County, New Jersey – March 8, 1895; Kansas City) was an American inventor, best known for the invention of a cut-off valve for steam engines in 1841. Sickels grew up in New York City, where his father was Chief Health Officer. After having worked for a year for the Harlem Railroad, he apprenticed at the age of 17 at the Allaire shops, where he developed a new type of steam cut-off valve for steam engines. He had perfected his invention by 1841. Sickels obtained a patent for this"
"Westinghouse Memorial The Westinghouse Memorial is a bronze monument located in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It commemorates George Westinghouse, an engineer and inventor of the railway air brake. The memorial is located at the entrance to the Steven Faloon trail, a part of Schenley Park. The architects for the monument and the surrounding area were Henry Hornbostel and Eric Fisher Wood. Daniel Chester French was the sculptor for the statue and the main panel, and Paul Fjelde designed the side panels. The memorial consists of a statue of a schoolboy, who represents ""The Spirit of the American Youth""."
"gate and a variety of weighing and balancing machines. R. B. Prosser, ‘Medhurst, George (bap. 1759, d. 1827)’, rev. Anita McConnell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 9 Jan 2009. George Medhurst George Medhurst (1759–1827) was a mechanical engineer and inventor, who pioneered the use of compressed air as a means of propulsion. His ideas led directly to the development of the first atmospheric railway. He was born in Shoreham, Kent and trained as a clockmaker at Clerkenwell, London, but later became interested in pneumatics. In 1799, he filed a patent for"
"Woodrow Wilson Skirvin Woodrow Wilson Skirvin (September 19, 1916 – February 7, 1961 ) was an American inventor, industrialist, aviator and a prominent Indiana businessmen in the mid-20th century. His contribution to US aircraft engineering lead to the United States' setting of multiple world air speed records. W.W. Skirvin was the youngest of ten children (six boys, four girls). They all lived together on tobacco farms in Kentucky and Indiana. At a young age Skirvin learned to work the fields. As a child in the 1920s Skirvin curiosity got the best of him including a dynamite explosion and a near"
"addition, Broadwick demonstrated parachute jumps at fairs and taught and equipped famous female parachutist Tiny Broadwick. Born in the 1870s as John Murray, Charles Broadwick grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan in a poor family. He developed aeronautical interests early. At age 13, he had his first ride in a hot air balloon. When the balloon caught fire, Broadwick climbed up the balloon and extinguished the fire. By the age of 16 Broadwick (now using the new name) was performing at fairs and exhibitions, parachuting from underneath a hot air balloon. Upon ascent, the parachute was suspended beneath the balloon."
"Milwaukee. While at E. P. Allis, he continued to develop his air brake for electric rail cars and streetcars. In 1896 he obtained financial backing that allowed him to make an experimental test apparatus. He also secured patents on the new valve mechanism. In early 1897, he founded Christensen Engineering Company, which initially operated in the Menomonee Valley at 718 Hanover. His operations were co-located with the Seamless Structural Company at the corner of Hanover and Burnham Streets. In December 1906, Westinghouse sued for patent infringement. George Westinghouse, had developed an air braking system for steam locomotives and he didn’t"
"and 1812. Joseph Bramah Joseph Bramah (13 April 1748 – 9 December 1814), born Stainborough Lane Farm, Stainborough, Barnsley Yorkshire, was an English inventor and locksmith. He is best known for having invented the hydraulic press. Along with William George Armstrong, he can be considered one of the two fathers of hydraulic engineering. He was the second son in the family of Joseph Bramma (note the different spelling of the surname), a farmer, and his wife, Mary Denton. He was educated at the local school in Silkstone and on leaving school he was apprenticed to a local carpenter. On completing"
"condensation. An early major application of compressed air was in the drilling of the Mont Cenis Tunnel in Switzerland in 1861, where a 600 kPa (87 psi) compressed air plant provided power to pneumatic drills, increasing productivity greatly over previous manual drilling methods. Compressed air drills were applied at mines in the United States in the 1870s. George Westinghouse invented air brakes for trains starting in 1869; these brakes considerably improved the safety of rail operations. In the 19th century, Paris had a system of pipes installed for municipal distribution of compressed air to power machines and to operate generators"
"Henri Perrot Henri Perrot (21 August 1883 – 1961, in Paris) was a French engineer who was one of the pioneers of the automobile industry from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He holds numerous patents in the field of automotive drum/shoe braking. Henri Perrot was born on 21 August, 1883 at Place Saint-Charles, Paris, the son of Françoise Esterle and François Perrot who worked at the Brasier car factory. He studied at Jean-Baptiste-Say High School before gaining a scholarship to the School of Arts and Crafts in 1888 at the age of 16. When he left school in"
"George Cayley Sir George Cayley, 6th Baronet (27 December 1773 – 15 December 1857) was an English engineer, inventor, and aviator. He is one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him to be the first true scientific aerial investigator and the first person to understand the underlying principles and forces of flight. In 1799, he set forth the concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. He was a pioneer of aeronautical engineering and is sometimes referred to as ""the father of aviation."" He"
"Matthew Piers Watt Boulton Matthew Piers Watt Boulton (22 September 1820 – 30 June 1894), also published under the pseudonym M. P. W. Bolton, was a British classicist, elected member of the UK's Metaphysical Society, an amateur scientist and an inventor, best known for his invention of the aileron, a primary aeronautical flight control device. He patented the aileron in 1868, some 36 years before it was first employed in manned flight by Robert Esnault-Pelterie in 1904. Boulton was the son of Matthew Robinson Boulton, and as well the grandson of Matthew Boulton, who founded the Soho Manufactory and the"
"& Sons to produce road haulage engines from 1856 that used his continuous track design. The United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee named Boydell Glacier on Trinity Peninsula in northern Graham Land, Antarctica, after him. James Boydell James Boydell (died January 1860) was a British inventor of steam traction engines. His most significant invention was the first practical track-laying vehicle, for which he received British patents in August 1846 and February 1854. Boydell described his invention as ""endless rails"" or an ""endless railway wheel"", later variations became known as Dreadnaught Wheels. In his system flat boards were attached to a wheel"