George Westinghouse was born October 15, 1846 and died March 12, 1914. He was an American entrepreneur, engineer and pioneer of the electrical industry, who also invented the railroad air brakes. Westinghouse was main rivals with Thomas Edison (who used DC systems, where as Westinghouse used AC systems) in the electrical industry. Westinghouse was born the son of a machine shop owner and became very talented at machinery and business. At the age of 19, he had created his first invention, the rotary steam engine. By the age of 21 he invented a "car replacer", which was a piece developed to guide derailed railroad cars back onto the tracks, and a reversible frog, a device used with a railroad switch to maneuver trains onto one of two tracks. It was about this time in Westinghouse's life that he witnessed two trains wreck because two engineers both saw the other coming, but could not stop their trains in time using the brakes. Brakemen used to have to run from car to car, even on top of the cars, to pull the brakes by hand. Because of this impacting experience, he devoted the next several years of his life to railroad safety devices. When he was 22, he invented a railroad braking system that used compessed air. The system used a compressor on the locomotive, a special valve and reservoir on every car, and a single pipe running the length of train. These flexible connections refilled both the reservoirs and controlled the brakes, applying and releasing the brakes on all cars simultaneously. It ended up being patented by Westinghouse on March 5, 1872. Soon after Westinghouse decided to organize WABCO (Westinghouse Air Brake Company) to manufacture and sell his invention. Todays modern trains use brakes similar to these, just in various forms based on design. After that endeavor, Westinghouse pursued improvements in railroad signals, which at the time were oil lamps. In 1881 he founded the Union Switch and Signal Company to produce his signaling and switching inventions.


Citations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Westinghouse