George Westinghouse

George Westinghouse (1846–1914) was an American inventor and industrialist who founded Westinghouse Electric Company and helped build alternating-current power systems.

Westinghouse Electric Company: An American electrical manufacturing company founded by George Westinghouse in 1886. The company organized his effort to develop and supply alternating-current equipment.
Transformer: An electrical device that transfers energy between circuits and changes alternating-current voltage. Transformers made it practical to raise voltage for transmission and lower it for local use.
Nikola Tesla: A Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer whose work included alternating-current motors and power systems. Westinghouse licensed Tesla's patents and hired him to advance polyphase AC technology.
Direct Current: Electric current that flows steadily in one direction. Edison's distribution companies favored DC, which was harder to transmit efficiently over long distances.
Westinghouse Air Brake: An automatic railway braking system patented by George Westinghouse in 1872. Westinghouse's first major invention addressed the danger of braking long trains by hand.
Alternating Current: Electric current that periodically reverses direction. Westinghouse backed AC systems for transmitting and distributing electric power.
Polyphase System: An alternating-current system using multiple voltage waveforms with coordinated phases. Westinghouse adopted polyphase equipment to power motors and transmit electricity.
Thomas Edison: An American inventor and entrepreneur who promoted direct-current electrical distribution. Edison's DC strategy became Westinghouse's best-known commercial rival during the current war.
War of the Currents: The late nineteenth-century commercial and public dispute over alternating- and direct-current power systems. Westinghouse's contest with Edison made their competing electrical systems a national issue.
Railway Signaling: Systems that communicate instructions to railway operators and control train movements. Westinghouse developed signaling devices as part of his early work on railway safety.

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Charles Algernon ParsonsRelated: Westinghouse licensed Parsons technology and helped spread turbine generation in the United States.