America's Forgotten Titan: George Westinghouse

if you're watching this video on a Friday you're likely looking forward to the weekend and for that you can largely thank George Westinghouse an industrial Titan who helped standardize the two-day break that we now all too commonly take for granted like all business Titans his contributions to society such as the air brake or alternating current changed the world but perhaps more interesting than his many triumphs was his kind and gentle nature George was loved by his employees so much so that when he died more than 50,000 of his most loyal workers funded a bronze monument honoring his memory unlike the robber barons of his era George Westinghouse treated his employees like family for here was a unique man who treated others the way he wanted to be treated a man who prioritized society's progress over profits so grab a cold one from your Westinghouse fridge as we explore the story of a gentle Titan who receives only a mere fraction of the recognition he deserves before we begin this video we want to say thank you to our sponsor for making this content possible honey at business casual we're incredibly selective about which sponsors we choose to showcase on our show only promoting products and services that we use ourselves that's why we're proud to partner with honey a completely free desktop browser extension with over 10 million users which helps save you money as you shop online by automatically finding the best promo codes at checkout it takes only two clicks to add honey to your browser and it's 100% free so be sure to head over to join honey calm /bc the link is on screen and in the video description below born in New York on October 6 1846 the eighth of ten kids George was what one might call a problem child at 13 he was bored with school preferring instead to work in his father's Machinery shop where he tinkered with tools and parts he found lying around he would later recall this time as his best education upon turning 15 the American Civil War broke out across the newly divided nation as a patriotic young man George desired to serve his country and when he reached the union's minimum age requirement of 17 he enlisted himself into the New York volunteer cavalry later transferring to the Navy when the war ended in 1865 Westinghouse enrolled in college but as he found before academia was of little interest even the president of George's College remarked that he would be better off cultivating his genius elsewhere so just two months after enrollment Westinghouse dropped out and returned to his father's shop where he obsessively pursued his passion for engineering in October of that year at age 19 Westinghouse was granted his first patent for a rotary steam engine which he filed when he was just 15 over the next 48 years he held over 300 patents acquiring them at an astonishing rate of one every six weeks his most notable patent came early in his career the air brake a revolutionary invention that enabled trains to stop faster by allowing its conductor to instantly apply air pressure to each wagons brakes using the patent he formed the successful enterprise known as the Westinghouse air brake company to meet the rising demands from railroads George hired a 100 man workforce and launched his factory in Pittsburgh the manufacturing capital of America's industrial revolution prior to the air brake trains were stopped by brake men individuals who would hop from moving train cars manually applying each wagons brakes one by one this archaic system wasn't only inefficient but incredibly dangerous as trains would require up to two miles of track before being able to arrive at a complete stop anything that made its way onto the trains tracks could and often did result in tragedy the risk of derailment could very well mean death in the late 1870s it's estimated that over 7,000 brake men were killed or crippled for life each year with some estimates placing the figure as high as 22,000 to make matters worse brake men took home a paltry average of just a dollar 50 a day they're in a quick compensation was matched only by equally inadequate safety conditions fortunately Westinghouse's airbrake offered a solution to the carnage but at a price tag of $50 per train wagon it was widely viewed not as an investment in safety but has an unnecessary cost just another gadget that would subtract from the bottom line if a passenger was injured or killed that was considered a cost of doing business famously Cornelius Vanderbilt the undisputed king of America's railroad industry was once quoted as saying to Westinghouse if I understand you young fellow you propose to stop a railroad train with wind I'm too busy to listen to such nonsense it wouldn't be until one of Vanderbilt's own railroads experienced the tragic accident that he'd eventually give in retrofitting his trains with Westinghouse's air brakes the showcased the air brakes potential Westinghouse held demonstrations during one demo a horse and carriage unexpectedly crossed onto the tracks down which Westinghouse's train was travelling bystanders watched in horror as the carriage tipped over as the impending train sped towards the overturned carriage the conductor threw the brakes quickly stopping the train just four feet from the horse and carriage onlookers cheered with joy as disaster was narrowly avoided and despite being jostled around prospective customers riding inside the Train were impressed and decided to purchase Westinghouse's air brake system for their own trains they were officially on board George later scored another victory in 1893 when Congress passed the safety appliance act finally requiring all trains to use air brakes and thanks to the booming railroad industry of the 1800s the Westinghouse air brake company would provide steady funding for George's other future patents among such patterns were other important inventions like the friction draught gear which allowed for smoother rides by cushioning the impact from starts and stops with slight improvements the same technology is used by today's trains he also started as switching an interlocking company for railroad yards while not as exciting as the air brake its impact on train safety was just as important it was said but if a blind man pulled random levers on Westinghouse's switching system that he could make the train traffic stop but could never cause an accident Westinghouse had such a love for trains that he even met his wife Marguerite or won after marrying a couple honeymoon at Niagara Falls the scene would later become an important battleground after achieving financial success George and Marguerite purchased a large property in Pittsburgh which they named solitude at their estate George launched yet another venture this time into the world of natural gas which was particularly dangerous at the time due to its instability and the occasional violent explosions despite the risk George welcomed the challenge and installed a large gas derrick in his own backyard where he began prospecting for natural gas much to his delight he would uncover vast amounts of the flammable material fifteen hundred feet beneath his luxurious estate his wife was also delighted instead of berating her husband for constructing a monstrous derrick on their lawn she cheered him on remarking it'll be nice to have you working at home for a while George's affluent neighbors however were not as enthusiastic to say the least one of whom just so happened to be Henry Clay Frick Andrew Carnegie's right-hand man to help reduce pressure and dispose of toxic gases hidden underneath the Earth's surface a match would be lit to cause a fire a process known as flaring it soon became evident that Westinghouse had not stumbled upon a near vein he had unleashed the equivalent of a mini volcano creating a roaring geyser of fire with a hurricane like velocity which was able to be heard from several blocks away the epic blaze raged for days towering over a hundred feet into the sky the spectacle attracted residents who'd travel miles just to witness the extraordinary event there was so much natural gas on his property that he ultimately decided to construct three additional barracks and in 1884 launched his own natural gas company but George didn't just prospect for gas he continued to invent creating the gas meter in addition to developing new systems that detected and prevented gas leaks amongst countless are game-changing breakthroughs within two years he personally obtained 38 patents for inventions that would finally make natural gas a commodity accessible for everyone his railroad and natural gas companies grew into larger corporations and being the curious individual he was George became interested in the exciting new field of electricity Westinghouse understood the principles of pressure thanks to his experience in the natural gas business and when he learned that voltage is essentially the same as electrical pressure it was an easy transition for him to make his obsession with power and electricity laid the technological foundation for today's electric grid but it came at an expensive price one that would cost him nearly everything including his reputation George Westinghouse witnessed the rise of another inventor who was quickly gaining worldwide fame Thomas Alva Edison also known as The Wizard of Menlo Park is widely popular inventions such as the phonograph Edison was capitalizing on the new and exciting world of electricity with his direct current system known as DC in 1882 the Edison illuminating company built the United States's first commercial central power plant known as Pearl Street Station the first home to be powered by Pearl Street would be one of Edison's investors JP Morgan a financier who put his fortune on the line to back Edison's technology but Westinghouse noticed a major flaw the direct current system only enabled electricity to travel about half a mile for DC to become mainstream Edison needed to build power stations on nearly every corner Westinghouse refused to believe that Edison's limited range direct current would be America's future limited to urban areas and completely ignoring the large rural parts of Middle America as expected George Westinghouse did what he had always done before he set out in search of a better solution he was fascinated with an innovative system called alternating current or AC which allowed electricity to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles but Edison and Westinghouse would clash both in their ideas and in their now at ease Westinghouse wasn't only a great inventor he was also a great manager who left his ego at the door always recognizing the potential in other people's work in other words the absence of his ego provided him with an enormous business advantage the ability to pivot edison on the other hand was quite the opposite unlike George he was stubborn according to those who knew him it was extremely difficult for Edison to admit that he was wrong making it hard for him to change course despite his genius his inability to admit his mistakes made him inflexible also making him vulnerable but for George it did not matter who devised the superior solution to a problem what mattered more was simply finding the solution Westinghouse acquired the US patent to the electric transformer improving upon the technology and making it possible to step up and step down electric voltage much like a pressure valve the electric transformer allowed for a safe and controlled amount of electricity to run through buildings in homes in 1866 only a year after acquiring the patent George founded the Westinghouse Electric Company which sparked one of history's most shocking rivalries known as the war of the currents the country watched as the world's two greatest inventors engaged in one of history's ugliest corporate battles the victor who emerged would go on to power the United States of America changing history forever despite alternating currents ability to be transmitted long distances Westinghouse struggled with a critical component of his system the motor which is responsible for generating electricity that was until he met a Serbian born immigrant named Nikola Tesla who migrated to the United States with only the clothes on his back and four cents to his name but while his pockets were empty his mind was anything but not only did Tesla speak a dozen languages he was also a brilliant engineer ironically he once worked for Thomas Edison making improvements the DC a job he eventually quit after a fallout of a compensation in 1888 two years after Westinghouse founded his electric company Tesla received a patent for an AC induction motor catching the eye of George Westinghouse perhaps this new technology could be the missing piece of his puzzle George quickly recognized Tesla's brilliance and after visiting his labs he purchased Tesla's patents for $60,000 through a combination of cash stock and royalties and offered him a job working on AC generators in his Electric Company but Edison felt challenged by Westinghouse and Tesla and launched a widespread smear campaign designed to scare the public into believing that AC was dangerous to prove his point Edison revealed the darker side of his personality using alternating current to electrocute live animals in public demonstrations which when animals weren't enough Edison and his team of scientists escalated the current war two new diabolical heights by introducing the electric chair the word electrocution hadn't yet existed so Edison cleverly proposed the journalists but any prisoner put to death using the AC powered contraption would be Westinghouse unfortunately for the condemned inmate the chair malfunctioned and instead of a quick death he slowly roasted alive according to prison records the execution lasted an unimaginable eight minutes even George Westinghouse remarked they would have done better using an axe but in spite of Edison's vicious campaign Westinghouse persevered in 1893 the most important battle of the current war arrived the Columbian Exposition also known as the Chicago World's Fair over its six-month period upwards of 27 million people gathered for the event for those attending it would be their first time seeing not only one light bulb but thousands of them prior to the fair the only on-demand light ever known to attendees came from fire usually kerosene lamps or candles winning the contract to light the World's Fair meant unparalleled opportunity on the world's largest stage the stakes could not have been higher Edison's General Electric submitted a bid of 1.8 million dollars expecting to not only be selected but to make a profit to Westinghouse on the other hand pursued a different strategy instead of seeking to profit from the event he planned to lose money drastically undercutting Edison proposal with a bid just shy of $400,000 it was a major gamble one that could have sunk the entire company ultimately the board chose Westinghouse saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process for JP Morgan and Thomas Edison it was an immense blow despite losing the contract Edison continued to do everything he could to try to stop Westinghouse from lighting the fair going as far as alleging patent infringement claiming the Westinghouse's lightbulb was too similar to his incandescent patent just six months before the fair was set to open the judge in the case agreed with Edison which meant that Westinghouse could use alternating current to power the fair but not the one piece light bulb that he originally intended to use as it was too similar to Edison's design Westinghouse quickly began manufacturing a two-piece incandescent bulb called the Westinghouse stopper lamp within just months his factory had produced a quarter of a million of them representing an estimated 25 percent of the world's entire light bulb supply at the time and on the night of May 1st 1893 President Grover Cleveland pressed the on button hundreds of thousands of attendees watched in awe as the world's most spectacular light show came to life thanks to the publicity from the world fair the Westinghouse Electric Company was awarded a lucrative contract to build the Niagara Falls power plant the world's first major hydroelectric power station three years later Buffalo New York started receiving power from the plants enormous water turbines with the Niagara plant now built Westinghouse and Tesla had accomplished the seemingly impossible their alternating current system had finally defeated Edison's direct current Westinghouse not only proved AC superiority over DC he proved something much greater that success doesn't have to correlate with ruthlessness George Westinghouse was remarkably different from other robber barons of his era and that he actually treated his workforce with respect for as long as he was alive he never once encountered a strike by his workers this was especially rare when other industrialists like Andrew Carnegie were demanding 364 days a year from they're workers the name Westinghouse became synonymous with excellent working conditions even building a small village for his employees known as Wilma ding which still stands today while workers at other companies were normally given row houses Westinghouse's workers lived in homes with electricity baths running water and natural gas his workers had the option of leasing their home through monthly paycheck deductions creating a sense of community pride in the region his manufacturing plants also boasted the highest safety standards his Wilmerding factory even had a small hospital equipped with a nurse surgeon and pharmacy this is in addition to being one of the country's first employers to ever offer paid accident insurance benefits perhaps most interesting he is also credited with being one of the country's first major employers to help standardize the weekend giving his workers a half day off on Saturday a practice which disrupted the status quo and upset other factory employers who almost always required their employees to work six to seven days a week and in return for his care Westinghouse's workers loved him the railroad workers even claimed Westinghouse as their patron saint calling him st. George another striking difference in George's life was his desire to see others succeed it's well known that Edison had over 1,000 patents in his name but workers in his lab were required to credit the name Thomas Edison on their patent designs giving Edison credit for the ideas of his employees compare this with Westinghouse who was more than happy to put his employee's name on the patents they came up with one example being Benjamin lamb a Westinghouse employee who received over 150 patents including the designs for the generators used at Niagara Falls all in all Westinghouse himself received over 100 patents and bought the rights to over 200 more his goal was to tinker improve monetize and make the world a better place his improvements to the world include air suspension systems for vehicles steam turbines reduction gears to propel steam ships in water and dozens of improvements to railroad equipped and his inventions and companies were always centered around the greater good safer faster air brakes for trains cheaper cleaner gas for homes smarter safer electricity for everyone when working on a new invention he was known to invest his own funds alongside his investors sometimes taking out loans from banks or borrowing money from his established and profitable enterprises such as his air brake company but in the panic of 1907 Westinghouse's Empire would begin to crumble as he found himself over leveraged and short on cash as market liquidity drained depositors rushed to withdraw their money causing a nationwide bank run that put the country's financial system into cardiac arrest perhaps understandably so as depositors insurance didn't yet exist in just three weeks the new york stock exchange created nearly 50% from the previous year's peak Tesla and Westinghouse had devoted over a decade of their lives to becoming the victors of the current war only to see their electricity empire unravel before their eyes for JPMorgan it was the opportunity he had been waiting for 11 years prior the financier helped an American publisher named Adolph Ochs acquire a failing newspaper called the New York Times for $75,000 25,000 of which came as a loan from Morgan along with his investment in the paper came influence which he wielded to attack alternating current as every possible opportunity in 1907 Morgan further squeezed westinghouse electric implying that the company's problems were due to George's poor management skills slamming the company's stock price and bond ratings with Wall Street in a panic it wasn't long before Westinghouse's loans were called unable to pay his debts the beloved Titan found himself in check mate his company Westinghouse Electric would be forced into receivership by JP Morgan not long afterward he was fired from his own company despite losing his most prized corporation George remained incredibly wealthy with an estimated net worth and fifty million dollars and despite his tragic defeat he continued to invent on March 12 1914 while designing an electric wheelchair George Westinghouse passed away his wife Marguerite would also pass just three months later but the Westinghouse name would live on his only son George Westinghouse the third would take control of the family's finances their name would eventually become born and new this time for dominating the home appliances industry creating popular products like the fridge fan and the laundry machine to list a few history books often failed to show justice to the legacy of George Westinghouse he was a man who did far more than light up the modern world with alternating current analyzed the lives he touched and you'll find that Westinghouse his legacy has less to do with air brakes and electricity and more to do with treating others the right way if alive today he would undoubtedly take more pride in his title as a role model rather than that of a Titan but if there's one thing that George Westinghouse did not invent it's the honey browser extension imagine if you could automatically save money as you shop online that's honey a completely free browser extension which finds you the best coupon codes it check out the average honey user saves over 126 dollars a year just imagine how many incandescent light bulbs you can buy with all those savings and if light bulbs don't excite you consider a vintage Westinghouse radio the browser extension is completely free and takes just two clicks to install so be sure to head over to join honey comm /bc the link is on screen and in the video description below and thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed please be sure to click the like button and subscribe and if you want to be notified of new videos as soon as they're live simply click the bell icon after subscribing and click all from the drop down menu as shown on screen and by the way let us know in the comments below if you had to choose between two jobs one being a train break man and the other being a natural gas flare operator responsible for lighting matches at natural gas Derek's which one would you rather do let us know in the comments below until next time stay smart

Channel: Business Casual

Views: 462,556

Rating: 4.9283257 out of 5

Keywords: George Westinghouse, George Westinghouse Documentary, Westinghouse Documentary, George Westinghouse Biography, George Westinghouse History, George Westinghouse AC, George Westinghouse Alternating Current, George Westinghouse Patents, George Westinghouse Tesla, Westinghouse Electric, George Westinghouse Inventions, George Westinghouse Net Worth, George Westinghouse Facts, George Westinghouse Air Brake, Westinghouse Airbrake

Id: 8tuXdlGBbcg

Length: 23min 52sec (1432 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 15 2019