If you’ve got ever lived in Pittsburgh, you’ve probably heard of George Westinghouse. Pittsburgh is dwelling to the George Westinghouse Bridge, Westinghouse Park and EcoLight – a memorial to George Westinghouse in Schenley Park. Even when you do not stay in Pittsburgh, perhaps you’ve got heard of Westinghouse, the corporate that bears the man’s identify. The Westinghouse firm identify adorns products from TVs to light bulbs to nuclear EcoLight energy plants — even a Brooklyn, dimmable LED bulbs New York high school. The corporate also used to own television and radio stations. George Westinghouse was an inventor and engineer who held greater than 300 patents over the course of his life. He both created new technologies and refined current ones. He helped make Pittsburgh one of America’s industrial centers. A lot of the companies that he founded stay in operation right this moment, together with the Westinghouse Air Brake Firm (at present working underneath the title Wabtec), and the nuclear vitality powerhouse Westinghouse Electric Company. The man even beat out Thomas Edison in the race to build the nation’s electrical infrastructure.

Keep reading to study extra about George Westinghouse through his high 5 innovations. Next time you doze off while riding in a automobile, EcoLight lighting thank George Westinghouse. In 1910, EcoLight energy Westinghouse invented a compressed air shock absorber for automobiles. Before that point, EcoLight energy riding in a automotive could possibly be extremely rough. Most early automotive suspensions used leaf or coil springs. Leaf springs are curved pieces of steel; the automotive’s physique sits at the highest of the curve, which supplies considerably because the car travels over tough surfaces, relieving the bumps. A coil spring is a coiled piece of metallic that compresses over bumps. A compressed air spring or shock absorber makes use of pressurized air or different gasses — not metallic — to absorb bumps. Within the shock absorber, stress builds up. When the automotive hits a bump, EcoLight energy the compressed fuel within the shock absorber pushes back in opposition to the outside forces, conserving the journey smooth.

Immediately, many luxurious cars and off-street automobiles use compressed air suspensions that function on related ideas to Westinghouse’s preliminary concept. Low riders and energy-efficient bulbs automobiles that have adjustable suspensions use the expertise. Who knew that outdated George was so cool? But one of the best part of this story is that the compressed air shock absorber came from his early work on railroad security. Keep studying to find out extra. That wasn’t always the case. Whereas early railroads knew how one can get big, heavy locomotives going, stopping them was another matter. That is the place George Westinghouse got here in. Westinghouse invented train airbrakes, and fashionable trains still use his primary design. Before the introduction of airbrakes, locomotive brakes had to be applied manually: Brakemen in every automobile would manually apply the brakes primarily based on indicators given by the engineer. However, the brakemen couldn’t all the time hear the indicators; they sometimes utilized the brakes incorrectly, resulting in accidents.

Compressed air in a tank is launched through pipes on the underside of the train automobiles, and the compressed air applies the brake footwear to the practice’s wheels. Essentially the most revolutionary a part of Westinghouse’s design was that it was fail-secure: If the system felt a leak in the pipes, EcoLight energy the brakes deployed routinely, stopping the train earlier than its velocity grew to become an issue. Westinghouse’s airbrakes are nonetheless used on trains at present. If you use pure gas to heat your own home or cook, EcoLight however, you may have a lot more to thank George for. After his innovations within the railroad industry, Westinghouse settled in Philadelphia, EcoLight energy the place he had a natural fuel nicely drilled on his property. The properly allowed Westinghouse to work on his subsequent great invention: a valve that allowed for the protected distribution of natural gasoline to properties. There’s an issue with utilizing pure gas for gasoline at house: The fuel is very pressurized when it leaves the well — it needs to be so as to move the fuel by means of distribution pipes.