George Westinghouse, a great American inventor, made many inventions in his life, and his status in the history of American invention is second only to Edison.
On October 6, 1846, Westinghouse was born into a family of small craftsmen in rural Bridge, New York, USA. His father was a farm tool manufacturer. Influenced by his family, Westinghouse was exposed to related tools from an early age and gradually became interested in them. He often conducted research on some mechanical equipment, and gradually came up with the idea of ????improving some of the machinery. And he found that he seemed to have a talent in this area, which greatly enhanced his self-confidence.
In 1861, the American Civil War broke out. Westinghouse, who was only 15 years old, also participated in the war and served in the Navy. After his term of service expired, he took off his military uniform and entered university. After graduating from university, he entered the railway system and engaged in the development of railway machinery. Working in such a department, he felt at home like a fish in water and was deeply appreciated by his leaders.
One day, Westinghouse was working on the train. The beautiful scenery outside the window deeply attracted him, making him take a break from time to time to watch the scenery outside the window. Suddenly, he found a carriage parked at the crossing not far in front of the train. He suddenly jumped up and shouted to the coachman to drive the carriage away and the driver to stop quickly. The coachman looked at the speeding train, petrified, and stood motionless in place. The train driver immediately sounded the whistle and ordered the brakemen to brake urgently. Although the brakemen tried their best to move the gate, the speed of the train did not seem to decrease much. With a loud "boom", the tragedy happened. Westinghouse closed his eyes in pain.
After get off work, Westinghouse found the relevant personnel and talked about today's car accident. The tragic scene of the car accident deeply hurt Westinghouse's heart, and he wanted to know why the order was so ineffective. The person in charge told him that the problem mainly lies in the braking system. When people designed the train's braking system, a separate mechanical brake was installed for each car. When it is necessary to stop, the driver uses a whistle to signal, and the brakeman of each carriage must rely on manpower to move the mechanical brake for braking. Since it is a manual operation, everyone reacts to the signal at different speeds, and their physical strength is also different, so it is difficult to follow the same steps to move the gate, and the effect is naturally not obvious under the huge inertia of the train. After learning the root cause of the incident, Westinghouse was determined to conduct research on this aspect and solve the problem of train braking through his own efforts, thereby reducing the occurrence of tragedies.
After thinking and research, Westinghouse believes that the basic brake is based on the car. The brakes of each car operate independently after hearing the whistle. It is inevitable that the reaction speed will be different, and due to the different human speed, His physical strength is limited, which results in weak braking. Therefore, to invent a new type of brake, it is necessary to abandon this separate braking method and adopt a linkage method, allowing the train driver to operate independently. In this way, drivers can respond quickly to emergencies.
To use the linkage method, there must be strong power. Westinghouse first thought of steam. He thought that since steam could move a train, it should also be able to move the brakes. So he developed according to this idea and soon designed a steam brake. The button of this steam brake is located next to the driver's seat. In the event of an emergency and the need to brake, the driver presses the button and the steam enters the pipes connected to the multiple carriages and presses the brake shoe against the axle. The axle is held tightly by the brake shoe and cannot Turn and the train stops.
Westinghouse tested this brake on a train, and the result was far beyond his expectation: the brake had no braking effect at all. Why is this? Westinghouse was confused, because this method was theoretically feasible! Later he realized that steam will condense when it is cold. When the steam reaches each carriage through long pipes, most of it has condensed. If it becomes water, of course it will be impossible to push the brake shoe to move.
After finding the crux of the problem, Westinghouse was very happy, but how to prevent the steam from condensing? At this time, he still could not escape the circle of steam braking, and one solution after another ended in failure. He was in trouble. One day, he took a newspaper from a friend, and a seemingly inconspicuous piece of news attracted him. According to the news, when France was digging the tunnel in Mount Montseny, the rock drills used were driven by compressed air. After reading this news, he suddenly became enlightened. Yes, why not use compressed air? Since compressed air can drive rock drills, it should also be able to drive train brakes, and there is no condensation problem with compressed air. Westinghouse was delighted with his genius idea, and his long-suppressed heart seemed to have found the key to unlocking it.
Having a genius idea, Westinghouse immediately wanted to turn it into reality. After repeated experiments and continuous improvements, an air brake was finally made. Experiments show that this kind of air brake is completely feasible and the effect is very good.
In 1869, at the age of 23, Westinghouse obtained the patent for the air brake. Since then, he has continued to make improvements to make its performance even more perfect. To this day, his invention is still used on thousands of locomotives!
Another major achievement of Westinghouse is the research on alternating current transmission experiments. Thanks to his efforts, the alternating current system replaced the direct current system, allowing electricity to be transported to greater distances.
On March 12, 1914, Westinghouse died in New York at the age of 68. People will never forget his great achievements. To this day, his portrait still hangs high in the American Memorial Hall!