George westinghouse (1846 – 191

“If I understand you, young man, you propose to stop a railroad train with wind. I have no time to listen to such nonsense.” Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the powerful railroad owner, thus dismissed George Westinghouse and his new air brake. But within a few years the old hand brakes on trains were replaced with air brakes, launching Westinghouse into a notable career as inventor and industrialist.

Westinghouse was born on Oct. 6, 1846, in Central Bridge, N.Y. (the USA). The son of a manufacturer of farm implements, he explored the world of machines at an early age. After serving in both the Union Army and the Navy in the Civil War, Westinghouse received in 1865 his first patent—for a rotary steam engine. In that same year he invented a device for replacing derailed* freight cars on their tracks. Railroad problems fascinated Westinghouse. Among his other inventions was a device called a frog that allowed wheels on one rail of a track to cross an intersecting rail. He bought various patents on railroad switches** and signals and combined them with his own developments into an efficient switching system. The air brake, his greatest invention, was patented in 1869, the same year he organized the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. With various design improvements, the air brake became widely accepted, and the Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1893 made them compulsory on trains in the United States.

Westinghouse was chiefly responsible for the adoption of alternating current (AC)*** systems for electric power transmission in the United States, which up to the 1880s had used direct current (DC)**** systems. Importing an AC system from Europe, Westinghouse purchased the patents of Nikola Tesla’s AC motor and hired him to improve and modify the motor for use in the power system. Once the new system was ready, advocates of DC power set out to discredit AC power. Public acceptance of AC power came soon after Westinghouse dramatically proved its advantages at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893). Using incandescent lighting, the fairground was set aglow with light. With buildings set like jewels against the evening sky, the display marked the start of large-scale outdoor lighting and of illuminated advertising signs.

Most of the Westinghouse factories were located in Pittsburgh and associated companies were established throughout the world. Westinghouse lost most of his control over his industrial empire during the financial panic of 1907. He died in New York City on March 12, 1914.

Notes: *to derail – сходить с рельсов

**switch – стрелочный перевод

***alternating current – переменный ток

****direct current – постоянный ток

Casey jones (1864 – 1900)

Casey Jones was the great American locomotive engineer hero who would not save* his own life but died doing his duty. Casey worked as an engineer of the American train the Cannon-ball which ran between Tennessee and Mississippi on Illinois Central Railroad. He was a skilful engine-driver and always brought the train in on time. Casey was skilful with the whistle too – the locomotive whistle. He had a special way of blowing it: beginning very softly, rising to a shriek, and dying away. It would** made people’s hair stand on end*** as the train passed by in the night. “There Casey is going,” they said.

On the night of April 29, 1900 when Casey had just finished his own run and brought the Cannon-ball into the town on time, he was said that the engineer of another train fell ill and couldn’t make his run. Casey offered to substitute his friend and pulled the train out of the station at 11 p.m. The train was already one hour and thirty-five minutes late at the start.

Casey wanted to make up the time**** and he ran his locomotive at a high speed. By four o’clock in the morning he had made up most of the time, but suddenly in front of his engine, as he came round a curve, he saw a standing freight train on the rails.

“Jump, Sim,” he cried.

Sim Webb, fireman to Casey Jones, jumped and lived to tell the story. Casey’s body was found with one hand still on the whistle and one on the air-brake.

There is a monument to Casey Jones in his native town in Kentucky. In 1950 the United States Government put out a three-cent stamp in honor of American railroad engineers, which has the portrait of Casey Jones and a picture of the old Locomotive 382.

Notes: *would not save – не захотел спасти

**would – зд: бывало

***to stand on end – вставать дыбом

****to make up the time – наверстать время

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