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| I. | Introductory | 1 |
| Birth and birthplace | ||
| Ancestry | ||
| His brothers | ||
| In the Civil War | ||
| Inherited qualities | ||
| Education in school and shop | ||
| Early inventions | ||
| Marriage and home | ||
| Principal enterprises | ||
| Decade of greatest output | ||
| The last years | ||
| II. | The Air Brake | 21 |
| Some early notions | ||
| He turns to the air-brake | ||
| Who invented the air-brake? | ||
| Creates a new art | ||
| First air-braked trains | ||
| The automatic brake comes | ||
| The Scott model, Franklin Institute | ||
| Fundamentals of the automatic brake | ||
| Development of the triple valve | ||
| Some accessories | ||
| The Burlington brake trials | ||
| The quickaction triple | ||
| The triumph after Burlington | ||
| English experiences | ||
| The Galton-Westinghouse experiments and some lessons | ||
| The education of the users | ||
| III. | Friction Draft Gear | 77 |
| A new principle introduced | ||
| Genesis of the friction gear | ||
| First patent, 1888 | ||
| First commercial use nine years later | ||
| Its various functions | ||
| Effects in starting trains | ||
| Its comparative importance | ||
| IV. | A General Sketch of Electric Activities | 87 |
| Some elementary explanations | ||
| Early interest in electric lighting | ||
| Early railway work | ||
| His interest in alternating current is aroused | ||
| Buys the Gaulard and Gibbs patents | ||
| The transformer is developed | ||
| Westinghouse Electric Company chartered | ||
| Opposition to alternating current | ||
| Ninety-five per cent of electric energy used now alternating current | ||
| The central power-station idea | ||
| V. | The Induction Motor and Meter | 121 |
| Tesla's invention | ||
| Seven years developing to usefulness | ||
| A great chapter in electrical history | ||
| Steps in development of the motor | ||
| Shallenberger invents a meter | ||
| VI. | The Rotary Converter | 130 |
| The economic place of the rotary converter | ||
| Its first serious commercial development at East Pittsburgh | ||
| Effect on the electric art | ||
| VII. | The Chicago World's Fair | 134 |
| Westinghouse takes the lighting contract | ||
| And then develops a lamp | ||
| And the means of making it | ||
| Exhibits alternating-current machinery | ||
| A historical moment | ||
| VIII. | Niagara Falls | 141 |
| The Cataract Construction Company | ||
| An international commission | ||
| Decision reached to distribute power by electricity | ||
| And to use alternating current | ||
| The Telluride plant and its effects | ||
| Compressed-air transmission | ||
| Studies of frequency | ||
| The contract awarded October 1893 | ||
| Magnitude of the enterprise and some results | ||
| Certain local enterprises | ||
| IX. | Electric Traction | 159 |
| Early trolley roads | ||
| Westinghouse foresaw heavy electrification with alternating current | ||
| But had first to enter the street-railway field | ||
| Development of direct-current apparatus | ||
| State of the art | ||
| Slow and difficult growth of alternating-current systems | ||
| St. Clair Tunnel | ||
| New Haven Railroad | ||
| Milwaukee and St. Paul | ||
| Regeneration | ||
| Load balancing | ||
| Some effects of railroad electrification | ||
| X. | Steam and Gas Engines | 179 |
| Patents a rotary engine | ||
| Designs a reciprocating engine with radial cylinders | ||
| And gas engines | ||
| The turbine | ||
| Patents the single-double-flow turbine | ||
| And a reaction-impulse type | ||
| The reduction gear | ||
| Some by-products | ||
| Propeller experiments | ||
| Condenser improvements | ||
| XI. | The Turbo-Generator | 201 |
| Its industrial importance | ||
| Some details | ||
| Displaces the engine-type generator | ||
| The course of development | ||
| Some of the difficulties | ||
| XII. | Signalling and Interlocking | 212 |
| What they are and what they do | ||
| Westinghouse brought in the use of power | ||
| Hydropneumatic systems | ||
| Electropneumatic | ||
| The first power interlocking | ||
| Slow progress in the United States | ||
| Effects of power signalling and interlocking | ||
| XIII. | Natural Gas | 224 |
| Westinghouse begins in 1883 | ||
| Takes out thirty-eight patents | ||
| Special dangers in the use of natural gas | ||
| The Philadelphia Company | ||
| Results | ||
| Pittsburgh without smoke | ||
| Fuel gas | ||
| XIV. | Various Interests and Activities | 233 |
| Lamps | ||
| Nernst lamp | ||
| Cooper Hewitt lamp | ||
| Rectifier | ||
| Multiple-unit control | ||
| Car, Air, and Electric Coupler | ||
| Research | ||
| Telephone | ||
| Board of Patent Control | ||
| Air spring | ||
| The steel car | ||
| Copper | ||
| XV. | European Enterprises | 262 |
| World-wide plans | ||
| British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company | ||
| The underlying idea correct but too early | ||
| The Clyde Valley Electrical Power Company | ||
| The central-station idea in practice | ||
| Making brakes in France | ||
| The Italian company | ||
| The Russian Brake Company | ||
| Ten or a dozen lesser companies | ||
| The broad results | ||
| XVI. | Financial Methods--Reorganization--Equitable-Life Episode | 273 |
| Westinghouse and the bankers | ||
| Did his own financing | ||
| Risked his own money | ||
| The influence of personality | ||
| An idealist | ||
| Never speculated | ||
| The receiverships of 1907 | ||
| The reorganization | ||
| Equitable Life episode | ||
| The trusteeship | ||
| XVII. | The Personality of George Westinghouse | 287 |
| Relations with his men | ||
| The family spirit | ||
| The Amber Club | ||
| His ethical influence | ||
| An enlightened humanitarian | ||
| The Air Brake Company as an example of his policies | ||
| Personal characteristics | ||
| More than a genius | ||
| Education | ||
| Some encounters with the laws of nature | ||
| Not a sceptic | ||
| XVIII. | The Meaning of George Westinghouse | 320 |
| His life was history: an agent of civilization | ||
| Transportation and progress | ||
| Brakes and signals and transportation | ||
| The first four names in the evolution of transportation | ||
| The manufacture of power and the New Era | ||
| An ethnical epoch | ||
| Effect of the alternating current in the New Era | ||
| Appendix | Patents | 331 |
| Index | 369 |
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Robert Williamson
reviewed Life of George Westinghouse on June 30, 2017
Life of George Westinghouse
"At that moment the world changed…"
Erik Larson has a winning formula that he deploys well in his books. He takes on a historical event(s), links them with other things happening in the same period, sometimes thru a specific study of a person, and while combining those elements he explores the age in which the events he focuses on happened. It works. "Thunderstruck" is no exception, although I think it works slightly less successfully than in his other books.
The events that Larson connects in "Thunderstruck" are Marconi's invention and development of the wireless telegraph, and a murder that enthralled London (and through the tool of Marconi's wireless, the world) in the early 20th century. Although the connection is a bit tenuous at times, this text gives a nice insight into both events and into the Edwardian period/culture in general.
The last 100 pages or so are gripping reading. Larson has not disappointed me yet, and "Thunderstruck" is a unique take on some interesting events that shaped the 20th century.
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