George Westinghouse

George Westinghouse Jr, who lived from 6 October 1846 to 12 March 1914, was a prolific American inventor, engineer and entrepreneurial industrialist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, best known for inventing the railway air brake and for pioneering the development and use of alternating current electrical power distribution; over his career he received three hundred sixty patents and established sixty one companies, many of which still exist. His compressed air train braking system revolutionized the railroad industry worldwide, and he founded the Westinghouse Air Brake Company in 1869, followed by the founding of Union Switch and Signal in 1881 with his engineers to develop track switching and signaling systems; in the early 1880s he also developed inventions for the safe production, transmission and use of natural gas, helping create a new energy industry. Recognizing the potential of alternating current for power distribution, he founded the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1886, directly competing with Thomas Edison's direct current business; Westinghouse Electric won the contract to illuminate the White City at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago with its AC system and went on to build the world's first large scale AC power generation plant at Niagara Falls, which opened in August 1895. Among many honors, he received the 1911 Edison Medal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers for his development of the alternating current system.