Westinghouse Electric Corporation

“ Within three years the business grew to be an immense one. The company organized by Mr. Westinghouse owned or controlled fifty-six thousand acres, upon which were one hundred wells and a distributing plant of four hundred miles of pipes. Notwithstanding the failure of some of the wells since then, natural gas is an extraordinary boon for which Pittsburgh has to thank Mr. Westinghouse. Of late years this inventor's energies have been turned toward electric machinery for lighting and power, especially as applied to railroad purposes, and a number of useful devices have resulted. ”

“ Westinghouse is still in the prime of life and is activity personified. He makes his home in Pittsburgh, and is naturally looked upon as one of its leading spirits.
The field of electric invention is so vast and so actively worked that one cannot take up a newspaper without finding reference to some new299 achievement made possible by this wonderful agent, whose real powers were unsuspected fifty years ago. ”

“ In the same year a single electrical contract was entered into between the Third Avenue Railroad and the Union Railway Company of New York, acting as one, and the Westinghouse Electrical and Manufacturing Company, amounting to $5,000,000. This was for the electrical equipment of their respective railway lines, and is the largest electrical contract ever made. The change in equipment from other motive power to the electric is rapidly going on in all directions, and the rapid [61] succession of trains will doubtless cause it, for passenger traffic on short lines, to eventually supersede steam. ”

“ The power-house is of only passing interest, being designed for reliability and minimum first cost, and with the idea of transplanting it to some new location should future conditions dictate. The view shows two 10×10 Shepherd engines, clutched to either end of a shaft, from which two 45-kilowatt, 250-volt, direct-current Westinghouse generators are belted. In case of accident to one generator, a switch on the switchboard converts the 3-wire to a 2-wire system, using the two outside wires as one, and the neutral as the return conductor. ”

“ American methods are being introduced, and in some cases American energy is being imitated. The Westinghouse Company is building a five million dollar electric plant in Manchester. English bricklayers are accustomed to lay not more than four hundred bricks a day, and they started at this rate, but, under American contractors, were induced to work up to eight hundred a day. A few American bricklayers were imported and set the example of laying nearly two thousand bricks a day, whereupon the English bricklayers in their desire to show that they could equal the Yankees, followed the example set ”

“ A Westinghouse synchronous motor-generator set, rated at 15 k v a and wound for 1, 2, 3 or 6 phases. One machine is arranged as a cradle dynamometer and equipped for phase shifting.
A General Electric sine-wave generator coupled to a synchronous motor. This machine generates a voltage wave which conforms accurately to standard wave form. It has a capacity of 5 k v a for three phases and has a ring gear mechanism for phase shifting.
A two-unit General Electric motor-generator set consisting of one 5 k v a generator capable of single-, three- or six-phase operation at 110/220 volts. ”

“ At the present central location all the electrical men from the interior can take a Market Street car and drop in at 44-46 Second Street, take a seat in Mr. Fowden’s office, read the “Electrical Journals,” use the telephone and make themselves quite at home.
TURBINE ACTIVITIES IN THE FAR EAST.
No less than ten machines, aggregating 25,000 horsepower, are included in a large shipment of Westinghouse turbo-electric power equipment from East Pittsburg to the Far East. Most of these machines will go to Japan for the equipment of railway, lighting, and manufacturing plants. ”

“ The motors and generators for these stations came from the Westinghouse plant in Pittsburgh, and Westinghouse also supplied the turbo-generators which inaugurated, in 1895, the delivery of power from Niagara Falls. ”

“ Turning from this lighter and more delicate form of apparatus, the visitor will find a very complete display of the class of applications that has brought electricity into such close contact with the daily life of the masses in recent years. From the great Westinghouse lighting installation and from the power plant of the intramural he will get some adequate idea of a modern central-station equipment, while from the illustration of long-distance power transmission he will be able to comprehend one of the directions in which electricity holds out the greatest promise for the future. ”

“ They are only too anxious to find a remedy—not, as some electricians have stated, to save their coal-pile, for energy is wasted in forcing the electricity back to the power house, no matter what the path, but because they fear that at some future date the taxpayer, the corporation, and the municipality will band together, present overwhelming bills for damages, and sweep the trolleys off the face of the earth. The instinct of self-preservation, if nothing else, demands that the electric-railway companies should put forth every endeavor to solve the electrolysis problem. ”

“ George Westinghouse, Jr., to whom is due the railroad air-brake, and who was also largely instrumental in revolutionizing Pittsburgh by the introduction of natural gas, was born at Central Bridge, in Schoharie County, N.Y., in 1846. His father was a builder and, later, superintendent of the Schenectady Agricultural Works, and it was in the shops of these works that the boy found his vocation. Before he was fifteen he had modelled and built a steam engine. ”

“ Joe Wegg is reported to have said: "Neighbors, this electric plant is no plaything. It is going to give you all better light, at no more cost to you than kerosene. But it will do more than that: it will run machinery of all kinds better than steam will. You've seen electricity running the newspaper press, and the same current has operated the big paper mills at Royal. Here in this audience is a gentleman from Connecticut who has accepted my invitation to look over our village with a view to building a factory here, using the power I shall hereafter be able to furnish. ”

“ It follows at once from this fact that there must be cogent reasons, apart from the matter of first cost, if the general substitution of steel towers for wooden poles on transmission lines is to be justified on economic grounds. During fifteen years the electric transmission of energy from distant water-powers to important centres of population has grown from the most humble beginnings to the delivery of hundreds of thousands of horse-power in the service of millions of people, and the lines for this work are supported, with very few exceptions, on wooden poles. ”

“ His business increased so rapidly that in 1877 it was organized as the Weston dynamo-electric machine company, and in 1881 it was consolidated with the United States electric lighting company, of which he was electrician until 1888. In 1875 he began experimenting in arc and incandescent lighting, constructing several incandescent lamps in 1876, and since that time he has steadily developed his systems of both these varieties of electric lighting. ”

“ Except for a few little storage-battery or Diesel generator systems, that couldn't handle one tenth of one per cent of the barest minimum load, it's been the only source of electric current here since 1962, when the last coal-burning power plant was dismantled. ”

“ Usually it is so arranged that the compounding that can be obtained is just sufficient to overcome the alternating current line voltage drop. The standard Westinghouse method of starting is alternating current self-starting. With this method of self-starting, the brushes of a commutating pole rotary converter must be lifted from the commutator during the starting operation to prevent sparking. A mechanical device, as shown in fig. 2,050, is provided which accomplishes this. With direct current or motor starting a brush lifting device is not necessary. ”

“ The first extensive use of the alternating current was in arc lighting, where the higher potentials could be employed on series lamps. Perhaps the chief American inventor in the domain of the alternating current is Elihu Thomson, who began his useful career as Professor of Chemistry and Mechanics in the Central High School of Philadelphia. Another great protagonist of the alternating current was George Westinghouse, who was quite as much an improver and inventor as a manufacturer of machinery. ”

“ I can’t take a chance on having anything happen to this outfit. I’m responsible for it, and if it got burned out, the result might be a court-martial, with possible dishonorable dismissal and loss of citizenship. You see our power transformer steps the current up to eight thousand volts. A green operator doesn’t understand the rheostats, and would allow too great a voltage to pass through the generator. That would burn out the transformer or puncture the condensers or break down the insulation in the spark-gap, according to which was the weakest. ”

“ Electric power may move freely through the line up to the line's capacity. Ordinarily, however, the energy generated by each system is sufficient to supply the requirements of the system's customers and no substantial amount of power flows through the interconnection. It is only at the times when one of the connected utilities is unable for some reason to produce sufficient power to meet its customers' needs that the deficiency may be supplied by power that automatically flows through the interconnection from the other utility. ”

“ There are many small electric lighting plants which furnish current from sundown to midnight only at fifteen cents per kilowatt hour, with little profit. The transformer (Fig. 127) makes it possible to gather all this generation of electricity for sparsely settled districts into large central stations, located sometimes far away from the consumer perhaps, where there is abundant power in some water-fall, thus saving the expense of coal for running the dynamos. ”

“ But not every promise brought forward in the name of the electrician has his assent or sanction. So much has been done by electricity, and so much more is plainly feasible, that a reflection of its triumphs has gilded many a baseless dream. One of these is that the cheap electric motor, by supply power at home, will break up the factory system, and bring back the domestic manufacturing of old days. But if this power cost nothing at all the gift would leave the factory unassailed ”

“ To focus the inquiry, it is well to state what is not involved in this case. There is no question that the interstate transmission of electric energy is fully subject to the commerce powers of Congress. ”

“ With such facts before us, it is fairly easy to predict the still further electrical development of all important centers. There will be more and better light in homes; there will be more and better light in offices and factories, thus greatly lessening the chances for injury or eye-strain. In all industry, great and small, laborious hand processes will be replaced by safely operated electric machinery, while wider use of electric labor-saving appliances will extend into the home. ”

“ In favor of the first method it can be said that hills of refuse coal now representing locked-up capital can be burned, and the cost of transportation and handling be saved. Electric energy can now transport power in high voltage economically between coal-mines and most large cities. ”

“ The field diameters are so small that the end turns of the winding can be effectively bound into place, such binding being necessary with a radial slot machine. The shaft and disc are a one piece forging of steel.
Ques. How is the high voltage obtained with so few poles?
Ans. There must be either numerous inductors per slot or numerous slots per pole.
Figs. 1,580 to 1,582.—Westinghouse two pole parallel slot field with ends removed showing construction. The parallel slot design of field construction is used in Westinghouse machines up to 10,000 kva. capacity. In fig. ”

“ The conclusion justified by the authorities is that whether you call Westinghouse's discovery, that 'quick action' may be accomplished by the co-operation of the main-pipe air and that from the car reservoir, a 'process,' or a 'mode of operation,' yet if he was the first to disclose it, and to describe a mechanical means to give practical effect to the invention, he must be regarded as a pioneer inventor, and as entitled to protection against those who, availing themselves of the discovery, seek to justify themselves by pointing to mere differences in form in the mechanical devices used. ”

“ The Commission here has found that petitioner owns and operates an electric utility system in the state of Connecticut. It is undisputed that electric energy generated in Massachusetts is transmitted over the wires of other companies to petitioner's facilities at Bristol, Connecticut. In order to transmit power economically for such a long distance, it is necessary to raise the voltage and reduce the current in Massachusetts as the energy starts its interstate journey. But the high voltage needed for transit purposes cannot be utilized by consumers. ”

“ The greater the number of magnets the more powerful the action, as the armature is throughout its entire movement either approaching or receding from the field-magnets. Mr. Weisendanger is very hopeful of the future possibilities of electricity. Our present machines he believes to be but very imperfect appliances, which further research may so improve that the electric current will eventually perform all the services now rendered by combustion. He looks not only to electricity to furnish light, and, through the medium of present unutilized natural resources, motive power, but heat as well. ”