"You could do that much more easily if. . ." young George Westinghouse said time after time to his older brother, who worked in their father's machine shop. Then his brother would get angry, and the boys' father would have to settle the argument.

When George started to work in the machine shop, he spent much of his time building experimental machines. His father thought that these machines had no useful purpose. Finally, he threw them out and told George to work on useful things instead.

Fortunately, the foreman in the machine shop liked George and wanted to encourage him in his inventive efforts. He helped George to set up a little workshop of his own in an unused loft. Here George experimented on the side, and tried out many ideas to see how they would work.

Some of the things that George worked on were small models, which looked like toys. One of his principal models was a tiny steam engine which he built to operate the propellers on a boat. This tiny steam engine was different from all other steam engines which were used at the time.

Most people thought that George, a lad fifteen years of age was wasting his time, but they changed their minds when they found that he had invented a rotary steam engine. This new-type steam engine, which he developed as a toy, was the first of a long line of inventions and patents.

A few years later, George Westinghouse became interested in developing a device to prevent train wrecks. When he was only twenty-two years of age, he invented the compressed air brake, his most famous invention. Soon a group of railroad men organized a company to manufacture the air brake, and unanimously chose him to be president.

During his lifetime Westinghouse obtained a total of 316 patents on a great variety of inventions. From the time he obtained his first patent, he averaged a patent every six weeks for the rest of his life. He also organized a total of sixty companies to manufacture his inventions.

As a business man, Westinghouse was noted for his sincere desire to help his fellow men and country in every way possible. One time he said, "If someday they can say of me that in my work I have contributed something to the welfare and happiness of my fellow men, I shall be satisfied."

From the dust jacket From the dust jacket