S.Sprague/Geo. Westinghouse & Destiny
INVENTIVE MIND
George Westinghouse, Jr., the son of a man who made farm machinery in New York, may have been the most productive inventor on record. He helped perpetuate the Industrial Revolution with his instinctive drive to resolve social and commercial obstacles. George's creations changed the way society lived and how people travelled, perhaps more than any single individual.
Westinghouse was born in Central Bridge, New York on October 6, 1846. From early age, he had a creative mind (see "other creative minds" below) and his father's shop was just the place to try out new ideas. Once when asked to cut some pipe, George, instead, designed a power device that cut the pipes automatically in a fraction of the time thought necessary. At age 19, he received his first patent: a design for a rotary engine. A year later, home from the Civil War, Westinghouse found his destiny.
DESTINY
In 1866, perhaps the year that changed his life, George was riding a train suddenly brought to a halt to avoid colliding into a wrecked train on the rails ahead. Inspecting the sight, he mused that there must be a safer way to stop a heavy train. Existing braking systems were inadequate.
Based on compressed air - the idea used to power rock drills while tunneling - George began to experiment with a new type of braking system for trains. At 22 years of age, he developed the air brake, a device that stopped trains using compressed air. Legendary success insured, he pressed on.
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IMHO there is an analogy here.
Elan
