Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company. It was founded on January 8, 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. George Westinghouse had previously founded the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997.
The company pioneered long-distance power transmission and high-voltage transmission. Westinghouse Electric received the rights for the first patent for alternating-current transmission from Nikola Tesla and unveiled the technology for lighting in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
In addition to George Westinghouse, engineers working for the company included William Stanley, Nikola Tesla, Vladimir Zworykin, Oliver B. Shallenberger, Benjamin Garver Lamme and his sister Bertha Lamme. The company was historically the rival to General Electric which was founded by George Westinghouse's arch-rival, Thomas Edison (see War of the Currents).
The company is also known for its time capsule contributions during the 1939 New York World's Fair and 1964 New York World's Fair.
Westinghouse produced the first operational American turbojet, but fumbled on the disastrous J40 project. It not only severely hampered a generation of U.S. Navy jets when the project had to be abandoned, but led to leaving the aircraft engine business in the 1950s.
Famous quotes containing the word electric:
“Flabby, bald, lobotomized,
he drifted in a sheepish calm,
where no agonizing reappraisal
jarred his concentration of the electric chair—
hanging like an oasis in his air
of lost connections. . . .”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)