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George Westinghouse
George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age of 19. Westinghouse saw the potential of using alternating current for electric power distribution in the early 1880s and put all his resources into developing and marketing it. This put Westinghouse's business in direct competition with Thomas Edison, who marketed direct current for electric power distribution. In 1911 Westinghouse received the American Institute of Electrical Engineers's (AIEE) Edison Medal "For meritorious achievement in connection with the development of the alternating current system." Early years George Westinghouse was born in 1846 in Central Bridge, New York (see George Westinghouse Jr. Birthplace and Boyhood Home), the son of Emeline (Vedder) and George Westinghouse Sr., a machine shop owner. His ancestors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Bridge, New York
Central Bridge is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the towns of Schoharie and Esperance in Schoharie County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 593. Central Bridge is in northeastern Schoharie County, in the northwestern part of the town of Schoharie and the southwestern section of Esperance. It is in the valley of Cobleskill Creek where it joins Schoharie Creek, a northward-flowing tributary of the Mohawk River. It is bordered to the south by Interstate 88 and to the east by Schoharie Creek. New York State Route 7 runs through the southern part of the community, leading east to Duanesburg and to Schenectady, and west to Cobleskill. New York State Route 30A passes through the center of the CDP, leading north to Sloansville and to Fultonville. The hamlet of Old Central Bridge is in the southern part of the CDP. Demographics Notable person *George Westinghouse George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of America, Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by U.S. state, states that had secession, seceded. The central Origins of the American Civil War, cause of the war was the dispute over whether Slavery in the United States, slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction. Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War, Decades of political controversy over slavery were brought to a head by the victory in the 1860 United States presidential election, 1860 U.S. presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery's expansion into the west. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utility
As a topic of economics, utility is used to model worth or value. Its usage has evolved significantly over time. The term was introduced initially as a measure of pleasure or happiness as part of the theory of utilitarianism by moral philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The term has been adapted and reapplied within neoclassical economics, which dominates modern economic theory, as a utility function that represents a single consumer's preference ordering over a choice set but is not comparable across consumers. This concept of utility is personal and based on choice rather than on pleasure received, and so is specified more rigorously than the original concept but makes it less useful (and controversial) for ethical decisions. Utility function Consider a set of alternatives among which a person can make a preference ordering. The utility obtained from these alternatives is an unknown function of the utilities obtained from each alternative, not the su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arc Lamp
An arc lamp or arc light is a lamp that produces light by an electric arc (also called a voltaic arc). The carbon arc light, which consists of an arc between carbon electrodes in air, invented by Humphry Davy in the first decade of the 1800s, was the first practical electric light. It was widely used starting in the 1870s for street and large building lighting until it was superseded by the incandescent light in the early 20th century. It continued in use in more specialized applications where a high intensity point light source was needed, such as searchlights and movie projectors until after World War II. The carbon arc lamp is now obsolete for most of these purposes, but it is still used as a source of high intensity ultraviolet light. The term is now used for gas discharge lamps, which produce light by an arc between metal electrodes through a gas in a glass bulb. The common fluorescent lamp is a low-pressure mercury arc lamp. The xenon arc lamp, which produces a high ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Westinghouse Electric Company (1888 Catalogue)
Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is an American nuclear power company formed in 1999 from the nuclear power division of the original Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It offers nuclear products and services to utilities internationally, including nuclear fuel, service and maintenance, instrumentation, control and design of nuclear power plants. Westinghouse's world headquarters are located in the Pittsburgh suburb of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. Brookfield Business Partners, a Canadian private equity fund and a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management is the majority owner of Westinghouse. On March 24, 2017, parent company Toshiba announced that Westinghouse Electric Company would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of US$9 billion of losses from nuclear reactor construction projects. The projects responsible for this loss are mostly the construction of four AP1000 reactors at Vogtle in Georgia and the Virgil C. Summer plant in South Carolina. Westinghouse filed for C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union Switch And Signal
Union Switch & Signal (commonly referred to as US&S) was an American company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which focused on railway signaling equipment, systems and services. The company was acquired by Ansaldo STS (from 2015, Hitachi Rail STS) in 1988, operating as a wholly-owned company until January 2009, when US&S was renamed "Ansaldo STS USA" to operate as a subsidiary of Ansaldo in the Americas and Asia.Ansaldo STS USA on Ansaldo website (archived, March 8, 2009) History Early years founded Union Switch & Signal Inc. in 1881, consolidating the ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Signal
A railway signal is a visual display device that conveys instructions or provides warning of instructions regarding the driver’s authority to proceed. The driver interprets the signal's indication and acts accordingly. Typically, a signal might inform the driver of the speed at which the train may safely proceed or it may instruct the driver to stop. Application and positioning of signals Originally, signals displayed simple stop or proceed indications. As traffic density increased, this proved to be too limiting and refinements were added. One such refinement was the addition of distant signals on the approach to stop signals. The distant signal gave the driver warning that they were approaching a signal which might require a stop. This allowed for an overall increase in speed, since train drivers no longer had to drive at a speed within sighting distance of the stop signal. Under timetable and train order operation, the signals did not directly convey orders to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Switch Frog
A railroad switch (), turnout, or ''set ofpoints () is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another, such as at a railway junction or where a spur or siding branches off. The most common type of switch consists of a pair of linked tapering rails, known as ''points'' (''switch rails'' or ''point blades''), lying between the diverging outer rails (the ''stock rails''). These points can be moved laterally into one of two positions to direct a train coming from the point blades toward the straight path or the diverging path. A train moving from the narrow end toward the point blades (i.e. it will be directed to one of the two paths, depending on the position of the points) is said to be executing a ''facing-point movement''. For many types of switch, a train coming from either of the converging directions will pass through the switch regardless of the position of the points, as the vehicle's wheels will force the points to move. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Westinghouse Farm Engine
A Westinghouse Farm Engine from 1890 The Westinghouse Farm Engine was a small, vertical-boiler steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be ... built by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghouse Company that emerged in the late 19th century. In the transition from horses to machinery, small portable engines were hauled by horses from farm to farm to give power where it was needed. It provided power to agricultural machines such as sawmills, threshing machines, and corn shellers. Many small workshops used them as well. The farm engine was invented by George Westinghouse. Near the end of 1865, he created a rotary steam engine: the Westinghouse Farm Engine. He invented the engine at age 21. As a sideline to the Railway air brake#Westinghouse air brake, airbrake ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rotary Engine
The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its attached cylinders rotated around it as a unit. Its main application was in aviation, although it also saw use in a few early motorcycles and automobiles. This type of engine was widely used as an alternative to conventional inline engines ( straight or V) during World War I and the years immediately preceding that conflict. It has been described as "a very efficient solution to the problems of power output, weight, and reliability". By the early 1920s, the inherent limitations of this type of engine had rendered it obsolete. Description Distinction between "rotary" and "radial" engines A rotary engine is essentially a standard Otto cycle engine, with cylinders arranged radially around a central crankshaft just like a conventional ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union College
Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia College (formerly King's College). In the 19th century, it became known as the " Mother of Fraternities",Somers (2003), p. 304 as three of the earliest Greek letter societies were established there. The school was once referred to as one of the " Big Four" alongside Harvard University, Yale University and Princeton University, before the Civil War and a financial scandal led to its fall from grace and the top national rankings. Union began enrolling women in 1970, after 175 years as an all-male institution. The college offers a liberal arts curriculum across 21 academic departments, as well as opportunities for interdepartmental majors and self-designed organizing theme majors. It offers a wide array of courses in the humanities, social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
