I. | Introductory | 1 |
| Birth and birthplace | |
| Ancestry | |
| His brothers | |
| In the Civil War | |
| Inherited qualities | |
| Education in school and shop | |
| Early inventions | |
| Marriage and home | |
| Principal enterprises | |
| Decade of greatest output | |
| The last years | |
II. | The Air Brake | 21 |
| Some early notions | |
| He turns to the air-brake | |
| Who invented the air-brake? | |
| Creates a new art | |
| First air-braked trains | |
| The automatic brake comes | |
| The Scott model, Franklin Institute | |
| Fundamentals of the automatic brake | |
| Development of the triple valve | |
| Some accessories | |
| The Burlington brake trials | |
| The quickaction triple | |
| The triumph after Burlington | |
| English experiences | |
| The Galton-Westinghouse experiments and some lessons | |
| The education of the users | |
III. | Friction Draft Gear | 77 |
| A new principle introduced | |
| Genesis of the friction gear | |
| First patent, 1888 | |
| First commercial use nine years later | |
| Its various functions | |
| Effects in starting trains | |
| Its comparative importance | |
IV. | A General Sketch of Electric Activities | 87 |
| Some elementary explanations | |
| Early interest in electric lighting | |
| Early railway work | |
| His interest in alternating current is aroused | |
| Buys the Gaulard and Gibbs patents | |
| The transformer is developed | |
| Westinghouse Electric Company chartered | |
| Opposition to alternating current | |
| Ninety-five per cent of electric energy used now alternating current | |
| The central power-station idea | |
V. | The Induction Motor and Meter | 121 |
| Tesla's invention | |
| Seven years developing to usefulness | |
| A great chapter in electrical history | |
| Steps in development of the motor | |
| Shallenberger invents a meter | |
VI. | The Rotary Converter | 130 |
| The economic place of the rotary converter | |
| Its first serious commercial development at East Pittsburgh | |
| Effect on the electric art | |
VII. | The Chicago World's Fair | 134 |
| Westinghouse takes the lighting contract | |
| And then develops a lamp | |
| And the means of making it | |
| Exhibits alternating-current machinery | |
| A historical moment | |
VIII. | Niagara Falls | 141 |
| The Cataract Construction Company | |
| An international commission | |
| Decision reached to distribute power by electricity | |
| And to use alternating current | |
| The Telluride plant and its effects | |
| Compressed-air transmission | |
| Studies of frequency | |
| The contract awarded October 1893 | |
| Magnitude of the enterprise and some results | |
| Certain local enterprises | |
IX. | Electric Traction | 159 |
| Early trolley roads | |
| Westinghouse foresaw heavy electrification with alternating current | |
| But had first to enter the street-railway field | |
| Development of direct-current apparatus | |
| State of the art | |
| Slow and difficult growth of alternating-current systems | |
| St. Clair Tunnel | |
| New Haven Railroad | |
| Milwaukee and St. Paul | |
| Regeneration | |
| Load balancing | |
| Some effects of railroad electrification | |
X. | Steam and Gas Engines | 179 |
| Patents a rotary engine | |
| Designs a reciprocating engine with radial cylinders | |
| And gas engines | |
| The turbine | |
| Patents the single-double-flow turbine | |
| And a reaction-impulse type | |
| The reduction gear | |
| Some by-products | |
| Propeller experiments | |
| Condenser improvements | |
XI. | The Turbo-Generator | 201 |
| Its industrial importance | |
| Some details | |
| Displaces the engine-type generator | |
| The course of development | |
| Some of the difficulties | |
XII. | Signalling and Interlocking | 212 |
| What they are and what they do | |
| Westinghouse brought in the use of power | |
| Hydropneumatic systems | |
| Electropneumatic | |
| The first power interlocking | |
| Slow progress in the United States | |
| Effects of power signalling and interlocking | |
XIII. | Natural Gas | 224 |
| Westinghouse begins in 1883 | |
| Takes out thirty-eight patents | |
| Special dangers in the use of natural gas | |
| The Philadelphia Company | |
| Results | |
| Pittsburgh without smoke | |
| Fuel gas | |
XIV. | Various Interests and Activities | 233 |
| Lamps | |
| Nernst lamp | |
| Cooper Hewitt lamp | |
| Rectifier | |
| Multiple-unit control | |
| Car, Air, and Electric Coupler | |
| Research | |
| Telephone | |
| Board of Patent Control | |
| Air spring | |
| The steel car | |
| Copper | |
XV. | European Enterprises | 262 |
| World-wide plans | |
| British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company | |
| The underlying idea correct but too early | |
| The Clyde Valley Electrical Power Company | |
| The central-station idea in practice | |
| Making brakes in France | |
| The Italian company | |
| The Russian Brake Company | |
| Ten or a dozen lesser companies | |
| The broad results | |
XVI. | Financial Methods--Reorganization--Equitable-Life Episode | 273 |
| Westinghouse and the bankers | |
| Did his own financing | |
| Risked his own money | |
| The influence of personality | |
| An idealist | |
| Never speculated | |
| The receiverships of 1907 | |
| The reorganization | |
| Equitable Life episode | |
| The trusteeship | |
XVII. | The Personality of George Westinghouse | 287 |
| Relations with his men | |
| The family spirit | |
| The Amber Club | |
| His ethical influence | |
| An enlightened humanitarian | |
| The Air Brake Company as an example of his policies | |
| Personal characteristics | |
| More than a genius | |
| Education | |
| Some encounters with the laws of nature | |
| Not a sceptic | |
XVIII. | The Meaning of George Westinghouse | 320 |
| His life was history: an agent of civilization | |
| Transportation and progress | |
| Brakes and signals and transportation | |
| The first four names in the evolution of transportation | |
| The manufacture of power and the New Era | |
| An ethnical epoch | |
| Effect of the alternating current in the New Era | |
Appendix | Patents | 331 |
| Index | 369 |