Editing George Westinghouse (section)

==Early years==
[[File:George Westinghouse in 1864, at age 17.png|thumb|Westinghouse in 1864 at age 17]]

George Westinghouse was born in 1846 in the village of [[Central Bridge, New York]] (see [[George Westinghouse Jr. Birthplace and Boyhood Home]]), the son of Emeline (Vedder) and George Westinghouse Sr., a farmer and machine shop owner.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Westinghouse__George.html|title=Westinghouse__George.html|website=PSU.edu|access-date=October 7, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017090503/http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Westinghouse__George.html|archive-date=October 17, 2015}}</ref> The Westinghouse ancestors came from Westphalia in Germany, moving first to England and eventually emigrating to the US. The family name had been anglicized from Wistinghausen.{{sfn|Huber|2022|p=11}}<ref>Variants of the name used by descendants include Wistinhausen, Wistenhausen and Wistenhaus.</ref>

From his youth, Westinghouse displayed a talent for machinery and business. He was encouraged by his father and was assigned tasks in the Westinghouse Company workshop. The company produced farm equipment such as the [[Westinghouse Farm Engine]].

At the outbreak of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] in April 1861, the then 14-year-old attempted to run away from home to enlist, but was stopped by his father. In June 1863 his parents allowed him to enlist, first in the 12th Regiment of the New York National Guard and then in the 16th Regiment of the New York Cavalry. He earned a promotion to the rank of corporal before being honorably discharged in November 1863. A month later he joined the Union Navy. He served as an Acting Third Assistant Engineer on the gunboat {{USS|Muscoota}} and then on the ship {{USS|Stars and Stripes}} through the end of the war.<ref>Register of Commissioned Officers of the United States Navy. 1865. p. 209.</ref> These ships were used to blockade Southern port cities. After his discharge in August 1865, Westinghouse returned to his family and enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, but he quickly lost interest and dropped out during his first term.<ref name="Huber">{{cite book | last=Huber | first=William R. | date=2022 | title=George Westinghouse, Powering the World| publisher=McFarland & Co. | page=17 }}</ref>

He further developed his skills in his father's company shop. Westinghouse was just 19 when he received his first patent for a [[rotary engine|rotary steam engine]].<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Westinghouse George Westinghouse article at Encyclopædia Britannica]</ref> At age 21, he invented a car replacer, a device used to guide derailed railroad cars back onto the tracks, and a [[Switch frog|reversible "frog"]], a rail junction piece used to switch trains between different tracks.<ref>He later patented the device. It was issued as {{US patent|76365}} in April 1868, when he was 22. It was reissued as {{US patent|RE3584}} in August 1869.</ref> In 1868, Westinghouse moved with his wife to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to access better and less expensive steel for the manufacture of his railroad frogs, and there he began to develop his recently invented railroad air brake concept.