George Westinghouse

George Westinghouse George Westinghouse George WestinghouseAsk the man on the street who he should thank for the electricity that lights his way and hes likely to say Thomas Edison.But the name Westinghouse, to most laymen, conjures up little more than images of 1950s fridges and toasters. But George Westinghouse was a giant among inventors, and if theres any one person whos responsible for powering ur world, its him. By the age of 13, Westinghouse was working in his fathers shop, helping to make steam engines and agricultural equipment, for 50 cents a day. After serving the Union cause at the age of 17, he went to New Yorks Union College. But the president of the college soon explained that courses in classics and the like would be a wasteful digression for a young man of such obvious talent. Instead, he should drop out and start with the inventing. Thats just what he did. In a year hed been granted his first kapitnspatent, for a rotary steam engine. The engine was never used but it was the start of a lifelong interest in rotary power. It was also the start of a lifelong series of patentshe was awarded, on average, a patent every month and a half. Two other early Westinghouse patents were put to immediate use His railway frog allowed trains to smoothly cross other tracks, and his car replacer guided derailed cars back on the tracks. If theres any one person whos responsible for powering our world, its George Westinghouse. The reason so many cars needed to be re-railed was the primitive braking systems of the time. Each train had a brakeman who rode on top, whatever the weather. When a train needed to stop, the brakeman would turn a wheel, hop to the next car, turn its wheel, and continue down the line braking each car individually. A train needed a full two miles to come to a halt. The process made being a brakeman one of the most dangerous jobs in the worldin one year 5,000 of them were killed. Westinghouse had read about European air drills used to make hole s for dynamite inside long tunnelsthey worked with thousands of feet of tubing. Why not put the same system to use on trains? He patented the idea at the age of 22. With it, a trains engineer could control the brakes of every car from his seat in the engine. Despite the initial reluctance of much of the railroad industry (it was cheaper to continue to risk the lives of brakemen than to pay the $50 for the Westinghouse brakes), they were eventually adopted everywhere. The air brake business, with Pittsburgher Ralph Bagaley as backer, became Westinghouses first big business and he would continue to perfect the brakes over the years. Air eventually would be used to keep the brakes off the wheels rather than push them on that way a failure would mean a stopped train rather than a runaway train. Trains played a large role in his personal life as well. He honigwein his wife on one. He sat next to the future Mrs. Westinghouse on a trip to Schenectady. After a short chat he realized he want ed to marry her, so, before departing, he gave her the addresses of several of his friends so she could write to them for references. Once married, he built her a summer home in Lennox, MA. It would soon be home to the worlds largest private power plant as well a private natural gas derrick. Power was becoming Westinghouses obsession. He was quick to realize that Edisons DC current, which would need a power station every mile or so, would not be a practical way to wire the world. He threw himself into developing a transformer that could ramp up (and down) AC current. When he joined up with Nikola Tesla in 1884, the intellectual side of the AC/DC war with Edison was over. But the media war continued. Edison began backing public electrocution of animals as well as the electric chair, to prove the dangers of A.C. current. He even coined a new verb to discredit his competitors To kill someone with an electric chair was to Westinghouse him. At the 1893 Worlds fair, Edison lost the public ity battle as well. Westinghouse won a contract to light the fair, underbidding Edison by half a million dollars. Westinghouse chalked up any possible losses to the cost of good publicity. Edison countered with a patent challenge on the kinds of bulbs Westinghouse intended to use. But Westinghouse was ready for that as well, and turned to a secondary, somewhat inferior, bulb he had patented. At the fair, the 250,000 lights25% of the bulbs in the world at the timewowed visitors for whom night had previously been a much darker affair. Skeptics and doubters soon switched their support to Westinghouse and AC power. Westinghouse soon harnessed the power of Niagara Falls to power cities many miles away. By the turn of the century, Westinghouse had some 60 companies to his name. He would borrow from one to fund another as he saw fit. But in 1907, with the country in a depression, he had to borrow from banks, and soon saw those loans called. As a result he lost much of his business, includi ng his prize electrical works. After 1907, he could not pass those huge structures in east Pittsburgh without turning his face away. He continued to invent, however, and was named President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1910. Four years later he was dead, his designs for an electric wheel chair on a desk by his side. Edison looms large in the public consciousness in part because he wanted to loom large in the public consciousnessand, arguably, because he was a less generous man. His record 1,093 patents included the inventions of his employees, patented under his own name. Westinghouse, famously good to his employees, preferred to let his workers patent their own inventions. Had he behaved otherwise his number of patents would easily have surpassed that of Edison. Michael Abrams is an independent writer.The president of the college explained that courses in classics would be a wasteful digression for a young man of such obvious talent. Instead, he should drop ou t and start with the inventing.

How to maintain professional connections when theres high turnover at your company

How to maintain professional connections when theres high turnover at your companyHow to maintain professional connections when theres high turnover at your companyMaintaining the connections youve made at work can be tough when you work in an office where people always landseem to be on their way out - whether its for good or schwimmbad reasons. Heres how to get to know your coworkersbefore its too late.Be someone people want to talk to in the morningYoure only doing yourself a disservice whenyou avert your eyes away from someone whos trying to say hello to you.On that note, research shows that witnessing negativity in the morning can ruin the rest of your day, but even if this has happened to you, you dont need to take your feelings out on those you work with.So leave your morning commute irritation at the door and turn over a new leaf when you get to your desk. This way, when your fresh-faced, well-rested colleague says hello, youre able to answer without mumbling a response unde r your breath.Weve all done this before, but you dont have to purposely look somewhere else when you see a colleague coming your way- this also goes for not responding at all.Out of conversation ideas? Talk about something you both can relate toAmanda Berlin, creator of online copywriting course Create Content That Connects, writes in The Muse that you should bring up what you most definitely have in common when trying to bond with colleagues.No matter who you are and what you do- you have two things in common with everyone you work with. You eat and you commute, occasionally at the saatkorn time. While they feel like humdrum topics, they are two easy go-tos when you need to break ground, she writes, before listing potential questions to pose, including Whats your favorite lunch place around here?Make new employees feel seenA Robert Half blog post suggests that if you want to be a good coworker, you should reach out to new colleagues.What better way to create an atmosphere of teamw ork than by supporting the teams newest members? From volunteering to mentorthem to simply taking them out for a cup of coffee, there are many ways to welcome new employees and boost team morale, it reads.You should make an effort to get to know people before they make an exit, but getting to know new hires early also makes you seem more genuine and approachable.Dont skip every happy hourI know, I know, it can be a whole lot easier to hop on the train back home at the end of the day, but then youll miss out on opportunities to really get to know your coworkers in a more relaxed setting.While the idea of socializing with people youre not close friends with can be a little bit jarring at first, youll never know what you might bond over if you dont go and find out.This also gives you something to talk about when you see them at work the next day.

How to Tackle Annoying Employee Habits and Issues

How to Tackle Annoying Employee Habits and IssuesHow to Tackle Annoying Employee Habits and IssuesHave you ever worked alongside an employee who had poor personal hygiene, foul-smelling clothes or breath, or an annoying personal habit like making clicking noises? Or worse, the employee drinks heavily in the evening and then exudes the smell of alcohol, often mixed with the equally fetid smell of coffee and cigarettes, all day at work? Or, worst on the list of most challenging issues, the employees breath and pores exude a spicy aroma that makes you ill the employees clothes are clean, but he or she appears to bathe infrequently, and youre positive that saying anything would be culturally insensitive. Welcome to the workplace coworker situations from hell. Start your preparation by reading How to Hold a Difficult Conversation for some initial insight into these challenging discussions. Then, integrate these new tips about holding difficult conversations into your feedback approach. Tips for Holding Difficult Conversations Start With a Soft Approach to Set the Employee at Ease, but Dont Beat Around the Bush The employees level of anxiety is already sky high and making mora small talk while he waits for the bad news to emerge, is cruel. Once youve told him that you want to discuss a difficult topic, move right into the topic of your difficult conversation.Tell the Employee Directly What the Problem Is as You Perceive It If you talk around the issue or soften the impact of the issue too much, the employee may never get that the problem is serious. If you reference the problem as some of our employees do the following, the employee may never understand that you mean him. Whenever Possible, Attach the Feedback to a Business Issue This is not a personal vendetta the difficult conversation has a direct business purpose. Perhaps otzu sich employees dont want to participate on his team, and youve noticed the lack of volunteers.Perhaps his appearance is affecting the perception of customers about the quality of the organizations products. Maybe, an irritating mannerism has caused a customer to request a different sales rep. Make the business purpose of the conversation clear. You Also Need to Let the Employee Know That Not Only Is the Behavior Affecting the Business and the Employees Coworkers, but It Is Also Affecting the Employees Career Express directly the impact you believe the behavior is having on the employees befhigung promotions, raises, career opportunities, and relationships in the workplace.Training Your Whole Staff Is Not an Appropriate Solution Some managers will provide a grooming and professionalism seminar for all employees to attend.The employee with the problem will get the message via the training. It isnt going to happen. The employee with the problem will not get that you mean him and you will have subjected countless others to training they didnt need.Professionalism training, dress code training, and similar activities a re recommended when employees need a starting base of information. One company even sponsored a fashion show to demonstrate appropriate business casual dress. You need to oppose training as a means to correct the personal problems of individuals. The worst suggestion that a company considered pursuing? Train just the individuals who are perceived by organization members to have the problem. It is offensive and discriminatory. Address the issue with the employee- individually. Be Sensitive to the Fact That Different Cultures Have Different Norms and Standards of Appearance, Bathing, and Dress Leave this discussion to the employees manager, but your workplace is justified in asking employees to embrace the cultural standards of the workplace in which the employee is working. It is especially true if nonconformance to the standard is interfering with the harmony and productivity of your workplace.Be Sensitive to the Difference in Cooking and Eating Traditions, Too A woman confided to m e recently that her fellow students had laughed at her and made fun of her because she always smelled like curry and garlic and other pungent spices.As a working adult, she has toned down the amount of spice in her cooking, but she was injured by the thoughtlessness for years. If an employee has repeatedly tried to correct a hygiene issue such as bad breath and is not making progress, suggest that the employee sees a physician so they can determine if an underlying medical condition might be causing the problem. Your thoughtfulness could save an employees life.Finally, If You Are the Employees Supervisor, You Owe It to the Employee to Hold the Difficult Conversation Especially, if other employees have complained to you, understand that if you dont hold the difficult conversation, the employees coworkers will.And, they may not hold the conversation effectively with the goal of minimizing embarrassment and discomfort. A bottle of deodorant might show up on the employees desk. Soap has been placed in employee mailboxes, in my client companies.Nasty notes have also been left in mailboxes and on chairs. None of these actions contribute to a harmonious workplace. Furthermore, the employee can justifiably dienstgrad the employer with allowing harassment and a hostile work environment to exist. Care enough about the employee and your productive, harmonious workplace to hold the difficult conversation. You will be happy you did.