Compressed air locomotive brake invented by George Westinghouse

Historical Context Note

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On the 5th of March, 1872 George Westinghouse, Jr. (6th October, 1846 - 12th March, 1914) patented his compressed air railroad braking system, which he invented in 1869 after observing the inefficiency of the manual braking system that was used on trains. His design is still used as the basis for train brakes today.

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6334 Compressed air locomotive brake invented by George Westinghouse 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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