Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Westinghouse Electric Corporation
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in 1945. The company acquired the CBS television network in 1995 and was renamed "CBS Corporation" until being acquired by Viacom in 1999, a merger completed in April 2000. The CBS Corporation name was later reused for one of the two companies resulting from the split of Viacom in 2005.
The Westinghouse trademarks are owned by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and were previously part of Westinghouse Licensing Corporation. The nuclear power business, Westinghouse Electric Company, was spun off from the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1999.
History
Westinghouse Electric was founded by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on January 8, 1886. The firm became active in developing electric infrastructure throughout the United States. The company's largest factories were located in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Lester, Pennsylvania and Hamilton, Ontario, where they made turbines, generators, motors, and switch gear for the generation, transmission, and use of electricity. In addition to George Westinghouse, early engineers working for the company included Frank Conrad, Benjamin Garver Lamme, Bertha Lamme (first woman mechanical engineer in the United States), Oliver B. Shallenberger, William Stanley, Nikola Tesla, Stephen Timoshenko, and Vladimir Zworykin.
Early on, Westinghouse was a rival to Thomas Edison's electric company. In 1892, Edison was merged with Westinghouse's chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, making an even bigger competitor, General Electric. Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company changed its name to Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1945.
CBS Corporation
In 1990, Westinghouse experienced a financial catastrophe when the corporation lost over one billion dollars due to bad high-risk, high-fee, high-interest loans made by its Westinghouse Credit Corporation lending arm.
In an attempt to revitalize the corporation, the board of directors appointed outside management in the form of CEO Michael H. Jordan, who brought in numerous consultants to help re-engineer the company in order to realize the potential that they saw in the broadcasting industry. Westinghouse reduced the workforce in many of its traditional industrial operations and made further acquisitions in broadcasting to add to its already substantial Group W network, including Infinity Broadcasting, TNN, CMT, American Radio Systems, and rights to NFL broadcasting. These investments cost the company over fifteen billion dollars. To recoup its costs, Westinghouse sold many other operations, including its defense electronics division, its metering and load control division (which was sold to ABB), its residential security division, the office furniture company Knoll, and Thermo King.
Westinghouse purchased CBS Inc. in 1995 for $5.4 billion. Westinghouse Electric Corporation changed its name to and became the original "CBS Corporation" in 1997. Also in 1997, the Power Generation Business Unit, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, was sold to Siemens AG of Germany. A year later, CBS sold all of its commercial nuclear power businesses to British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL). In connection with that sale, certain rights to use the Westinghouse trademarks were granted to the newly formed BNFL subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric Company. That company was sold to Toshiba in 2006.
Patents
During the 20th century, Westinghouse engineers and scientists were granted more than 28,000 U.S. patents, the third most of any company.
Products and sponsorships
Power generation: The company pioneered the power generation industry and in the fields of long-distance power transmission and high-voltage alternating-current transmission, unveiling the technology for lighting in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Steam turbine generator: The first commercial Westinghouse steam turbine-driven generator, a 1,500 kW unit, began operation at Hartford Electric Light Co. in 1901. The machine, nicknamed Mary-Ann, was the first steam turbine generator to be installed by an electric utility to generate electricity in the US. George Westinghouse had based his original steam turbine design on designs licensed from the English inventor Charles Parsons. Today a large proportion of steam turbine generators operating around the world, ranging to units as large as 1,500 MW (or 1,000 times the original 1901 unit) were supplied by Westinghouse from its factories in Lester, Pennsylvania, Charlotte, North Carolina, or Hamilton, Ont. or were built overseas under Westinghouse license. Major Westinghouse licensees or joint venture partners included Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan and Harbin Turbine Co. and Shanghai Electric Co. of China.
Research: Westinghouse had 50,000 employees by 1900 and established a formal research and development department in 1906. While the company was expanding, it would experience internal financial difficulties. During the Panic of 1907, the Board of Directors forced George Westinghouse to take a six-month leave of absence. Westinghouse officially retired in 1909 and died several years later in 1914.
Electrical technology: Under new leadership, Westinghouse Electric diversified its business activities in electrical technology. It acquired the Copeman Electric Stove Company in 1914 and Pittsburgh High Voltage Insulator Company in 1921. Westinghouse also moved into radio broadcasting by establishing Pittsburgh's KDKA, the first commercial radio station, and WBZ in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1921. Westinghouse expanded into the elevator business, establishing the Westinghouse Elevator Company in 1928; it sold its elevator business to Schindler Group (forming the Schindler Elevator Corporation) in 1989. Throughout the decade, diversification engendered considerable growth; sales went from $43 million in 1914 to $216 million in 1929.
Aviation: Westinghouse produced the first operational American turbojet for the US Navy program in 1943. After many successes, the ill-fated J40 project, started soon after World War Two, was abandoned in 1955 and led to Westinghouse exiting the aircraft engine business with the closure of the Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division (Kansas City) in 1960.
Gas turbines: During the late 1940s, Westinghouse applied its aviation gas turbine technology and experience to develop its first industrial gas turbine. A 2,000–horsepower model W21 was installed in 1948 at the Mississippi River Fuel Corp gas compression station in Wilmar, Arkansas. This was the starting point for the company to enter in industrial and utility gas turbine business, prior to the sale by Westinghouse of the power generation business to Siemens AG in 1997. Evolving from the Small Steam and Gas Turbine Division formed in the early 1950s, the Westinghouse Combustion Turbine Systems Division was located in Concordville, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia and the old Lester, Pennsylvania plant, until it was relocated to Power Generation headquarters in Orlando, Florida in 1987.
Nuclear power: As a result of its participation in the US government's military program for nuclear energy applications (e.g., The Nuclear Navy) Westinghouse utilized that experience in the development and commercialization of nuclear energy systems for electric power generation. This business currently operates as the Westinghouse Electric Company and is owned by Brookfield Business Partners of Canada. Electricite de France (EDF) a major global player in the nuclear power business, was a long-time licensee of the Westinghouse nuclear technology.
Industrial motors: Additional major industrial products in the widespread Westinghouse portfolio included electric motors of all sizes, elevators and escalators, controls, and lighting. The Large Motor Division, once headquartered in Buffalo, NY, entered a joint venture with Taiwan Electric Co. (TECO) in the 1970s and today operates as TECO-Westinghouse. Much of Westinghouse's higher voltage power equipment was sold to ABB in 1989 and renamed the ABB Power T&D Company.
Rail transit: The Westinghouse Transportation Division (est. 1894) supplied equipment and controls for many North American interurban and streetcar lines, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit, Washington Metro, New York City Subway equipment from the 1890s elevated era to the R68A in 1988, among many other heavy rail and rail transit systems and built locomotives, often in partnership with Baldwin, Lima-Hamilton as well as supplying electrical and traction equipment for Fairbanks-Morse diesel locomotives. The division designed and built Automated People Movers (APMs) at several major U.S. airports, including Sea-Tac. Tampa, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Orlando. The Transportation Division was sold to AEG of Germany (1988), which merged into a joint venture of ABB and Daimler-Benz named AdTranz in 1996. Ultimately, the unit was acquired by Bombardier of Canada in 2001 and is still headquartered in Pittsburgh.
Consumer electrics: Westinghouse was also among the initial manufacturers to make household electrical products including radios, televisions, and other audio/video equipment. This also included both small and large electric appliances of all kinds, from hair dryers and electric irons to clothes washers and dryers, refrigerators and air conditioning units. After more than 50 years, and after playing a strong No. 2 to rival General Electric for most of that time, Westinghouse decided to exit the appliance business in the mid-1970s. White-Westinghouse was formed when White Consolidated Industries acquired the Westinghouse appliance unit in 1975.
World's Fair time capsules: The company is also known for its time capsule contributions during the 1939 New York World's Fair and 1964 New York World's Fair. They also participated in the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. They sponsored the Westinghouse Auditorium at the fair, where they showed films documenting Westinghouse products and company plants. Westinghouse was one of the original corporate sponsors and exhibitors at Walt Disney World's EPCOT attraction in Orlando, Florida.
Environmental incidents
There have been a number of Westinghouse-related environmental incidents in the US. Below is a short list of these. All of these are chemical pollution incidents; none of them involve nuclear reactors or nuclear pollution.
Sharon plant: The Westinghouse Sharon Plant was a 58-acre Westinghouse transformer production facility in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. The EPA's recent Five Year Review Report (2016) of this Superfund site determined that the Shenango River has been polluted due to Westinghouse operations in this area. Because of the findings, the state of Pennsylvania has issued a "Do Not Eat" advisory for fish around the Westinghouse site. This plant was no longer operational after 1984. Westinghouse submitted their final cleanup plan in 1998, and further action beyond their dissolution has been liable to CBS. The transformer business unit was sold to ABB in 1989. This site now houses a product design company.
Adams County plant: Westinghouse was fined $5.5 million in 1996 for polluting groundwater in over 100 wells, as well as other water sources, while operating its Westinghouse Elevator Company plant in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Degreasers and other toxic chemicals were released over a 5-year period in the 1980s. This business unit was sold to Schindler in 1988. Future liability for cleanup has been directed to CBS following the dissolution of Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1999.
Horseheads site: Westinghouse operated a cathode-ray tube plant in Horseheads, New York. They were deemed responsible for pollution at the Kentucky Avenue Wellfield Superfund site in Horseheads, New York. Westinghouse polluted nearby soil, affecting the safety of a nearby aquifer and wells used by residents. One phase of the cleanup effort describes Westinghouse Electric Corporation's facility, designated "Disposal Area F" and the "Former Runoff Basin Area," which are contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and arsenic, will be cleaned up using a combination of soil excavation and soil vapor extraction. At Disposal Area F, the area of contamination is about 0.3 acres. At the Former Runoff Basin Area, the contaminated soils cover approximately 0.7 acres. Disposal of the excavated soils occurred at appropriate off-site facilities. The removal of the PAHs and arsenic contamination will protect site workers and employees at the Westinghouse facility and the cleanup of the VOCs will help restore the quality of the Newtown Creek Aquifer. In 1986, Westinghouse entered a joint venture at this plant with Toshiba to produce CRTs. In 1989, Toshiba became part owner of this plant and the Westinghouse CRT business unit. Future liability has been shifted to CBS.
Sunnyvale plant: Westinghouse operated a plant which manufactured electronics for military systems in Sunnyvale, California. Groundwater and soil near this plant are contaminated with PCBs, fuels, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Potential health threats to area residents include accidentally ingesting or coming into direct contact with site contaminants in soil or groundwater. There are municipal drinking water wells within -mile from this site, and 300,000 people get their drinking water from within three miles of the site. This business unit was sold to Northrop Grumman in 1996. Future liability for this action has been passed on to CBS.
Timeline of company evolution
1880s
1884 – George Westinghouse begins developing a DC electric lighting system
1885 – Westinghouse becomes aware of the new European transformer based alternating current systems when he reads about them in the UK technical journal Engineering
1885 – William Stanley, Jr., working for Westinghouse, develops the first practical AC transformer
1886 – Westinghouse Electric Company founded in East Pittsburgh
1886 – William Stanley, Jr. installs the world's first operational transformer based multiple voltage transmission system, a demonstration lighting system in Great Barrington, Massachusetts
1888 – development of an induction ampere-hour meter for alternating current developed by Oliver B. Shallenberger
1888 – licensing of Nikola Tesla's AC and Induction motor patents (Tesla was hired for one year as a consultant, but he quit after a few months)
1889 – renames itself the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company
1890s
1891 – built world's first industrial AC system (Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant)
1893 – supplied electric lights and power for World's Columbian Exposition and generators for Gettysburg Electric Railway
1893 – hired Bertha Lamme Feicht, the company's first female engineer
1894 – transportation Division (rail equipment) founded
1895 – installed hydropower AC generators at Adams Power Plant, Niagara Falls which supplied power to Buffalo, New York, completed 1896
1898 – purchases Walker Mfg. Co of Cleveland, establishing main facility and plant in Cleveland which produces power-transmitting machinery, cable railway networks, castings and lighting
1899 – founded British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company
1900s to 1920s
1901 – acquires Bryant Electric Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, which continues operation as a subsidiary
1901 – operation of first Westinghouse steam turbine generator installed at Hartford Electric Light Co.
1904 – with Baldwin, markets Baldwin-Westinghouse electric locomotives and AC electrification of railroads, particularly to the New Haven Railroad
1909 – introduces continuous-filament tungsten light bulb; ousts George Westinghouse as chairman during bankruptcy reorganization
1914 – acquires Copeman Electric Stove Company in Flint, Michigan from Lloyd Groff Copeman, moves it to Mansfield, Ohio and enters the home appliance market (sold in 1974 to White Consolidated Industries)
1914 – George Westinghouse dies, with a legacy including 361 patents and the founding of 60 companies
1915 – New England Westinghouse Company opens for business, first product is Mosin–Nagant rifles for the Russian Czar's army; within two years, the Bolsheviks cancel a previous order of over 1 million rifles after overthrowing the Russian Provisional Government, and facing bankruptcy, Westinghouse is rescued by the American Government when it purchases the rifles for use by the military
1917 – share of British Westinghouse purchased by a British holding company, which becomes Metropolitan-Vickers
1917 – builds steam turbine manufacturing plant in Lester, PA (Tinicum Township) near the Philadelphia airport
1919 – 8XE Pittsburgh experimental station goes on the air
1919 – creates RCA with GE, AT&T and United Fruit, buys the American division of Marconi
1920 – acquires International Radio Telegraph Company (formerly known as the National Electric Signaling Company)
1921 – acquires the Pittsburg High Voltage Insulator Company
1920s – enters the broadcasting industry, with stations like KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and WBZ in Springfield, Massachusetts, later moving to Boston.
1926 – in partnership with GE and RCA founds NBC Broadcasting
1930s and 1940s
1932 – announces Ignitron mercury-arc rectifier
1934 – opens its Home of Tomorrow in Mansfield, Ohio, to demonstrate Westinghouse home appliances
1935 – completes longest continuous electric steel annealing furnace in the world at Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan
1930s – funds invention of the magnetohydrodynamic generator
1937 – builds first "industrial atom smasher", a 5 MeV Van de Graaff electrostatic nuclear accelerator
1940s – enters aviation with airborne radar (defense electronics sold 1996), jet engine propulsion, and ground-based airport lighting, gets defense contract from U.S. military to produce plastic helmet liners for the M1 Helmet
1941 – after years of resistance to the unionization efforts of its employees and to the National Labor Relations Act, signs a national labor agreement with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America after a United States Supreme Court decision that upheld the Act
1943 – purchased the lamp division of Kentucky-Radio Corporation (Ken-Rad) in Owensboro, Kentucky from Roy Burlew in exchange for 35,000 shares of Westinghouse stock valued at $1.6 million ($ million todaywhen?)
1945 – renames itself the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and makes first automatic elevator
1945 – Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division (AGT) started
1948 – "You Can Be Sure... If It's Westinghouse" in Time magazine ad
1950s to 1970s
1951 – conducts first live network TV in U.S.
1952 – opens Cathode Ray Tube facility in Horseheads, New York; facility housed three divisions: Cathode Ray Tube, Electronic Tube, and Industrial and Government Tube
1954 – enters finance as Westinghouse Credit Corporation
1955 – buys KDKA-TV (then WDTV) in Pittsburgh and KYW-TV (then WNBK, now WKYC) and KYW Radio (originally, and currently WTAM) along with KYW-FM (then WTAM-FM, currently WMJI) in Cleveland; KYW is now licensed to a TV and AM radio station in Philadelphia
1955 – Westinghouse J40 engine failure causes all F3H fighters using the engine to be grounded, and all other jets using it switch to other engines; Westinghouse is forced out of aircraft engine business
1957 – introduces first successful "cobra head" roadway luminaire, the OV-25, integrating both ballast and optics in a more streamlined modern design
1961 – acquires Thermo King (sold in 1997 to Ingersoll Rand)
1964 – begins Skybus project; beginning of automated mass transit
1965 – invention of the first MEMS device, buys Marketeer Electronic Vehicles
1966 – founds Cinema Center Films
1966 – starts housing and real estate development divisions
1966 – buys a toy manufacturer
1967 – lights America's first computer-controlled outdoor electric sign
1967 – makes the lowest bid for the BART project
1969 – buys 7 Up bottling
1973 – develops world's first AMLCD displays
1974 – sells well-known home appliance division to White Consolidated Industries, which becomes White-Westinghouse
1979 – withdraws from all oil related projects in the Middle East after Iranian Revolution
1980s
1981 – acquires both cable television operator TelePrompter (sold 1985), Muzak (sold September 1986), and 50% of Showtime for $576 million
1982 – acquires robot maker Unimation
1982 – sells street light division to Cooper Lighting
1983 – sells electric lamp division to Philips
1984 – buys Unimation robotics for $105 million
1986 – buys Los Angeles TV station
1986 – enters into joint venture with Airship Industries, Ltd. (London) to develop advanced lighter-than-air radar platforms and early warning surveillance airship for U.S. Navy in cooperation with its subsidiary TCOM Corp. located on the former Naval Air Station Weeksville in Elizabeth City, North Carolina
1987 – buys radio stations in Sacramento and Chicago
1987 – buys electrical equipment, engineering and waste disposal divisions
1988 – sells elevator/escalator division to Schindler Group, now known as Schindler Elevator Corporation
1988 – enters into joint venture with Taiwan Electric to build electric motors; Taiwan Electric eventually becomes sole owner of business as TECO Motor Company
1988 – spins Industrial and Government Tube Division off as Imaging and Sensing Technologies Corporation
1988 – closes the East Pittsburgh generator and Lester, PA turbine plants, which had once been the primary Westinghouse manufacturing facilities
1988 – Bryant Electric subsidiary closed, assets sold to Hubbell in 1991
1988 – Transportation Division, including railroad (locomotive and mass transit) equipment business sold to AEG, later merged into Adtranz in 1996, Bombardier Transportation in 2001, and Alstom in 2021
1989 – sells transmission and distribution business to ASEA Brown Boveri Group (ABB)
1989 – buys Shaw-Walker Furniture and Reff Furniture
1989 – buys Legacy Broadcasting
1990s to 2020s
1990 – buys Knoll International Furniture
1994 – buys United Technologies' Norden electronic systems
1994 – Cleveland operations and facilities purchased by Eaton Corporation for $1.6 billion; Cleveland Westinghouse facilities, as well as manufacturing plants converted into other commercial enterprises
1994–95 – separates IT and phone service sales into Westinghouse Communications division
1995 – under the leadership of Michael H. Jordan buys CBS for $5.4 billion ($ billion today)
1996 – buys Infinity Broadcasting for $4.7 billion
1996 – sells Westinghouse Electronic Systems defense business to Northrop Grumman for $3 billion ($ billion today), becoming Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems
1997 – sells Thermo King division to Ingersoll Rand
1997 – buys American Radio Systems for $2.6 billion, increasing station network to 175
1997 – sells most non-broadcast operations; renames itself CBS Corporation as of December 1
1997 – sells its non-nuclear power generation and energy units to Siemens AG, which operated under the name Siemens Westinghouse until 2003
1998 – CBS Corporation creates Westinghouse Licensing Corporation subsidiary to manage the Westinghouse brand
1999 – sells remaining manufacturing asset, its nuclear energy business, to BNFL
1999 – buys Outdoor Systems for $8.7 billion and King World Productions for $2.5 billion
2000 – CBS acquired by Viacom
2005 – Viacom is split into two companies in January, with a new Viacom being spun off of the old Viacom company, and the old Viacom being renamed as CBS Corporation, thus reviving Westinghouse's last name prior to sale, and reversing the 2000 Viacom-CBS merger
2019 – Viacom and CBS Corporation remerge to form Paramount Global (known as ViacomCBS until 2022)
2021 – Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquires the Westinghouse trademarks from ViacomCBS
Employees
CEOs
George Westinghouse, 1886–1909
Edwin Herr, 1911–1929
Frank Anderson Merrick, 1929 – February 1938
George Bucher, February 1938–1946
Gwilym Price, 1946–1957
Mark Cresap, Jr. 1957–1963
Don Burnham, 1963–1975
Robert Kirby, 1975–1983
Douglas Danforth, December 1983 – December 1987
John Marous, 1988 – June 29, 1990
Paul Lego, June 30, 1990 – January 1993
Gary Clark, January–July 1993
Michael Jordan, July 1993 – 1997
Other
Guy Tripp, a former Thomson-Houston employee who joined Westinghouse and became chairman of its board of directors in 1912, and served until his death in 1927.
Overseas subsidiaries
Westinghouse established subsidiary companies in several countries including British Westinghouse and Società Italiana Westinghouse in Vado Ligure, Italy. British Westinghouse became a subsidiary of Metropolitan-Vickers in 1919 and the Italian Westinghouse factory was taken over by Tecnomasio in 1921.
See also
List of Westinghouse locomotives
Siemens Westinghouse, also known as Siemens Power Generation, Inc.
War of the currents
Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Works, 1904
Westinghouse Broadcasting, also known as Group W
Westinghouse Lamp Plant
Westinghouse Combustion Turbine Systems Division
Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division
White-Westinghouse
Paramount Global
Westinghouse Licensing Corporation
Schindler Elevator Corporation
References
External links
Timeline of Westinghouse historical events
"Who Killed Westinghouse?" – March 1998 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette series detailing Westinghouse's history and break-up
The Westinghouse Legacy Pittsburgh Technology Council
Assembling a Generator, Westinghouse Works, 1904
Westinghouse Electric Corporation Steam Division photograph collection (1898–1964) at Hagley Museum and Library
A Fact History of Westinghouse (for the Golden Jubilee)
Westinghouse Power Generation Business Unit, A booklet prepared in 1993 as a statement of commitment of the Power Generation Business Unit (PGBU) to the future of Westinghouse's leading position in the industry
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Defunct mass media companies of the United States
Electrical engineering companies of the United States
Marine engine manufacturers
Military communications
Defunct locomotive manufacturers of the United States
Manufacturing companies established in 1886
Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2000
1886 establishments in Pennsylvania
2000 disestablishments in Pennsylvania
Predecessors of Paramount Global
Nikola Tesla
Former components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
Superfund sites in California
Pittsburgh Labor History
Engine manufacturers of the United States
American companies established in 1886
American companies disestablished in 2000
Defunct manufacturing companies based in Pennsylvania
Radio manufacturers