Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1907-11-07

Au4u the troubles tndl nave COME
suddenly upon the Westinghouse CON-
pany the figure of the genius that
built the concern looms up majestic
and potential.
He is the hero of a romance in real
life, and those who have followed the
romance from the beginning expect to
see him emerge soon from the dark
ened chapter in the wonderful tale and
live happy ever after"
This hero-George Westinghouse
invented the air brake and revolution
lied steam and electric power, and the
world has learned to look to him for
marvels. There are those who conf
IDENTITY expect to See him touch this
newest problem with the wand of his
extraordinary genius and once more
wrest success from hard conditions.
Fer financial difficulties are not new
to George Westinghouse. They are
merely one class of the legion of OBJ
staeles that have gone down before his
indomtiable will, his inspired resource
fulness and enormous capacity for
hard work.
Crash Averted in 1890.
Once in 1890 the Westinghouse COM
pany stood in trouble In the midst of
a desperate warfare in the courts and
the money markets with his great
rival, the General Electric company,
Mr.. Westinghouse discovered mis-
management and leaks in his own COM
pany. He discharged the general
manager and other employees and set
about repairing the damage. He
failed to raise the necessary money
from Pittsburg bankers, who turned a
deaf ear, but he succeeded in New
York, where he was unknown. He re-
organized the company on better
footing than ever.
His interests have multiplied twenty
fold since that first financial setback,
and have grown far beyond his per-
sonal supervision. The George West
ing house of today stands either at the
head or in indirect control of thirty
corporations representing an aggre-
gate investment of more than $780,
100000 in cash. There are nineteen
Westinhouse companies in the United
States-some of them, however, now
forming part of combinations-one in
Canada, three in England, one in
France, one in Russia, and one in Ger
many. OF fifteen of those Mr.. West
inghouse is president, and of all of
them the directing head. His personal
fortune is reckoned at s50,O00,000.
Genius of Westinghouse.
Many are the great generals who
have conquered empires of business
built up by others. But Westinghouse
is one of the few who conquer the
wilderness and transform it into civil
ization. His genius is comprehensive
At once he is a great inventor, remark
able organizer, and a resourceful fl
nancier.
Not only has he wrought life that
is an Aladdin tale in itself, but he is
one of few men who have made the
nance Of him it has been said that
with his air brake he has saved more
lives than Napoleon lost in all his
battles" while with his wonderful de-
vices in the utilization of electricity
and natural gas he revolutionized the
manufacturing methods of the world
and helped place the United States in
the front rank of all industrial ad-
vance.
At the age of 81 Westinghouse is
sti.. possessed of boundless energy. A
giant in stature and strength, with
great hands SCARED by daily work in
the experimental shop, he is the en-
bodiment of incessant hard work. His
day is filled with the activities of
three ordinary men-so busy is he that
he rarely dresses for dinner without
hearing, receiving or debating cor
respondence.
Born an Inventor.
Westinghouse was born with a gen.
JUS for invention, his father before him
having had no small talent in that di-
rection. Before he was 16 years old
young Westinghouse had built an en-
CINE. After generation and half
he is still working at that engine.
1t is related of him that recently at
Fifth avenue dinner table he sud
denly broke off a conversation, be-
came preoccupied, AM finally produced
note pad, on which he began to
sketch. To the inquiry of friend he
explained that he was recording an
idea that had come TO him in connec-
ton with the rotary enigne-perhaps
the secret for which he had been
searching forty-five years.
1t is an example of the curious irony
of fate that Schenectady, n. Y, where
the young inventor got his start in life,
is now known to the world chiefly for
the location there of his militant ri
val. the General Electric company.
The works of this company, which
has developed the patents OF that other
wizard of the mechanical world.
Thomas A. Edison. are situated across