Evening journal., 1914-03-26
New News Of Yesterday
How Westinghouse Came
by One OF His Import
ant Inventions.
BY Holland.

Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate).
In the course OF a greatly esteemed
personal friendship of twenty-five
years with the late George Westing-
house, / discovered that he was a
man Of great simplicity of personal
life, Of unusual toleration for the
weaknesses of human nature, of a
statesmanlike vision of what the fu-
ture of the United States may be, and
also of nature absolutely free from
jealousy OF any kind This last at
tribute was impressively suggested
to me in one of the last chats which
had with him. Mr. Westinghouse had
written TO me to ask me to call upon
him at his office, saying that the time
had come when he would make some
detailed explanation to me of one
of his latest inventions.
Il was the apparatus which he per-
fected by means OF which air springs
operating a reservoir of oil were cap
able of reducing to a minimum the
jolting of any vehicle, especially mo-
tor cars.
There was queer history asso-
ciated with this apparatus" said Mr.
Westinghouse, after he had shown me
several photographs which pictured
forth the invention. "rhe thing is not
primarily my own. Ono day two men
called on me. one of them being q
clergyman. / think they lived in or
near Troy New York. They showed
me an apparatus which they had in
vented which was designed to receive
all the iolting which is usually pro-
duced when a vehicle passes over a
rough road OF pavement.
81 looked at it a few moments and
then told them that their apparatus
contained the right idea, but that they
had failed to work out perfectly ono
of two vital details.
"They asked me whether I would be
willing to undertake to perfect it. I
told them that | would because l was
sure they had in the apparatus they
showed me the germ of very valua-
BILE idea / also told them that il
would take two or three years to per-
feet the apparatus.
"They seemd q little astonished that
I named so long a time as that. but
I insisted that if | did anything at all
with their invention / should have all
the time I needed to perfect it,
"Well, we made a satisfactory ar
rangement and the invention of those
two men was subjected to every pos
sible test over more than two years.
Some were delicate. Some obstacles
were difficult to overcome. This has
all been accomplished My part in
the work was supplementary to that
done by these two inventors of Troy.
think that ultimately the invention
is going radically to change some fea-
lures of highway traffic, as l under
stand is already the case in London"
Said said to Mr.. Westinghouse that
could not help observing that he
gave almost exclusive credit to these
two obscure inventors.
"Why not?" said he. There is room
enough for all of us"
] said to Mr. Westinghouse that
he thought it would take so long a
time as two or three years to perfect
this little apparatus
81 couldn't undertake to say" he
replied, chow many inventors have
failed because they have not been pa
tient and cautious. IL is one thing TO
get into your head a valuable idea,
but it is an entirely different thing to
work it out until it is perfected. Many
inventors are impatient. Yet patience
is the vital nerve of successful in
vented apparatus. II has always been
my rule never to permit an apparatus
to be placed upon the market until I
have tested it from every possible
angle. I was once two years in test
ing one of my gas engines. simply for
the purpose of overcoming even IA
trihing irregularity of the stroke Of
the piston. l have often thought that
if have been a success as an invent
or it has been in part due to my eau
tion. which my friends thought was