Westinghouse logo
(designed by Paul Rand) |
|
Public | |
Fate | Dissolved |
Successor | Westinghouse Electric Company, Westinghouse Licensing Corporation, Viacom |
Founded | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. (January 8, 1886 ) |
Founder | George Westinghouse |
Defunct | 1999 |
Headquarters | Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, United States |
Area served
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Worldwide |
Owner | Viacom |
Subsidiaries | CBS |
Website | www |
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company. It was founded on January 8, 1886, as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by inventor and entrepreneur George Westinghouse (1846–1914). George Westinghouse had previously founded the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. The corporation purchased CBS broadcasting company in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997.
Westinghouse Electric was founded by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1886. The firm became active in developing electric infrastructure throughout the United States. The company's largest factories were located in East Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and Lester, Pennsylvania and in Hamilton, Ontario, where they made turbines, generators, motors, and switch gear for generation, transmission, and use of electricity. In addition to George Westinghouse, early engineers working for the company included Frank Conrad, Benjamin Garver Lamme, 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 even bigger competitor, General Electric. Westinghouse changed its name to Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1945.