Westinghouse Air Brake Washer

kiyote

Never found one of these before! It came from the late 1800s dump behind my house. Sort of an eyeball find-- the rain here lately has made bottle finding really easy-- the probe just goes right into the soil.

ricko

Yep, that is different... have no idea how it was used. Cheers, RickO

johnny9434

no idea either what it was used for but still an interesting piece. you could ask westinghouse and find out to. just an idea

goingbroke

In 1872, George Westinghouse invented the automatic air brake by inventing the triple valve and by equipping each car with its own air cylinder. Air pressure is maintained in the auxiliary reservoirs and in the train pipe at all times when the brakes are not applied. An equilibrium of air pressure is maintained in the train pipe and in the auxiliary air cylinders.

To apply the brakes to all of the cars at about the same time, pressure is released from the train pipe, causing the triple valve on each car to apply the brakes. To release the brakes on each car, pressure is increased in the train pipe until an excess pressure above that of the pressure in each auxiliary cylinder is reached, which throws the triple valve so as to close the inlet to the brake cylinder and open the inlet to the auxiliary reservoir from the train pipe, thus allowing the equilibrium of the two pressures to be reached. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was originally established by George Westinghouse in 1869. Westinghouse had developed many companies during this time of industrial growth at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Air Brake plant, that made for improved performance and increased speed on the nations railways, was moved to its new location in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania in 1889.[2] Wilmerding is a small town about 14 miles outside of Pittsburgh which, at the time, was only inhabited by about 5,000 people. Socialism was strong in Wilmerding and it was a peaceful non-violent farming borough. It was thought to be “The Ideal Town” for the company because of its location right along the Pennsylvania Railroad and its mainly blue collar inhabitants. The Air Brake Company employed 3,000 citizens from the surrounding Pittsburgh area, but its work force was comprised almost entirely of individuals from Wilmerding.

kiyote

Thanks for the info, goingbroke!

Dunno if anyone on here has interest in bottles but I found these as well...



They're both common but i was really excited to finally find a cobalt blue bottle!

ricko

Great information.... thanks, Cheers, RickO