The department of the company of Wilmington Delaware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, presents the cavalcade of America. Our story, Down Break, our star, Cornell Wiles. To men who have lived through a war, who have lived with excitement, with danger, a quiet life in a quiet town is much too passive a promise to be keen about. Such was the problem of young George Westinghouse's connected New York in 1866. I think I can study engineering just as well in the shop. I'm sorry, but there's no use arguing the point. Remember George, when I gave you permission to join the army, I did it on your promise that you'd continue your schooling when the war was over. I'm holding you to that promise now. Yes, but I wish you'd... Unless you intend to renege on your promise. No, I won't renege. Well then it's settled. You will matriculate in Union College as soon as the new term begins. I refer you now, gentlemen, to the nineteenth point in Lord Bacon's table of the degrees of comparative instances of heat. Bacon tells us that on the whole, the heat of the heavenly bodies is augmented in three ways. Mr. Westinghouse. Mr. Westinghouse. Yes, sir? Mr. Westinghouse, will you be kind enough to recite Bacon's three rules concerning the augmentation of heat of heavenly bodies? Sir? Did I startle you, Mr. Westinghouse? Well, no sir, not exactly. I have propounded a question, Mr. Westinghouse. Would you care to expound on the answer? Yes, sir. Let me see. The rules for augmenting the heat of heavenly bodies, that was what you asked, wasn't it, sir? Yes. You see, I know the question. Do you also know the answer? No sir, I don't, and honestly I don't think I ever will. May I see the paper you've been scribbling upon, Mr. Westinghouse? Bring it to me. Here it is, sir. Well, it's just... It is a splendid cartoon of me, an impudent, sir, a confounded impudent. You will come with me at once to the Dean. Well, George, what do you say to this? I think perhaps Professor Lefferts is trifle too sensitive. Dean Wilke, I will not tolerate... I'll handle this, Professor. I think you'd better go back to your classroom. Very well. I'm sorry, sir, I really am. I really cannot permit things like this. You know that, George. I suppose not. I'll apologize to the Professor, sir, if that might be a good idea. George, you're not very happy here, are you? No sir, I'm not. Why not? I don't know, I'm marking time, I'm not moving ahead. Well, but you're young, yet you... No sir, I'm not. No man who's ever been to war is young. War sweats the youth right out of you and makes you impatient. You understand, sir, I know that education is a great thing. Books and learning, that's fine, but I'm impatient. George, I'm going to write a letter to your father. Telling him of my little prank? No. Telling him that in my opinion you had enough of waiting. I think you are right. I think you should get started on what you want to do right away. Oscar. Hey, Oscar. Hey, yes, George. Did you praise those metal clamps? Now, George, you know what your father said. He said, no paper. He said, Oscar, George must do a day's work for a day's pay and no paper. Yes, I know, Oscar, I know. Now, what about those metal clamps? George, if he finds out the clamps... Yes, I am amazing, you know. Let me see if I can get them. Yes. Oh, these are fine. Fine. If I lose my job, that's also fine, fine. Come on, let's buy them out. Look, I have a lot to do. I'll help you with it later, come on. I'll get my dozen things like this. Come on in, lock the door. We'll try this out on a little model railroad, I feel. We'll plant this extra set of tracks... George, open the door. No, don't. I... Remember. Will you open this door? Yes, right away, father, right away. I thought I saw you coming in here. George, what's a-dickin' for you up to a... George. Toy trains? No, they're not toy trains. It's a model of a real railroad. You told me that if I took you into the shop, you'd stick on a job. Now look, toys. It's not a toy, it's a model. I built it to work out an idea. An idea for what? A car replacer. A what? A car replacer. An idea I have that will get derailed trains back on their tracks in one half and one quarter of the time, and I'll take. George, I've got something more important for you to do than run toy trains. I want you to get home and cleaned up. You're taking the 520 train to New York. There's some special work to be done for Mallory and company. Yes, sir. Now, George, I'm depending on you. Don't get off on one of your wild ideas and forget what you're being sent for. I won't. All right. When you get back, we'll talk some more about your, uh... Car replacer. Car replacer. What next? What next? Goodbye, George. I've got to get back to the shop. Yes, sir. Oscar! Hey, yes, Mr. Eshtinghaus. Oscar, you've got your work apron on backwards. Mr. Eshtinghaus, believe me, that's only from your point of view. I... I beg your pardon, but is this seat next to you occupied? Uh... no. Would you mind if... No, no, not at all. Oh, thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm afraid I'll have to disturb you. Oh, not at all. I just want to get my hat box in the right... Let me do that. I'll do that. Oh, thank you. Be careful. Oh, I've got it. Oh! Oh, I'm sorry. The train alerts. I hope you had it in ruins. No one keeps hats in hat boxes. They don't? Of course not. This is my lunch. Oh, dear. Looks like I've got chicken wings with cherry tart dressing. Looks a little messy. Oh, but it smells good. Will you join me? Well, I... Please, there's more than enough of the both of us. Oh, thank you. My name is George Eshtinghaus. Mine is Margaret Walker. Here, come. Thank you. You know, maybe I'll work on that. On what? Oh, baggage racks that'll hold baggage, even when the train scoots around a curve. It's an idea, hmm? Very good idea. You see, I'm... I'm an inventor, in a way. In what way, Mr. Eshtinghaus? Well, up to now, in a kind of unsuccessful way. I think inventing is wonderful. I once invented something. You did? Mm-hmm. A recipe for turkey pie. What's that? I don't know. Towns break! Towns break! Towns break! Towns break! Something must be wrong with... they're going to stop. Look out, hold tight! Oh, look, it's awesome. The whole front car is wrecked. You'd better stay back, Ms. Walker. Brakeman! Brakeman, you... you know what happened? The freight train stalled just ahead of us. Didn't the engineer see it? The track is clear and it's broad-gauge. Surely he saw it, miss, but he couldn't stop. Brakes couldn't be set in time. He signaled for down-brake as soon as he started the freight. You heard him. Yes. Well, he... he got to the handbrake as soon as we could, but... by the time we got them set, it was just too late. Each car has its own brake, and each brake has to be set separately? That's right. No, that's wrong. Someway ought to be found to set the brakes all at once from a central point, from the engineer's cab. That's the way it should be done. The brake is on the man that signed that way. That's all I got to say. I got to be seen about getting some help from the nearest village. It'll take hours to clear the wreckage. You're an inventor, Mr. Weston, huh? Huh? What do you mean? You heard what the brakeman said. Blessings on the man that signed the way. And now, we return to our cavalcade story, Down-Brake, starring Cornel Wild as George Westinghouse. On the 8th of August, 1867, George Westinghouse and Marguerite Walker were married and connected to New York. Within a few months, George was working on an idea, a tremendous idea. I finished the diagram, Marguerite. Come take a look. Just tell me this. Will it work? I've gone over it a dozen times. I can't find any reason why a railroad brake operated by steam pressure won't do the job. But how does the steam get from car to car? Through a hose that runs along the bottom of the train and through the coupling mechanism between the cars. The steam is generated in the locomotive and then pushed through the hose under tremendous pressure. When the engineer sews the lever, the steam pressure forces the brake against the car wheels. It should work, huh? Are you going to take it to the railroad people? Well, that's a little way off yet. The idea is only on paper. I'm going to make a model in the shop and really test it. Will your father let you? Oh, I'll do it at night, after hours. With Oscar to help me, I'm sure I can make it work. Oh, colder than this, I've never seen it. Glad you got here, Oscar. Have trouble with the wife? Only once I have trouble with my wife. That's when I came home with my new britches ripped. I've got everything set. The boiler has full pressure. I've got about 300 feet of coupled hose brakes outside. Hey, George, look at that gauge. You've got too much pressure. Oh, I need as much as I can get. If we can get a 20-pound reading, that'll be enough to get the brakes to set firm. Now, you just keep feeding that boiler. Don't let the pressure slide down. I'm going outside by the gauge, all right? Well, listen, George, you've got too much pressure. I've got enough, not near enough. Listen, listen to that. What? The boiler seems to be cracking. It's going to blow. No, it's not. I know steam boilers and this one is going to blow. Now get out. No, if you don't get out, I'll carry you out. Come on now. Hammer. Oscar, Oscar, are you all right? It's broken. Your foot? No. It's seen where my wife fixed my britches. I could have told you this from the beginning, George. I knew your steam brake idea wouldn't work. You knew it, of course I did. Any good mechanic could have seen it was just illogical. In the summer, the heat would condense your steam before it reached the last car. In the winter, the condensed steam would freeze. Then why didn't you tell George that when he showed you his sketches? Because I figured he could stand a lesson in practical mechanics. What I didn't figure is that he'd almost blow himself up while learning. Well, could have been worse. Now George, will you do me a favor? What? Well, what is it? Forget your wild ideas and stick to business. Oh, well, I... You've got a wife now, George. You've got to buckle down. You owe it to Marguerite. I don't want him to give up his invention, Mr. Weston-Harris. An invention isn't an invention until it works, Marguerite. George's doesn't work, so it is not an invention. Just another crackpot idea. But he can... No, no. Father's right, Marguerite. If you're what happened, I've got to give it up. As Dad says, I've got to buckle down. Shall I have my lunch, Bill, George? Oh, no thanks, Oscar. I'm not hungry. I think I'll just go out in the yard for a while. I've got roast books. No, thanks. I'm going to go get some food. I'll be right back. I'll be right back. I'll be right back. I'll be right back. I'll be right back. I'll be right back. I'll be right back. I beg your pardon? Yes, can I help you? I'm working my way through college. Really, I am. That's very interesting. I'm selling subscriptions to a wonderful magazine. Oh, thank you. It isn't expensive at all. Only one dollar for an entire year. Here's a sample copy of one of the magazines. No, really, I... Some wonderful stories, an article. There's one on hunting Himalayan bears. Oh, I don't expect I'll be getting around to that this year. And there's another on how they drilled a tunnel through the Alps using compressed air. No, Miss, I'm sorry. There's another story that you'll find in this magazine. What was that? What was what? What you just said about compressed air. Well, they... they... in Switzerland, they... Never mind. Is it in this copy of the magazine? Yes. I'll buy it. Here, here's a dollar. But that's for a whole year's subscription. I just want this copy. You read the rest. It's all here, Marguerite. Simple as pie. I don't understand why I didn't think of it immediately. Think of what, George? Look, Marguerite, listen carefully. They were building a tunnel through the Alps, the Mount Sinus tunnel. I... I've never heard of it. Oh, it doesn't matter. The tunnel was seven miles long, clear through a mountain. They were using steam drills. Now, when they got a good way through the mountain, a mile or two, they ran into trouble. What trouble? No air. There wasn't enough draft to bring the air that deep into the mountain. Not enough to keep the fires going and the steam boilers and leave enough for the men to breathe. And one of the engineers got a bright idea. Instead of using steam to work the drill, he decided to use compressed air. But... but you just said there wasn't enough air inside the mountain to even keep the men alive. Well, that's just it. The air was compressed with giant pumps outside the entrance to the tunnel. The compressed air was carried by hose into the tunnel, three or four miles in. And it not only was powerful enough to operate the drills, but it also supplied air to the workmen. Do you see? No, darling, I... Well, if... if compressed air can operate a drill three miles from a pump, three miles, why can't it set a break a few hundred feet from an engine? Marguerite, that's the answer. Not steam, but air. An automatic air break. And I'm going to build it. Like my toys, Marguerite? Look at this model train. It's fascinating. Well, I got it all hooked up for the test. The little engine compresses the air and the hose carries it to breaks attached to every wheel in the train. One motion and the whole train should slide through its top. You going to try it now, George? Yeah, right now, Oscar, as soon as the engine passes me again. I'll pull the lever. Wait, what, something wrong? No, new bridges. I'll wait outside. No, no, you wait here. Come on. Here comes the engine now. Here goes the lever. Holy smokes, it works. I'll be honest with you, Mr. Card. No one has even bothered to listen to me before. Why not? Well, they laugh at just the idea of my air break. One big railroad man almost threw me out of his office, telling me I must be crazy to think I can stop a train with wind. That was his expression. I don't think the idea is so crazy. Will you just let me prove it? What do you need? One of your regular trains on a panhandle railroad. I'll stand all the expense of putting in the brake. Every cent of it. Just give me a train. I'm a gambler. You've got your train. This is my wife, Mr. Card, and my father. How do you do, Mr. Card? Oh, so you've all come down for the party. I'm not so pleased about the idea of Marguerite riding along with us. Oh, it'll be perfectly safe. I've my brakeman ready in every car, just in case. He won't need him. I think I'd be pleased beyond reckoning if that turns out to be the case, Mrs. Westinghouse. Well, we're all ready, George. Fine, sir. You ride in the locomotive cab with the engineer, Mr. Tate. He'll take the train along at regular speed to Subanville. Just apply your brake for normal station south. Understand? Yes, sir. We'll be riding in the coach right behind the tender. Fine. Well, good luck. Come on, folks. George. Wish me luck, Margaret. Oh, train, bring us luck. And then we meet on one. Do you understand how it operates, Mr. Tate? Just by pulling back this thing jigger here, the train will stop, huh? That's right. You're sure of it, huh? Well, reasonably sure, yes. Reasonably sure? Ever hear of the fellow who was reasonably sure that the gun wasn't loaded? No. What happened to him? Well, his widow was reasonably sure she was a widow when the remains were put to rest. Well, this brake will work. Yeah, maybe. And we'll prove it today. Yeah, maybe. We're about a mile from the station now, just around the bend up ahead. I think I ought to begin to ease on the brakes. No, no, no need yet. Another few hundred yards. But is this single? No, just as you hit the turn. All right. And slowly. Now remember, just ease it into the station. Yeah. Here's the turn. All right. Easy. Easy, easy. Look ahead, on the track. Waggards, that crazy fool. The brake, quick. All right. Well, that'll be horn-swaggered. We stopped in time. We done it, for fair. We stopped in time. Not three feet to spare. Come on, let's get out and see what happened in the back. I've given them quite a tumble. 15 years of riding an engine cab, and I never dreamed I'd see a thing like this. Stopping a train with air. With nothing but air. Here comes Mr. Card. He looks a bit shaken. Why, she huffs. Why, she huffs. Are you crazy? You almost killed us all back there on the coach. I'm sorry about that, Mr. Card, but take a look down the track. No more than 50 feet after I hit the brake, we come to dead stop. Dead stop. Could have killed them all on that wagon. Every living soul breaks cut. Westinghouse, I want you in my office at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. At 8? I'll have the contract drawn up tonight by my attorneys. I want you to hit your air brake on every train riding the Panhandle Road. Every one. It'll be standard equipment from now on. And you can take my word for it that every other railroad in the country will follow suit just as fast as they can be supplied. I'll be there, Mr. Card, at 8 o'clock. Do it. And now, Marguerite, you come with me. Where? Up in the cab. Come on. Up you go. Mr. Tate, you too. We're going on with this test. There's the station. Now, wait a minute, Tate. Marguerite, you bring her in. Me? That's right, you. That's it. Now, now, just pull back this lever. Slowly, real slow and easy. That's it. Well, it's easy. Easy as pie. As turkey pie, your special invention. We're here, Marguerite. We found the way. Within a matter of months, all major railroads in the world were clamoring for the amazing break that stopped speeding trains swiftly and safely. By the use of air. The Westinghouse Airbrake Company was formed to meet this demand. And it still exists today, keeping alive the memory of George Westinghouse. A restless young man returned from the wars. Our thanks to Cornell Wild and the Cavalcade players for tonight's true story. Tonight's DuPont Cavalcade was written by Irv Tunick. Original music was composed by Arden Cornwell, conducted by Donald Forys. The program was directed by John Zoller. With our star, Cornell Wild, you heard Ed Begley as the father, Elaine Ross as Marguerite, and Dan Ockel as Oscar. Others were Charles Dingle, Ted Osborne, Parker Fennelly, Bill Zucker, Patty Pope, and George Petrie. Mr. Wild can currently be seen in the Warner Brothers production, Operation Secret. Ladies and gentlemen, your National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis needs millions of dimes and dollars to care for the victims of last year's record polio epidemic. Your money helps crippled children learn to walk again. Join the 1953 March of Dimes. The DuPont Cavalcade of America came to you from the Velasco Theater in New York City, and is sponsored by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Makers of better things for better living through chemistry. Tonight, just for laughs, listen to Red Skelton on NBC.
