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The Westinghouse Brake 123 for greater safety in railway travel. But the in- ventor speedily recognised one salient factor which could only ensure the financial success of his idea. The railway brake would have to be universal. If one railway adopted this, and another that, system, hopeless confusion would ensue, and the invention would defeat its own object. Unless there were uniformity, standardisation, and interchangeability, it would render railway intercommunication and the movement of the vehicles of one system over the lines of another impossible. Thereupon it was decided to place the manufac- turing side of the invention upon a solid foundation, and to this end the Westinghouse Air Brake Company was founded in 1869, with works at Pittsburg, at which city they remain to this day. Indeed, around this humble, unpretentious first shop, the vast and varied organisation of the Westinghouse business has developed and flourished. Moreover, the details of the apparatus were standardised without delay, and the broad features then outlined still prevail. They comprised an air- pump, mounted upon the locomotive and actuated by the steam generated in the latter. The engine equipment also included a main reservoir into which the air was forced until the desired pressure was obtained. The locomotive equipment was completed by a valve mechanism operated by the driver to apply and to release the brakes. The equipment for the carriages was also laid down, together with the connections between the locomotive and the attached vehicles, the piping, when joined together, forming a continuous line from the locomotive to the last