 Leader Park Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, presents the Cavalcade of America. Our story down breaks. Our star for now 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 which connected to New York in 1866. Well, it's a ridiculous idea, Father. I can't go back to school now. I don't see... Why not, George? The war interrupted your education. You can pick up just for your left off. For Father, won't you... I'm not finished. I've worked to see my son get ahead in the world. Well, I still can go ahead in my own way. First, I want to be a mechanic. I had other plans for you. But I like working in the shop. I've... I've... I've been for it. That's fine. That's all right, too. But will you talent, George? But it must be trained. Go to Union College if I want you to. Study engineering. Well, 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 renaig on your promise. No, I won't renaig. 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 19th 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 the 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 slanderous cartoon of me, an impulence. A compounded impulence. You will come with me at once to the Dean. Well, George, what do you say to this? I think, perhaps, Professor Leffert is a trifle-to-sensitive... Dean, okay, I will not... I'll holler at this, Professor. I think you'd better go back to your classroom. Very well. I'm sorry, sir. I really am. You really cannot commit things like this. You know that, George. I suppose not. I'll apologize to the professor, sir. That might be a good idea. George, we'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. But you're young, yes, you. No, sir, I'm not. No man has ever been to war as young. He, you know, makes you impatient. You understand, sir, I know that education is a great thing. Books, learning... that's fine, but... Well, I'm impatient. George, I'm going to write a letter to your father. Or telling him of my little prank? No. Telling him that in my opinion you had enough of waiting. I think you're right. I think you should get started on what you want to do right away. You know what your father said. He said no payback. He said Oscar George must do a day's work for a day's pay and no pay back. Yes I know Oscar I know now what about those metal clamps. George if he finds out the clamp he had I made him hell let me think I get him. Oh these are fine fine if I lose my job that's also fine fine. Come on. I guess Mike doesn't think like this. Come on. Well. When you open this door just right away father right away. I thought I saw you coming in here. George what the dick into you what to what George. Toy trains. 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. It's not a toy it's a model like 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 the rail trains back on their tracks in one half and one quarter of the time and now 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 five twenty trained in 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 car replacer and car replacer. What next what next. Goodbye George. I've got to get back to the shop. Yes sir. Oscar. Yes Mr. Restinghouse Oscar you've got your work apron on backwards Mr. Restinghouse believe me that's only from your point of view. I beg your pardon but is this seat next to you occupied. Would you mind. Thank you. I'm sorry I'm afraid I'll have to save you. Oh not at all. I just want to get my hat box. Let me do that I'll do that. Be careful. I've got it. I'm sorry the train lurch like I hope you had it in ruin. No one. They don't. This is my mind. Like I've got chicken wings. Smells good. Well there's more than enough. Oh thank you. My name is George Restinghouse. My name is Margaret Walker. Here. Thank you. You know. Maybe I'll work on that. Baggage racks that will hold baggage even when the trains switch around the curve. It's an idea. Very good idea. You see I'm I'm an inventor in a way. In what way. Well not to now and it's kind of unsuccessful way. I think inventing is wonderful. I want to do something. A recipe for Turkey. No. You're going to stop. The whole front car. You better stay backwards Walker a breakman breakman. You know what happened. Just ahead of us. Didn't the engineer see it. The track is clear. He saw it. But he couldn't stop. Break couldn't be set in time. He signaled for down break as soon as he spotted the freight. You heard it. Well he got to the handbrake as soon as we could. By the time we got to the set it was just too late. Each car has its own break and each break has to be set separately. That's right. No that's wrong. Some way 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. Blessings on the man that finds that way. That's all I got to say. I got to be seen about getting some help from the nearest village. It will take hours to clear the wreckage. You're an inventor Mr. Westinghouse. What do you mean? You heard what the breakman said. Blessings on the man who finds the way. We return to our cavalcade story down break. Starring Cornel Wild as George Westinghouse. On the 8th of August 1867 George Westinghouse and Marguerite Walker were married and it's 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 to a dozen times. I can't find any reason why a railroad break 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 pushed through the hose under tremendous pressure. When the engineer sews the lever the steam pressure forces the break against the car wheel. It should work. Are you going to take it to the railroad people? 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? I'll do it at night, after hours. With Oscar to help me, I'm sure I can make it work. Cooler 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, Rick. I've got everything set. The boiler has full pressure. I've got about 300 feet of coupled holes stretched 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 brace 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? Listen, George, you've got too much pressure. I've got enough. Not near enough. Listen. Listen to that. To 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. Oscar, Oscar, are you all right? It's broken. No, it seemed where my wife fixed my britches. I could have told you this from the beginning, George. I knew your steam break 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 condense steam would freeze. Then why didn't you tell George that when he told you it would get you? 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, it could have been worse. Now, George, will you do me a favor? Well, what is it? Forget your wild ideas and stick to business. 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. Wesson. 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. No, no. Father's right, Marguerite. If you know what happened, I've got to give it up. As dad says, I've got to buckle down. Share my lunch, Bill, George? Oh, no thanks, Oscar. I'm not hungry. I think I'll just go out into the yard for a while. I bet. No, thanks. I beg your pardon? Yes, can I help you? No, thank you. It's very interesting. I'm selling subscriptions to a wonderful magazine. No, thank you. It isn't expensive at all. Only $1 for an entire year. Here's a sample copy of one of the magazines. No, really, I... There are wonderful stories and articles. There's one on hunting Himalayan bears. I don't expect they'll be getting around to that this year. And there's another on how they drill the tunnel through the Alps using compressed eggs. No, Miss, I'm sorry. There's another story that you'll find in this magazine. What was that? It was compressed air. 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 you didn't think of it immediately. Think of what? Look, Marguerite, listen carefully. They were building a tunnel through the Alps, the Mount Sinus tunnel. I've never heard of it. 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 in 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 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 holes into the tunnel, three or four miles in. And it's not only powerful enough to operate the drills, but it also supplied air to the workmen. Do you see? Well, 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. Airbrake. And I'm going to build it. You like my toys, Marguerite? Look at this model train. It's fascinating. Well, I've got it all hooked up for the test. The little engine compresses the air and the hose carries it to break the types of every wheel in the train. One motion and the whole train should slide through the top. You're going to try it now, Joe? Yeah, right now after as soon as the engine passes me again. I'll pull the lever. Is there something wrong? No, new britches. I wait outside. You wait here. 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 airbrake. One big railroadman 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. Well, would you just let me prove it? What do you need? One of your regular trains on a panhandle railroad. I'll send all these expenses 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. Oh, so you've all come down for the party. I'm not so pleased about the idea of riding along with her. It'll be perfectly safe. I have my brakeman ready in every car just in case you won't meet him. I think I'd be pleased beyond reckoning if that turns out to be the case, Mrs. Wessinghouse. 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 Steubenville. Just apply your brake for normal station stop. Understand? Uh, come on, folks. What? Wish me luck, Margaret. Bring us luck. And then we need on one. Operate, Mr. Tate. Yes, sir. Pulling back. Get a string jigger here. The train will stop, eh? That's right. You're sure of it, eh? Well, reasonably sure, yes. Reasonably sure. Ever hear of the fella who was reasonably sure when the remainder was put to rest? Well, this brake will work. Maybe. And we'll prove it today. Maybe. Just round the bend up ahead. I think I ought to begin to ease on the brakes. No, no, no need yet. Another few hundred yards. Just as you hit the turn. All right. And slowly, now remember, just ease it into the station. Here's the turn. Easy. Easy, dear. Hey, look ahead on the track. Well done. The brake, quick. Well, it'll be hard trouble. We stopped in time. We done it for fair. We stopped in time. Come on, let's get out and see what happened in back. We must have given them quite a tumble. Fifteen years of riding an engine cab and I never dreamed I'd see a thing like this. Stopping a train with air. There's nothing but air. Here comes Mr. Carr. He looks a bit shaken. Where's he gone? Are you crazy? You almost killed us all back there on the coach. I'm sorry about that, Mr. Carr, but take a look down the track. No more than 50 feet after I hit the brake. We come to dead stop. Dead stop. Put a kill tomorrow on that wagon. Every living soul. Westinghouse? I want you and my officer to have a contract drawn up tonight for my attorneys. I want you to hit your air brake on every train riding the Panhandle Road. Everyone. It'll be standard equipment from now on. 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. Carr, at eight o'clock. And now, my Greek, you come with me. Where? Up in this cab. Come on. Mr. Steele, you too. We're going on with this test. Now, wait a minute, take it. Marguerite, you bring her in. Me? That's right, you. Now, just pull back the lever. Slowly, real slow and easy. That's it. Well, it's easy. Easy as pie. That's purgify, your special invention. We're here, Marguerite. We found the way. In a matter of months, all major railroads in the world were clamoring for the amazing brake made swiftly and safely by the use of air. The Westinghouse Air Brake 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. Thanks to Cornel Wild and the Cable Cade players for tonight's true story. Tonight's DePomp Cable Cade was written by Irv Tunick. Original music was composed by Arden Cornwell conducted by Donald Boris. The program was directed by John Zoller. With our star, Cornel Wild, you heard Ed Begley as the father, Elaine Ross as Marguerite, and Dan Arco as Oscar. Others were Charles Dingell, Ted Osborne, Parker Fennelly, Bill Zucker, Paddy 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 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 DePomp Cable Cade of America came to you from the Belasco Theater in New York City and is sponsored by the DePomp Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Makers of better things for better living through chemistry. Tonight, just for last, listen to Red Skelton on NBC.