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By Thomas Gryta 

General Electric Co.'s deal to spin off its railroad business to Wabtec Corp. unites the creations of two of the 19th century's most famous inventors and rivals: Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.

Both men filed their first patents in the 1860s and competed in the development of products that used electricity. Edison and Westinghouse famously battled over the future of electrical distribution -- alternating current vs. direct current -- resulting in insults and publicity stunts, including Edison electrocuting animals in his New Jersey laboratory in an unsuccessful attempt to illustrate the dangers of Westinghouse's AC.

Their work was the foundation of massive conglomerates that fought on many fronts. Westinghouse founded the Westinghouse Air Brake Co. in 1869 and the Westinghouse Electric Corp. in 1886. Wabtec, formally known as Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp., is the successor to his first company.

General Electric was created when financier John Pierpont Morgan orchestrated the 1892 merger of Thomas-Houston International Electric Co. and Edison General Electric Co.

GE ultimately fared better than Westinghouse, but both took similar paths in recent decades, owning major industrial operations and prestigious media properties and dabbling in risky financial bets. The two companies didn't overlap or work together much, but were central to the 1919 formation of Radio Corporation of America, or RCA, and both owned stakes in the operation, along with AT&T and United Fruit.

While the two men are often characterized as bitter rivals in articles, books and film, it isn't clear that they personally disliked each other, said Leonard DeGraaf, archivist at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, N.J.

According to a 1888 letter from the archives, Westinghouse invited Edison to visit his facilities in Pittsburgh, and recalled a tour that Edison gave him of his workshop in Menlo Park, N.J. He even suggested that their two companies work together.

"I believe there has been a systematic attempt on the part of some people to do a great deal of mischief and create as great a difference as possible between the Edison Company and The Westinghouse Electric Co., when there ought to be an entirely different condition of affairs," Westinghouse wrote in the letter.

Edison declined the invitation, according to Mr. DeGraaf, and the public rivalry continued. As the electrical battle intensified, Edison told the New York Herald in 1889 that "Westinghouse used to be a pretty solid fellow, but he lately has taken to shystering."

It was widely reported that Edison also said, "Tell Westinghouse to stick to air brakes," a reference to an early invention.

Trains were of interest to both men. Westinghouse invented his brake system when he was just 22 years old after witnessing a train accident. The technology would end the days of brakemen running on top of train cars to individually apply the brakes, a system that often required miles for a train to stop.

Edison conducted experiments on electric traction and railways in the 1880s and 1890s, including building a short track in New Jersey for testing. Shortly after its formation, GE installed an electric train line for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The line was more than 3 miles long and the fare was 10 cents per rider. The accident-free operation was seen as a boon for the future of electric trains.

Later, both Westinghouse and GE were involved in bids to electrify New York's Grand Central Terminal, with GE ultimately winning the battle with its locomotive.

GE Transportation, as the railroad business that Wabtec is buying is known, stopped making pure electric locomotives in the 1960s. It now leads the market for diesel-electric freight locomotives, which use a massive engine to generate electricity for motors. The design, which GE helped pioneer in 1924, is a power plant on rails.

The Westinghouse Electric name has mostly faded from memory. It acquired CBS in 1995, taking its name, and the industrial operations were sold off to buyers including Siemens AG and a British company. Toshiba bought some of the assets in 2007, but Westinghouse Electric filed for bankruptcy last year after making a bad bet on a new design of nuclear power plants. A Canadian conglomerate agreed to buy the company out of bankruptcy.

Wabtec's corporate headquarters are still located where its founder broke ground in 1889 in Wilmerding, Pa.

Although the combined company will keep the Wabtec name, GE locomotives aren't going to stop running anytime soon. Wabtec has licensed the GE brand and logo for a minimum of 10 years as part of their combination.

Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 23, 2018 11:48 ET (15:48 GMT)

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