electric train and street car now in operation, which com- 
bine to carry annually many times as many passengers as 
there are people in the whole United States, the Westing- 
house Air Brake has been said to have more “ultimate 
consumers’ than any other manufactured product repre- 
sented by a single industry. 
THE UNION SWITCH AND SIGNAL COMPANY 
On December 28, 1878, articles of association of the 
“Union Electric Signal Company” were filed in Hartford, 
Conn., the capital stock being $500,000 (10,000 shares at 
$50 per share). The basis for the formation of the Com- 
pany were the patents of William Robinson, Oscar Gassett 
and I. Fisher, covering various electrical appliances for 
signaling and protecting trains in railroad service. The 
home office was located at Hartford and the branch office 
and factory at Boston. This was the first Company 
organized in the United States for the manufacture and 
installation of railroad signaling devices. 
February 4, 1880, the capital stock was increased to 
$1,000,000, and in the following year, George Westinghouse 
was elected a director and president of the Company. 
Shortly afterward, the board of directors authorized the 
sale of 10,000 shares of the Company’s stock to Mr. West- 
Inghouse, and also authorized the purchase from Mr. 
Westinghouse of 4102 shares of the stock of the Inter- 
locking Switch and Signal Company of Harrisburg, Pa. 
At a meeting of the directors in Hartford on April 13, 1881, 
the name of the company was changed to “The Union 
Switch & Signal Company,” and the capital stock was 
increased to $1,500,000 to finance the purchase of the 
total assets and property of the Interlocking Switch and 
Signal Company. Later in the year the plants at Boston 
and Harrisburg were moved to Pittsburgh and consolidated 
at Garrison Alley and Duquesne Way. 
The Union Switch & Signal Company was chartered 
under the laws of Pennsvlvania in 1882.