User:Hroðulf/WABCO

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One of the world's first automotive products companies, WABCO supplies braking and other control systems to the commercial vehicle industry, its after markets and selected light vehicle segments.

Across the globe, the world's leading manufacturers choose WABCO systems and components to make their trucks, trailers, buses, high-performance cars and SUVs perform better, with greater safety, comfort and reliability.

Anti-lock braking systems (ABS) for trucks and buses are a WABCO invention.

WABCO is a business of American Standard Companies.

[edit] History

George Westinghouse, according to legend, was traveling by train from Troy, New York to Schenectady, New York one day in 1867 when his travel plans were derailed—literally. Two freight trains had collided on the tracks ahead. Back then, train travel was a perilous venture. There was no way to stop a speeding train other than to have a crew member run from car to car manually pulling a hand brake.

Westinghouse pondered the problem and came up with a revolutionary solution. Westinghouse invented a new kind of brake that used compressed air to slow a train, and in 1869 he started his Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) to sell his brake to locomotive companies.

On March 13, 1914, an editorial in The New York Times declared that George Westinghouse's railroad air brake had saved more lives than had been lost in all wars combined.

In 1968, WABCO joined the American Standard family of companies.