INVENTIVE WIZARD:

The biographer of Frederick Banting, Edward Jenner, and Townsend Harris has an obvious for recreating the lives and times of important historical figures with and flare. At first glance the subject here may seem to appeal to a limited audience but after a time the reader will find himself drawn to the ingenious ideas of George Westinghouse as well as the manner in which they become part of the American scene. The author has dramatized each invention from its inception to its adaptation -- the rotary engine which converted steam power directly into rotary power, the various railroad inventions, the development of a natural gas system. Interested in scientific principles in terms of their practical use, Westinghouse employed Nikola Tesla's ideas in his electrical plant and initiated the feud between direct and alternating current interests. Westinghouse's courage is experimentation is captured deftly by a lively biographer.