The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

Again, no time for anything but the question itself. Enjoy.

The son of a machine shop owner, this young man named George's first invention was a rotary steam engine; he followed with a device to enable the re-tracking of derailed train cars. In 1869, at age 22, he invented a feature for railroad trains that galvanized the industry, put hundreds of men out of work and deposited more control in the hands of the train engineer. He patented his invention 3 years later, and founded the first company to bear his name. Another decade later, he partnered with a Serbian-American genius in an enterprise that led to an even more revolutionary change affecting the lives of virtually every American -- and triumphing over an other famous inventor in the process.

What was his still-famous last name -- and what was his first groundbreaking invention? Bonus: who's the Serbian-American?

First correct answer posted to comments wins a fiddlehead-fern bagel. No Googling or drinking so much of that antioxidant-rich pomegranate juice that you get an antioxidant high and visualize the answer through a haze of antioxidance. One guess per comment, but comment, comment, comment.