One of the articles he wrote was considered inflammatory; the police began a crackdown on the paper, and Steinmetz had to flee Breslau (1888). He loved children and was loved by them. The president of Harvard declared, in an American-centered way, that Steinmetz was, the foremost expert in applied electricity of this country, and therefore the world.[10] The following year, a liberal college in Schenectady called Union College gave Steinmetz an honorary doctorate and hired him as a professor of electrical engineering. Search the site. Steinmetzs career at GE arguably began when Edison was fired from Edisons General Electric in April of 1892 and, by December of 1892, 27-year-old Steinmetz was hired by the now Edison-free General Electric where he taught them how to use AC. What do you do if your car overheats and wont start? 5 Summary. Then he told Fords skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. Why was Charles Steinmetz almost turned away from Ellis Island? He was too lazy to eat.. In a world that compelled conformity, Steinmetz played by his own rules and had a fantastic time doing it. In 1893 Eickemeyer's company, along with all of its patents and designs, was bought by the newly formed General Electric Company, where Steinmetz quickly became known as the engineering wizard in GE's engineering community. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Male Occupation electrical engineer An electronics genius, Charles Proteus Steinmetz founded the General Electriclaboratory and refined and standardized the study and notation of alternating current circuitry. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Soon after his arrival, he went to work for Eickemeyer and Osterheld, a company in Yonkers, New York, and he identified and explained, through a mathematical equation that later became known as the Law of Hysterisis, or Steinmetzs Law, phenomena governing power losses, leading to breakthroughs in both alternating- and direct-current electrical systems. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The Wizard of Schenectady was gone. Articles: Modern Jove Hurls Lightning at Will. New York Times, March 3, 1922. Moe sarcastically refers to Curly as a "Steinmetz" in the 1944 Three Stooges short Busy Buddies. [4] These were conducted in a football field-sized laboratory at General Electric, using 120,000 volt generators. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Charles Steinmetz and Thomas Edison each enjoy a cigar as they take a short respite from a tour of the GE plant in 1922. [3] Charles Steinmetz to Eskil Berg (Jan 9, 1895) Steinmetz Digital Collection of Schenectady #473868 https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/schmuse/id/119/rec/5. Back at General Electric, he brought in a gigantic apparatus, then another. He went first to Zurich, then, in 1889 arrived in the United States. [27] Although Einstein was very busy so it seems unlikely that they spoke for hours, they did both speak German (and Einstein didnt speak English at the time) so they probably talked a bit at least. [25] This was just after the end of WW1, so the anti-German feeling was very strong, but Einstein was so famous that everyone flocked to see him and used him to promote their cause or business. In the course of this work he also designed a generator that produced a discharge of 10,000 amperes and more than 100,000 volts, equivalent to a power of more than 1,000,000 horsepower for 1/100,000 of a second. After a short stay in Zrich he immigrated to the United States in 1889, traveling by steerage. 5, No. The living arrangement, despite some awkward starts, soon flourished, especially after the Haydens began to have childrenJoe, Midge and Billyand Steinmetz legally adopted Joseph Hayden as his son. The Story of Steinmetz and Joseph LeRoy Hayden, Steinmetz, Albert Einstein & Thomas Edison, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/schmuse/id/119/rec/5, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ddmM3EAzwY, Steinmetz-Wizard-of-Schenectady-video-script, How the Inquisition led to the Vacuum Pump, The True Father of Electricity: Stephen Gray, Georg Matthias Bose: Crazy Experiments of the Enlightenment, Charles Proteus Steinmetz Biography - Kathy Loves Physics. His systematic experiments resulted in the first laboratory created "man-made lightning", earning him the nickname the "Forger of Thunderbolts". Doubleday, Page & Co., 1904. Joseph Hayden was all for it. Charles Proteus Steinmetz/Date of birth. Charles Proteus Steinmetz/Cause of death This civilization not for a minority depending on the labor of masses of slaves or serfs but a real civilization of benefit to all the members of the human race.[20], Steinmetz was also an early leader in electric cars! Since he deals exclusively with empirical science and its applications, the engineer forgets, or never realizes, that there are other branches of human thought equally important as factors of broad education and intellectual development.[15] Soon most electrical engineering departments required a rounded education for their students, a practice that continues to this day. Steinmetz Hall, which houses the Union College computer center, is named after him. In his later years Steinmetz also engaged in public affairs to a considerable degree, serving as president of the Board of Education of Schenectady, N.Y., and as president of the city council. In the fall of 1923, Steinmetz and his family traveled west by train, stopping to see the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and the actor Douglas Fairbanks in Hollywood. Steinmetz, on the other hand, felt that a full liberal education not only would help with knowing the origin of terms but also because the vocation of the engineer is especially liable to make the man one-sided. Steinmetz agreed to all of Corrines terms. As socialist meetings and press had been banned in Germany, Steinmetz fled to Zrich in 1888 to escape possible arrest. But knowing that his deformity was congenital (both his father and grandfather were afflicted with kyphosis, an abnormal curvature of the upper spine), Steinmetz chose not to marry, fearful of passing on his deformity. At the meeting, Eickemeyer introduced Steinmetz to Edison and Edison turned to them and jokingly pointed at Steinmetz and said pure theory, pointed to Eickemeyer and said, theory and practice and then at himself and said pure practice.[34] Over the years Steinmetz and Edison met at various meetings and soon they began a correspondence. In 1892, the firm merged with the General Electric Company and he was sent to Lynn, Mass. He taught at Union College from 1902. [40], Steinmetz is featured in John Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy in one of the biographies. ; the next year he was transferred to Schenectady as chief consulting engineer, remaining in that position until his death. He received 2 honorary degrees, the A.M. from Harvard (1902) and Ph.D. from Union (1903). Kansas City Invention Convention; ANNUAL REPORT. Meanwhile, Steinmetz continued to be an active socialist, if not a particularly radical one. Soon after his death, his car company folded. Cookie Policy He chose Proteus as his middle namethe nickname his professors in Germany had affectionately bestowed upon him in recognition of the shape-shifting sea god. Ford was delighted until he got a bill for $10,000, at which point he demanded an itemized bill. Ford, whose electrical engineers couldnt solve some problems they were having with a gigantic generator, called Steinmetz in to the plant. [41][42] He also serves as a major character in Starling Lawrence's The Lightning Keeper.[43]. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), American Institute of Electrical Engineers, International Municipal Signal Association (IMSA), "Theory of the General Alternating Current Transformer", "The Natural Period of a Transmission Line and the Frequency of Lightning Discharge Therefrom", "Speed Regulation of Prime Movers and Parallel Operation of Alternators", "The Value of the Classics in Engineering Education", "The death of energy and the second law of thermodynamics, with particular reference to the thermodynamics of the atmosphere", "Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the Wizard of Schenectady", "Charles Steinmetz: Union's Electrical Wizard", "Steinmetz, Putting it in Perspective - R, L, and C Elements and the Impedance Concept", Charles Steinmetz: Improvements to Alternating Current Motor, "Steinmetz electric car 1914 - Steinmetz, Charles", "Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Pioneer of Alternating Current", "Technology innovator to headline Steinmetz Memorial Lecture - Union College", "Dr. Charles Proteus Steinmetz memorial lecture series", "Steinmetz Symposium: Celebrating 25 years of student research", "Charles P. Steinmetz Scholarship (Union College-NY) Scholarship Library", "Steinmetz car gets prominent spot at Union College", "Steinmetz Car drives into the spotlight", "American Inventors, September 21, 1983, Smithsonian Postal Museum", "Edison, Steinmetz statues slated for park near Schenectady GE", "The Fine Line between Poetry and Mathematics", "Starling Lawrence Writes a Novel About the Early Days of G.E", "Charles Proteus Steinmetz, The Man Who Either Tamed Lightning, Created Lightning, Neither, or Both", "Charles Steinmetz: Scientist and Socialist (18651923): Including the Complete Steinmetz-Lenin Correspondence", "Book Review: Alternating Current Phenomena", Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the Wizard of Schenectady, Charles Proteus Steinmetz: Accomplishments and Life, Newspaper clippings about Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Dual-rotor permanent magnet induction motor (DRPMIM), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Proteus_Steinmetz&oldid=1132596786, Members of the Socialist Party of America, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2023, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2022, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2015, Articles with German-language sources (de), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, At Union College, as chair of electrical engineering from 1902 to 1913, First vice-president of the International Association of Municipal Electricians (IAME) {which later became the, This page was last edited on 9 January 2023, at 16:58. Within two years, Steinmetz had built three new schools and enlarged 2 more and built numerous playgrounds, set up a system of school meals, set up systems of school doctors, and created an epidemic plan (which was good timing as the pandemic of 1918 was just about to arrive). Charles Proteus Steinmetz was a giant of a pioneer in the field of electrical engineering, who invented a commercially successful alternating current motor. He also studied electrical transients (changes of very short duration in electrical circuits; e.g., lightning); his theory of traveling waves led to development of devices to protect high-power transmission lines from lightning bolts and to the design of a powerful generator. In 1911, Steinmetz recalled that Schenectady had a reputation at that time of being very similar to a cemetery. But he was a giant among scientific thinkers, counting Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison as friends, and his contributions to mathematics and electrical engineering made him one of the most beloved and instantly recognizable men of his time. Steinmetzs lightning produced over a million horsepower for a hundred-thousandth of a second. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Floyd Miller. Steinmetz: Engineer and Socialist. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [34] Charles P. Steinmetz quoted in 1879 Edison Day Oct 21, 1914 The Saturday Evening Post (Oct 17, 1914), 1. In 1894 he arrived in Schenectady, the place he would call home for the next thirty years, and his impact at General Electric was immediate. It is hard not to look at these old photographs, and Steinmetz loved taking photos, including trick photos, without seeing how Steinmetz was always the center of a party. Friday, December 30, 2022. Manage My Data In 1913, Steinmetz felt he was working on the answer: Electricity, my friend! Electricity will take the place of coal, and will do the work a thousandfold better. Why SJF Cannot be implemented practically? He was assigned to the new calculating department, the first job of which was to work on the companys proposal for building the generators at the new Niagara Falls power station. The Charles P. Steinmetz Memorial Lecture series was begun in his honor in 1925, sponsored by the Schenectady branch of the IEEE. The German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923), by devoting himself to industrial research, made fundamental contributions to the development of both electricity and the industrial laboratory. He systematized the use of complex number phasor representation in electrical engineering education texts, whereby the lower-case letter "j" is used to designate the 90-degree rotation operator in AC system analysis. Where was Charles Proteus Steinmetz born and raised? Now what was so influential about this demonstration was not just that artificial lightning was amazing and it is a good idea to test arrestors but that it caused a reunion between Edison and GE, a reunion that GE used to promote themselves. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. He expressed his desire to communicate his fundamental knowledge to others in the sfimulating instruction he gave to his assistants at the General Electric and in the publication of a large number of scientific papers and electrical books, which have long been accepted as standard textbooks in colleges, laboratories, and workshops. He was doing all this to actually test lightning arresters (the lightning protectors for electrical power lines) for the first time. Gradually, through his writing, lecturing, and teaching, his method of calculation with complex numbers was universally adopted in work with alternating currents. As Proteus He Changed His Shape Life, April 23, 1965. Corrine Hayden then outlined the terms of their cohabitationSteinmetz would pay only for his share of expenditures. According to Steinmetz, Steinmetz and Edison had met each other way back in August 1893, at an electrical meeting at the worlds fair in Chicago just after Steinmetzs boss Eickemeyer sold out to GE. How much money did Tesla have when he arrived in America? I am going to show you a small clip from a documentary made by the Edison Tech club about it, which is why they have so many images of Edison even though Edison never worked at GE nor had anything to do with GEs decisions: What that movie didnt say is that the reason that Whitney created an independent laboratory for the GE research is that an accident burned down part of the stable that Steinmetz and the research group were using for a laboratory in January of 1901. 533,244, Born The men would simply have to drop everything and sit down to the table. [4] Charles Proteus Steinmetz, The Mentor-World Traveler 13 (May 1925), 14. His systematic experiments resulted in the first laboratory created "man-made lightning", earning him the nickname the "Forger of Thunderbolts". Charles Steinmetz was born Karl August Rudolf Steinmetz on April 9, 1865, in Breslau. Besides working on inventions for electric motors and generators and electric street cars, Doctor Steinmetz attracted attention by articles he contributed to scientific papers here and in Germany, especially on the theory of alternating currents. In 1894 he arrived in. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name from Middle High German steinmetze, German Steinmetz stonemason, worker in stone. For more than 30 years Charles Proteus Steinmetz was a leader in the electrical industry, devoting his life to research, largely: relating to mathematical foundations upon which many of the developments in electrical engineering are based; there was scarcely a detail of any branch of electrical science or mathematics with which he was not conversant, Of his achievements among the most important were his investigations in the field of magnetism and his researches into the theory of direct and alternating current and the phenomena of lighting. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". According to Scott, Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. [20] Steinmetz speaks on WGY radio miSci Museum of Innovation and Science, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/schmuse/id/269/rec/167. On October 26, 1923, German -born American mathematician and electrical engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz passed away. Steinmetz immediately offered his services and was nominated to be on the board of Education which elected him president. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Corrine was reluctant, but Steinmetz gently wore her down. 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