Without Charles Steinmetz's theories of alternating current, the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States in the early 20th century would have been greatly delayed. [36] Audio clip Kolin Hagar being interviewed by Larry Hart, 1972 found at https://edisontechcenter.org/CharlesProteusSteinmetz.html, [37] https://plunkettlakepress.com/ses.html, How in the world would the inquisition lead to the invention of the vacuum pump? When he woke up in the morning, he said he still felt a bit tired. [2] Hammond, Charles Proteus Steinmetz: A Biography, 221. [4] These were conducted in a football field-sized laboratory at General Electric, using 120,000 volt generators. He patented over 200 inventions. [28] Charles Steinmetz Four Lectures on Relativity and Space (McGraw-Hill, 1923), v. [29] Man-Made Lightning Under Control Schenectady Works, vol. These were conducted in a football field-sized laboratory at General Electric, using . If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Despite his professional successes, there was emptiness in Steinmetzs life, which he rectified with a maneuver that helped secure his reputation as the Bohemian scientist. He spent his first few years in Schenectady in a bachelor circle of GE engineers, hiking, canoeing and experimenting with photography. Here is a clip from the first video that GE made about this meeting: Now we get to a famous story about Steinmetz and Henry Ford. [17] Hammond, Charles Proteus Steinmetz, 314-9. Steinmetz was a lifelong agnostic. Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Inventor. www.yonkershistory.org. The whole family went together and in Hollywood, Steinmetz was given a tour of the set by non-other than the famous movie star Douglas Fairbanks. Corrine was reluctant, but Steinmetz gently wore her down. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. At the same time, Steinmetzs work with Union college inspired him to promote the idea that electrical engineering education should have a broad framework specifically in the classics (at this time almost all electrical engineering departments treated education as a trade where the students learned about EE only). Steinmetzs fame only grew in the years he lived with the Haydens on Wendell Avenue. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Proteus-Steinmetz, Engineering and Technology History Wiki - Biography of Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Edison Tech Center - Engineering Hall of Fame - Biography of Charles P. Steinmetz, Lemelson-MIT Program - Biography of Charles Steinmetz, Charles P. Steinmetz - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). From then on GE used Edisons image as their logo and spokesman and used Steinmetzs image and story as their way to talk about AC without involving the people who were unrelated to GE like Micheal Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, Westinghouse, Stanley, or Tesla. Steinmetz earned wide recognition among the scientific community and numerous awards and honors both during his life and posthumously. Finally, Steinmetz turned to Corinne. 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. Today virtually all the appliances that plug into a wall outlet use alternating current. To educate the electrical engineering profession, he published several textbooks, including Engineering Mathematics (1911), and expanded his original 1897 book into three separate volumes. In 1892, the firm merged with the General Electric Company and he was sent to Lynn, Mass. Not much taller than the children who ran about his laboratory and greenhouse, Steinmetz entertained them with stories of dragons and goblins, which he illustrated with fireworks he summoned from various mixtures of sodium and hydrogen in pails of water. Quoting from Hammond, "This has placed him before the public as an atheist. 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. [30] Modern Jove Hurls Lightning at Will, the New York Times, March 3, 1922. Corrine Hayden then outlined the terms of their cohabitationSteinmetz would pay only for his share of expenditures. Steinmetz, Charles Proteus. See, in January 1914, Steinmetz gave a talk with the title of The Future of Automobiling Belongs to the Electic as gas cars were very expensive and, unlike a horse, an electric car requires no attention.[21] Edison immediately asked Steinmetz if he could add that the electric car requires no attention if equipped with an Edison battery.[22] Steinmetz agreed and even signed the ad and Edison used this and his image to promote the Edison battery. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". [15], Shortly after arriving in the United States, Steinmetz went to work for Rudolf Eickemeyer in Yonkers, New York, and published in the field of magnetic hysteresis, earning worldwide professional recognition. The significant role played by bitcoin for businesses! [24] Steinmetz Electric Truck Called Marvel by Experts The American Monthly vol. [26] Einstein visits high power radio RCA News, Vol. He arrived at Ellis Island in 1888 and was nearly turned away because he was a dwarf, but an American friend whom Steinmetz was traveling with convinced immigration officials that the young German Ph. According to Scott, Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. The General Electric Research Laboratory. At birth Steinmetz was afflicted with a physical deformity, hunchback, and as a youth he showed an unusual capability in mathematics, physics, and classical literature. Steinmetz thoroughly enjoyed the comparison. Gilbert King Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The inventor Guglielmo Marconi once asked about Steinmetz about his Gila monster. 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. Therefore, in 1913, Steinmetz ran to be on the board in charge of finance. This page was last edited on 4 September 2019, at 17:07. https://ethw.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Proteus_Steinmetz&oldid=176710. He was baptized a Lutheran into the Evangelical Church of Prussia. His experiments led to the law of hysteresis, which deals with power loss in electrical machinery when magnetic action is converted to unusable heat; the constant he calculated (by age 27) has remained a part of electrical engineering vocabulary. By 1914, as I said before, Steinmetz agreed to let Edison use his words and images to promote Edisons battery. By January 1895, Eskil was back in Europe and Steinmetz wrote to him to come over at once, without wasting any more time in Europe, and that, you will have to work here, and a good deal of it, but there is plenty of time left to have a good time, thus come over at once.[3] Soon Eskil was living with them and part of the family pictures. Steinmetz immediately offered his services and was nominated to be on the board of Education which elected him president. - Died [34], A 1914 "Duplex Drive Brougham" Detroit Electric automobile that once belonged to Steinmetz was purchased by Union College in 1971, and restored for use in campus ceremonies. Then he told Fords skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. Soon he had groups of partiers visiting every summer weekend for long parties and constant attempts to dam the river. Why was Charles Proteus Steinmetz important to General Electric? 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. Forced to leave Germany because of his socialist activities, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1889 and began working for General Electric Co. in 1893. During a Socialist regime he was appointed president of the board of education of that city in 1912 and held the position throughout succeeding administrations until his death on October 26, 1923. The writer put him down as a confirmed agnostic, for an atheist is a person who knows there is no God, and Steinmetz was not of that", Ronald R. Klein, Steinmetz: Engineer and Socialist (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology), 1992. Steinmetz had actually built the device in the fall of 1921 after Steinmetzs vacation cabin was struck by lightning two summers before. Using complex mathematical equations, Steinmetz developed ways to analyze values in alternating current circuits. Karl August Rudolf Steinmetz, (born April 9, 1865, Breslau, Prussiadied Oct. 26, 1923, Schenectady, N.Y., U.S.), German-born U.S. electrical engineer. I was very agreeably disappointed to find that reputation underserved and do not intend to live anywhere else.[1]. When a Socialist mayor took office, Steinmetz served as president of the Schenectady Board of Education and was instrumental in implementing longer school hours, school meals, school nurses, special classes for children of immigrants and the distribution of free textbooks. This wasnt as much as an all-boys club as you might think as there were several women and many children that would visit regularly, including Ernst and Eskil Bergs sister Julia, Millers sister Florence, a neighbor named Mrs. Krueger who was basically the den mother of this whole mad group and Steinmetzs half-sister Clara who would often stay for long periods until the craziness of the situation became too much when she would escape to her own devices in New York.[6]. Birthday parties included liquids and gasses exploding in Bunsen burners scattered decoratively around the house. The Charles P. Steinmetz Memorial Lecture series was begun in his honor in 1925, sponsored by the Schenectady branch of the IEEE. The Man Who Tamed Lightning: Charles Proteus Steinmetz. [40], Steinmetz is featured in John Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy in one of the biographies. He died on October 26 in Schenectady, New York. Loki: The Life of Charles Proteus Steimetz. Steinmetz said that a small tree, exposed to the discharge, is torn to pieces. It is possible that Ford, who knew a lot about PR, convinced the reluctant Edison to return to Schenectady and convert General Electric back to Edisons General Electric at least in spirit, and used Steinmetzs amazing lightning experiments to give Edison a legitimate excuse for this action. 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. [11] Here is a small clip from Union College about this.[12]. One can see the delight and love Steinmetz had for his grandchildren from his photographs of them and their remembrances of their doting grand-daddy. 14 (1922), 26. Where was Charles P Steinmetz born and raised? Walter Hines Page, Arthur Wilson Page, The Worlds Work: A History of Our Time, Volume 8. Background In a noisy and explosive demonstration witnessed by Edison himself, Steinmetz unveiled a 120,000-volt lightning generator. Charles Steinmetz was born Karl August Rudolf Steinmetz on April 9, 1865, in Breslau. Charles Proteus Steinmetz/Date of birth. If we move in with you, she eventually told him, I must run the house as I see fit.. What do you do if your car overheats and wont start? [2][18], Steinmetz also greatly advanced the understanding of lightning. Steinmetz, Scott wrote, responded personally to Fords request with the following: Knowing where to make mark $9,999. This accomplishment was largely responsible for the rapid progress made in the commercial introduction of alternating-current apparatus. stonemason [11] Hammond, Charles Proteus Steinmetz: A Biography, 283-4. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The following day, a headline in the New York Times proclaimed, Modern Jove Hurls Lighting at Will. Steinmetzs work led to the measures used to protect power equipment from lightning strikes. [45], A famous anecdote about Steinmetz concerns a troubleshooting consultation at Henry Ford's River Rouge Plant. [13], Steinmetz was affected by kyphosis, as was his father and grandfather. Next, the eddy current flowing in each ring is obtained by solving a complex matrix equation of the form [X] [I] = [V] where X is the impedance matrix, I is the eddy current matrix, and V is the induced voltage matrix. He arrived at Ellis Island in 1888 and was nearly turned away because he was a dwarf, but an American friend whom Steinmetz was traveling with convinced immigration officials that the young German Ph.D. was a genius whose presence would someday benefit all of America. It was around this time that the press started to get interested in Steinmetz. The three people (which quickly grew to six with the arrival of Haydens three children, Joe, Midge and Billy) lived in bohemian happiness for the rest of Steinmetzs life. If you got a degree in electrical engineering at a college and enjoyed getting a well-rounded education you can thank Steinmetz. Charles Proteus Steinmetz: A Biography. [20] Steinmetz speaks on WGY radio miSci Museum of Innovation and Science, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/schmuse/id/269/rec/167. What did Charles Steinmetz do at General Electric? Charles P. Steinmetz, AIEE President, 1901 - 1902, worked on inventions for electric motors, generators, and street cars. Books: John Winthrop Hammond. The trip exhausted the 58-year-old scientist, and on October 26, back in his home on Wendell Avenue, his grandson Billy brought him breakfast on a tray, only to observe Steinmetz lying motionless on his bed, a physics book by his side. Charles Proteus Steinmetz (April 9, 1865 - October 26, 1923) was a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer. These were conducted in a football field-sized laboratory at General Electric, using 120,000 volt generators. 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. [7] GE research laboratory was the source of many important discoveries over the years and was an inspiration for other research labs, like Bell labs which were created in 1925.[8]. Privacy Statement Ronald Kline. The Lives of Dwarves: Their Journey from Public Curiosity to Social Liberation. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. As I said before, GE was delighted and decided to use this meeting to promote the company and worked overtime to promote the Steinmetz-Edison connection and the story of Steinmetz, which is why they photoshopped that picture of Einstein and Steinmetz so it looked like it was just the two of them. She would prepare and served meals on a regular schedule, no matter how important his and her husbands work was. Where did Charles Proteus Steinmetz go to escape arrest? Steinmetz thoroughly enjoyed the comparison. Steinmetz tried to warn us that, We have been a wasteful nation because of our great natural wealthwe have been destroying our forests to get lumber in the most extravagant way. He went first to Zurich, then, in 1889 arrived in the United States. Steinmetz Hall, which houses the Union College computer center, is named after him. His systematic experiments resulted in the first laboratory created "man-made lightning", earning him the nickname the "Forger of Thunderbolts". Where did Charles Proteus Steinmetz live? Edison beamed, and the two continued their silent conversation in front of bewildered reporters. Moe sarcastically refers to Curly as a "Steinmetz" in the 1944 Three Stooges short Busy Buddies. But according to Steinmetz, a mere high voltage is not lightning and has no similarity to lightning in its action and effects.[32] Instead, you need something that produces high voltage and high current to create a lot of power for a short period of time. Where should I start working out out of shape? Froehlich, Fritz; Kent, Allen (editors, 1990). 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. Charles Steinmetz Papers, Schenectady County Historical Society, Schenectady, New York. Steinmetz was a hunchback dwarf only four foot three who also suffered hip dysphasia. Like a mischievous boy, he was fascinated with anything that was lethal, and he gathered alligators, rattlesnakes and black widow spiders. Hayden, who later married and lived in the house with his wife and children that Charles had built for them. [6] Hammond, Charles Proteus Steinmetz, 239. [27], One of the highest technical recognitions given by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the "IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award", is given for major contributions to standardization within the field of electrical and electronics engineering. He developed theories for alternating current that made possible the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States. Papers include letters, notes clippings . He was born on April 9, 1865 in Breslau, Germany, (modern-day Wrocaw, Poland) and was educated at the universities of Breslau and Berlin, and the Polytechnic in Zurich, Switzerland, specializing in mathematics, electrical engineering, and chemistry, and teaching mathematics at the same time. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Steinmetz's equation, derived from his experiments, defines the approximate heat energy due to magnetic hysteresis released, per cycle per unit volume of magnetic material. Cornell University Professor Ronald R. Kline, author of Steinmetz: Engineer and Socialist,[12] contended that other factors were more directly involved in Steinmetz's decision to leave his homeland such as being in arrears with his tuition at the university and life at home with his father, stepmother and their daughters being tension-filled. His work was immediately recognized as a classic by the few who understood it, and the constant he calculated for this loss has remained a part of electrical engineering vocabulary. Steinmetz also greatly advanced the understanding of lightning. ABOUT. 22. Steinmetz knew that higher voltages had been made before, specifically by Elihu Thomson, Nikola Tesla and the GE lab. Born in Breslau, Germany, Steinmetz studied at the University of Breslau, where he devoured books on every subject. 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! He was the electrical scientist and engineer, Charles Proteus Steinmetz. Steinmetz legally adopted Joseph Hayden as his son, becoming grandfather to the youngsters, entertaining them with fantastic stories and spectacular scientific demonstrations. He was 58 years old. Charles Proteus Steinmetz Alternating Current U.S. Patent No. Part of the reason for this fame is that in March 1922, mere weeks before Lenin published their letter, GE held a big demonstration to show that Steinmetz had made the first artificial lightning bolt with power to Thomas Edison.[29]. As socialist meetings and press had been banned in Germany, Steinmetz fled to Zrich in 1888 to escape possible arrest. At General Electric, Steinmetz gained an expanded opportunity for research and implementation of his ideas. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. He changed his first name to "Charles" in order to sound more American, and chose the middle name "Proteus", a wise hunchbacked character from the Odyssey who knew many secrets, after a childhood epithet given by classmates Steinmetz felt suited him. When Roy Hayden married a woman named Corrine in 1903, Steinmetz invited the newly married couple to live with him. Henry Ford was thrilled until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. In 1894 he arrived in. Steinmetz: Engineer and Socialist. ; the next year he was transferred to Schenectady as chief consulting engineer, remaining in that position until his death. Who is Charles Proteus Steinmetz invent? Charles Proteus Steinmetz (born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz, April 9, 1865 October 26, 1923) was a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer and professor at Union College. Hayden favored the idea, but his future wife was wary of the unorthodox arrangement. [31] Steinmetz quoted in Still Greater Developments The Mining Congress Journal, vol. After a short stay in Zrich he immigrated to the United States in 1889, traveling by steerage. Charles Proteus Steinmetz, original name Karl August Rudolf Steinmetz, (born April 9, 1865, Breslau, Prussiadied Oct. 26, 1923, Schenectady, N.Y., U.S.), German-born American electrical engineer whose ideas on alternating current systems helped inaugurate the electrical era in the United States. Steinmetz was born Carl August Rudolph Steinmetz in Breslau, Prussia on April 9, 1865. * The title he did not deny. [30] An additional Charles P. Steinmetz Memorial Scholarship was later established at Union by Marjorie Hayden, daughter of Joseph and Corrine Hayden, and is awarded to students majoring in engineering or physics. When he arrived hed discovered that lightning had damaged the building and shattered a large silver glass mirror. When did Charles Proteus Steinmetz come to America? [16] Steinmetz was therefore delighted when in 1911, Schenectady actually elected a socialist mayor named George Lunn. Why dont you come and live with me? he asked. [26][d] He died on October 26, 1923, and was buried in Vale Cemetery in Schenectady. Under the tutelage of his employer, Steinmetz became increasingly absorbed in the practical aspects of electrical engineering. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Omissions? 14 months later Steinmetz and almost all the GE employees were transferred from the GE labs in New York City to 165 miles away in Schenectady. It would make their long working hours more convenient, and the house offered space he and Corrine could never afford on their own. GE and Union college continued to use his image to promote themselves so that he was commonly known to the general public up until the 1960s. He developed theories for alternating current that made possible the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States. [9] Hammond, Charles Proteus Steinmetz, 400. In 1911, Steinmetz recalled that Schenectady had a reputation at that time of being very similar to a cemetery. At 24, he left Germany because his socialistic affiliations barred him from preferment, and came to the United States practically penniless and knowing almost no English. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. In 1910, GE created that department and made Steinmetz the head. Steinmetz acted in the following professional capacities: He was granted an honorary degree from Harvard University in 1901[20] and a doctorate from Union College in 1903. One result of Steinmetzs growing reputation was his employment by General Electric Company in its consulting department. The time is not far.[19] Not only that, but Steinmetz felt that we could reach a perfect society that was powered by electricity instead of by the oppression of the poor, as he explained in a radio address in 1922: with one taking care of the disproportion and supplies of energy, the other of materials. In Greek mythology, Proteus was a cave-dwelling prophetic old man who always returned to his human formthat of a hunchback. In 1888 he wrote an outspoken editorial criticizing the government, however, and was forced to flee Germany to escape arrest. (Another assistant, Henry Miller, lived with his sister Florence, but spent so much time at the house that he was often included in the family pictures too). While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. For the full article, see, https://www.britannica.com/summary/Charles-Proteus-Steinmetz. He was on the verge of finishing his doctorate in 1888 when he came under investigation by the German police for activities on behalf of a socialist university group and articles he had written for a local socialist newspaper. I am not 100% sure what motivated Edison to do this but as far as I can tell it went down like this: a few years earlier, Henry Ford who was a GIANT Edison supporter decided to make a museum dedicated to show industrial history which eventually turned into the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. 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). Cookie Policy But the first commercial electricity was direct current. The house was too large for Steinmetz, and the Haydens suspected what might be coming. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine This law deals with the power loss that occurs in all electrical devices when magnetic action is converted to unusable heat. When must a financial institution provide a customer with a privacy notice? Soon Ernst started adding strange pets, pets that Steinmetz formed a particular attachment to and soon they had a small-sized menagerie of queer pets, including, raccoons, supposedly tame; an alligator or two, the special pets of Steinmetz; owls, squirrels, monkeys, and a pair of crows, with which Steinmetzprofessed to be able to converse with.[4] Steinmetz was particularly close to the crows, named Mary and John, and was heartbroken when a pet raccoon got free and ate them. And, why is it , Am I really going to light a fire with my bare finger? Joseph Hayden was all for it. Later he was naturalized, and became interested in politics in Schenectady. [15] Charles Steinmetz On the Value of the Classics in Engineering Education The Classical Weekly vol. | 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. Here again he made fundamental contributions. By the turn of the twentieth century, Steinmetz had started construction on a large house on Wendell Avenue, in the area where GE executives lived.
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