Great Engineers & Scientists

This is the first in a multi-part series about Charles Proteus Steinmetz, a mathematician and electrical engineer who lived and worked in my community, New York State's Capital Region, over 100 years ago. The first parts of this series will appear in the "Great Engineers and Scientists" blog and examine the career of a man known as the "wizard" of General Electric. The final part will run in the "Alternative Power" blog and feature a report on a tour of the hydroelectric station at Mechanicville, New York, a facility whose turbines Steinmetz designed.

Sponsored by my local section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), this tour will take members of the Hudson-Mohawk section, along with members of the public, through a facility situated on the Hudson River between Saratoga and Troy, New York.

Preface
As schoolchildren, we are often taught just a superficial history of great engineers and scientists, only to be disappointed when, upon a more complete education, we learn the darker aspects of our heroes' personal lives or business careers. There are, however, cases where the opposite is true. For this engineer and blogger, Charles Steinmetz is one of those cases.

Turbulent Times in Europe
Charles Proteus Steinmetz (he changed his German birth-name when he became a U.S. citizen) was born April 9, 1865, in Breslau, Prussian Silesia, a city then under control of German-unifier Otto von Bismarck. Proteus was an affectionate nickname given to Steinmetz by his fellow students. Today, Breslau is the city of Wroclaw in southwest Poland.

A dwarf, Steinmetz suffered from birth with a hunched back and dysplasia. During his secondary schooling, he attended Johannes Gymnasium (high school) and amazed his teachers by demonstrating incredible proficiency in physics and math. Next, Steinmetz attended the University of Breslau, completing his undergraduate work in 1883. He then went on to work on a doctoral degree. Close to finishing (he completed his doctoral studies but never formally received his degree), Charles Steinmetz was investigated by the German police.

Steinmetz attracted the attention of the authorities for his activities in a socialist group at the University of Breslau. Specifically, the young scholar had written newspaper articles critical of the government and had professed anti-racist beliefs. Such activities were banned under the Bismarck regime. To escape possible arrest, Charles Steinmetz fled to Zürich in 1888. A year later, his permit close to expiring, he immigrated to the United States.

Applied Brilliance: Making the Connection between Math Theory and Electric Motor Design
Shortly after arriving in the U.S., Steinmetz went to work for Rudolf Eickenmeyer in Yonkers, New York, and published findings about magnetic hysteresis. Eickenmeyer's company designed transformers for use in the transmission of electrical power, among other mechanical and electrical devices. Later, this company, along with its patents and designs, was purchased by the newly-formed General Electric (GE) company.

In the same year that GE purchased Eickenmeyer's company, Steinmetz made one of his greatest contributions to the field of electrical engineering: a lecture and presentation that described the mathematics of alternating current by applying complex number theory to the practical design of AC motors. This new approach to electrical motor design allowed engineers to produce a best possible theoretical design before a build, radically reducing the hours and expense of trial and error.

Among the thirty papers that Charles Steinmetz published, his most important were the "Law of Hysteresis", an 1892 lecture to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE); the "Symbolic Method of AC Current"; and the "Theory of Electrical Transients".

Editor's Note: Part 2 of this series will run next week, right here on CR4.

Resources:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Proteus_Steinmetz

Union College: http://www.union.edu (various web sites at this domain)

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE): http://www.ieee.org/organizations/pes/public/2005/sep/peshistory.html

<- Einstein comes to Schenectady to meet Steinmetz in 1921, the same year Einstein won the Nobel Prize in physics.