Charles Proteus Steinmetz

Steinmetz was born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz on April 9, 1865, in Breslau, Province of Silesia, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland), the son of Caroline (Neubert) and Karl Heinrich Steinmetz. He was baptized as a Lutheran into the Evangelical Church of Prussia. Steinmetz, who stood only tall as an adult, Following Gymnasium, Steinmetz studied at the University of Breslau to begin work on his undergraduate degree in 1883. Nearing completion of his doctorate in 1888, he was forced to flee to Zurich, Switzerland, as the German government was preparing to prosecute him for his socialist activities. ==Political persecution and emigration==

As socialist meetings and press had been banned in Germany, Steinmetz fled to Zurich in 1889 to escape possible arrest. Cornell University Professor Ronald R. Kline, author of Steinmetz: Engineer and Socialist, points to other factors which reinforced Steinmetz's decision to leave his homeland such as financial problems and the prospect of a more harmonious life with his socialist friends and supporters than the stressful domestic circumstances of his father's household. ==Political activism and beliefs==

Steinmetz was politically active in the US as a technocratic socialist for over thirty years. Following the Bolshevik introduction of a technocratic plan to electrify Russia, Steinmetz spoke of Lenin alongside Albert Einstein as the "two greatest minds of our time." ==Electrical engineering==

Steinmetz is known for his contribution in three major fields of alternating current (AC) systems theory: hysteresis, steady-state analysis, and transients. AC hysteresis theory 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. Eickemeyer's firm developed transformers for use in the transmission of electrical power among many other mechanical and electrical devices. 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. His seminal books and many other AIEE papers "taught a whole generation of engineers how to deal with AC phenomena". AC transient theory Steinmetz also greatly advanced the understanding of lightning. His systematic experiments resulted in the first laboratory-created "man-made lightning", earning him the nickname "Forger of Thunderbolts". ==Professional life==

Steinmetz acted in the following professional capacities: • At Union College, as chair of electrical engineering from 1902 to 1913 and as faculty member thereafter until his death in 1923 • First vice-president of the International Association of Municipal Electricians (IAME) {which later became the International Municipal Signal Association (IMSA)} from 1913 until his death in 1923. He was granted an honorary degree from Harvard University in 1901 Steinmetz was also an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Steinmetz wrote 13 books and 60 articles, not exclusively about engineering. He was a member and adviser to the fraternity Phi Gamma Delta at Union College, whose chapter house was one of the first electrified residences. While serving as president of the Schenectady Board of Education, Steinmetz introduced numerous progressive reforms, including extended school hours, school meals, school nurses, special classes for the children of immigrants, and the distribution of free textbooks. ==Personal life==

automobile behind some members of his adopted family. From left to right are grandchildren Midge, Billy, and Joe Hayden, and adopted son Joseph LeRoy Hayden. Steinmetz had dwarfism, standing only tall as an adult, Steinmetz was a lifelong agnostic. He died on October 26, 1923, at the age of 58 and was buried in Vale Cemetery in Schenectady. ==Legacy==

in Somerset, New Jersey, in 1921, including Steinmetz (center) and Albert Einstein (to his right) Steinmetz earned wide recognition among the scientific community and numerous awards and honors both during his life and posthumously. 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. A Steinmetz solid is the solid body generated by the intersection of two or three cylinders of equal radius at right angles. Steinmetz's equivalent circuit is still widely used for the design and testing of induction machines. 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. The Charles P. Steinmetz Memorial Lecture series was begun in his honor in 1925, sponsored by the Schenectady branch of the IEEE. Through 2017 seventy-three gatherings have taken place, held almost exclusively at Union College, featuring notable figures such as Nobel laureate experimental physicist Robert A. Millikan, helicopter inventor Igor Sikorsky, nuclear submarine pioneer Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (1963), Nobel-winning semiconductor inventor William Shockley, and Internet "founding father" Leonard Kleinrock. Steinmetz's connection to Union is further celebrated with the annual Steinmetz Symposium, a day-long event in which Union undergraduates give presentations on research they have done. Steinmetz Hall, which houses the Union College computer center, is named after him. The Charles P. Steinmetz Scholarship is awarded annually by the college, underwritten since its inception in 1923 by the General Electric Company. 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. The Steinmetz car is permanently displayed in the first-floor corridor between the Wold Center and F.W. Olin building. A Chicago public high school, Steinmetz College Prep, is named for him, as well as a Schenectady public school, the Steinmetz Career and Leadership Academy, formerly Steinmetz Middle-School. near Schenectady, New York A public park in north Schenectady, New York, was named for him in 1931. In 1983, the US Post Office included Steinmetz in a series of postage stamps commemorating American inventors. In May 2015, a life-size bronze statue of Charles Steinmetz meeting Thomas Edison by sculptor and caster Dexter Benedict was unveiled on a plaza on the corner of Erie Boulevards and South Ferry Street in Schenectady. Charles Steinmetz's Mohawk River cabin is preserved and on display in the outdoor collection of historic structures in Greenfield Village, part of the Henry Ford Museum complex in Dearborn, Michigan. ==In popular culture==

Steinmetz is featured in John Dos Passos's U.S.A. trilogy in one of the biographies. He also serves as a major character in Starling Lawrence's 2006 book, The Lightning Keeper. Steinmetz is a major character in the novel Electric City by Elizabeth Rosner. In the 1944 Three Stooges short "Busy Buddies", Moe Howard references Steinmetz. Steinmetz was portrayed in 1959 by the actor Rod Steiger in the CBS television anthology series, The Joseph Cotten Show. The episode focused on his socialist activities in Germany. A famous anecdote about Steinmetz concerns a troubleshooting consultation at Henry Ford's River Rouge Plant. A humorous aspect of the story is the "itemized bill" he submitted for the work performed. ==Bibliography==

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