Charles P. Steinmetz | Biography

Charles P. Steinmetz was a mathematician and electrical engineer whose theories and research fostered the widespread use of electrical energy. A scientist of prodigious inventiveness, Steinmetz was granted some two hundred patents. His discovery of the phenomenon known as magnetic hysteresis led to the development of energy-efficient motors. He worked out mathematical theories that made practical the use of alternating current in long-distance power transmission. His work in changes in electrical circuits of very short duration was used to develop new cables and improved methods of operating transmission systems. He also built artificial lightning generators that led to the development of lightning arrestors to protect electrical apparatus and transmission lines.

Charles Proteus Steinmetz was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), on April 9, 1865. His mother, Caroline Neubert, died when he was one year old; his father, Karl Heinrich, worked for the government-owned railroad. Steinmetz was the third of three sons and had two step-sisters and one half-sister. He changed his name from Karl August Rudolph when he immigrated to America. He was born with an inherited condition that gave him a hunchback. He never married for fear of passing the trait on to his children.

As a young boy, Steinmetz had a difficult first year at school; however, the slow start and concerns soon evaporated as he quickly ascended to the top of the class. At the University of Breslau he studied mathematics and worked toward a Ph.D. He would have graduated in 1888 were it not for his political activities. While at the university, Steinmetz became a Socialist, eventually taking over the publication of a student-run Socialist newspaper. The secret police had a warrant for his arrest when he fled Germany for Switzerland on the eve of his graduation. He immigrated to the United States in 1889.

Steinmetz's first job in the United States was with the Eikemeyer and Osterheld Manufacturing Company in Yonkers, New York, where he set up a small research lab and worked on alternating current (an electric current that reverses its direction at regularly recurring intervals) motors. While working at Eikenmeyer's, he discovered how the influence of a changing magnetic field operates in a motor to consume energy. Characterizing the relationship between the fluctuating strength of a magnetic field in a motor and the amount of energy lost--a phenomenon known as magnetic hysteresis--his discovery showed engineers how they could design motors with a minimal loss of energy. Steinmetz published a 178-page paper on the law of hysteresis in 1892 that brought him instant recognition.

Steinmetz then turned his attention to mathematical theories that could make practical the use of alternating current in long-distance power transmission. Alternating current had no constant value or direction, and its large-scale behavior was at that time impossible to predict. Nevertheless, Steinmetz was able to fit the principles of alternating current into predictable mathematical models.

The Eikemeyer plant was bought by General Electric Company (GE) in 1892, when the company was just being organized. Steinmetz was hired by GE and eventually moved to Schenectady, New York, where he lived the rest of his life. It was at GE that he completed his work on the mathematics of alternating current, and published in the late 1890s a three-volume work so complex that most engineers had trouble understanding it at first. For four years, until his theories became well understood, Steinmetz spent much of his time explaining them to engineers throughout the country.

Another of Steinmetz's major achievements was his study of changes in electrical circuits of very short duration, for which he designed a 220,000-volt experimental transformer. His research was used to develop new cables, and new and improved methods of operating transmission systems. He even created artificial lightning by designing generators that could produce electricity at very high potential. This was used to study the effect of lightning on the power lines that were just going up around the country, and led to the development of lightning arrestors, devices that protect electrical apparatus and electric transmission lines from damage by lightning. In all, Steinmetz held about two hundred patents.

Steinmetz taught electrical engineering at Union College in Schenectady from 1903 to 1913, heading the new department that was formed owing to his presence. He was known as a tough lecturer, but was popular with the students. Faithful to the philosophy of his youth, he continued to espouse socialism. When George R. Lunn was elected Schenectady's Socialist mayor in 1911, Steinmetz volunteered his services to the administration. He was appointed to the board of education and was later elected president of the board. In 1915 he was elected a member of the common council in Schenectady. As president of the council, he established classes for handicapped children. He ran for state engineer in 1922.

Steinmetz, who never married and had no children, adopted Roy Hayden, his associate at General Electric. When Hayden married, he and his family lived in Steinmetz's house on Wendall Avenue in Schenectady. Steinmetz also legally adopted Hayden's three children as his grandchildren. Steinmetz loved animals and at times kept a full range of wild animals in his backyard. His favorite pets were a pair of crows, John and Mary. He was an avid grower of orchids and cacti. Steinmetz died in Schenectady on October 26, 1923, of heart failure.