STEINMETZ, CHARLES PROTEUS 1865-1923

Electrical engineer

Early Life in Europe

Charles Proteus Steinmetz was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), in 1865. He was educated at the University of Breslau, whose physics department had a solid reputation in electrophysics, and was a doctoral candidate in mathematics. Felix Auerbach, his professor of mathematical physics, encouraged all of his students to develop mathematical theories of how specific pieces of electrical equipment work. Steinmetz was forced to leave Breslau because of his socialist politics and went to Zurich, Switzerland, where he enrolled for a semester of engineering at the Polytechnic Institute. While there he published his first two articles on electrical engineering: one on the resistance of conductors, the other a mathematical theory of the transformer. When the Breslau police issued a warrant for his arrest in 1889, he decided to immigrate to the United States.

First Years in America

In the 1890s American electrical engineering was entering its golden age: the electric illuminating and power industries were in their infancy, as was the telephone. The radio would soon be developed. Steinmetz's training in mathematics and his interest in mathematical physics were virtually unrivaled in the American electric world and assured him a rapid rise in the industry. He was hired as an engineer by Eickemeyer and Osterheld, a company based in Yonkers, New York, that made ironclad DC (direct current) dynamos and that was then developing electric streetcar and elevator motors based on Eickemeyer's design. Steinmetz worked on all of the company's electrical projects, but particularly on the development of a practical alternating current motor. Steinmetz developed several single-phase AC induction motors, one of which became General Electric's standard fan motor when Steinmetz joined that firm in 1893. The papers he wrote in Yonkers were landmarks in the fusion of technology with science in the electrical industry, a movement that presaged the imminent end of the tinkering phase of American technology. To develop electrical theory intelligible to other engineers, Steinmetz had to shift from differential equations, the kind of mathematics favored by physicists, to the graphical analysis that engineers used (which had been pioneered by English civil and mechanical engineers in the previous two decades).

The Law of Hysteresis

Steinmetz began attending meetings of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the New York Mathematical Society and published two papers on synthetic geometry in the American Journal of Mathematics. Steinmetz's early fame in American technology and science was based on his research in two areas: magnetic hysteresis and alternating current electricity. Hysteresis refers to the tendency of materials to resist being magnetized or demagnetized. The phenomenon plagued both DC and AC systems, because it caused the iron cores of electrical equipment to overheat. Steinmetz derived a mathematical equation to describe hysteresis as a naturally occurring phenomenon, which has subsequently been called the law of hysteresis. One reason for his success was that he understood the electrical characteristics of common laboratory instruments such as the galvanometer, wattmeter, and differential magnetometer better than most and so secured more-accurate readings. The research involved four thousand separate observations during a period of two years. Steinmetz drew some fire from the physics community by comparing his law to Newton's law of gravitation.

General Electric

In late 1892 General Electric bought out Eickemeyer's company and so acquired the services of Steinmetz. This was a critical moment in the electrical industry. By now it was clear that AC systems would win out over Thomas Edison's original DC concept. GE needed to position itself to compete with the rival Westinghouse Electric Company, and both firms were hiring collegeeducated engineers. Steinmetz was assigned to GE's plant in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he worked in the Calculating Department, a kind of internal consulting unit. There his work on induction led to his first patents on methods of reducing induction in power transmission lines. He also developed a breakthrough technique of analyzing AC electrical circuits with complex numbers: he was not the first engineer to do this, but he developed the method more comprehensively. By showing how advanced algebraic techniques could be applied to practical problems such as transformers, circuits, and transmission lines, Steinmetz laid the foundations for modern electrical engineering. He presented these methods in a series of textbooks beginning with Theory and Calculation of Alternating Current Phenomena in 1897 and continuing through the first two decades of the twentieth century. They exercised tremendous influence over the electrical engineering curriculum throughout the United States.

Engineer and Teacher

The Calculating Department, with Steinmetz at its head, was moved to Schenectady, New York, in 1894. In effect, he was GE's chief engineer; all of the company's design calculations were under his control. As GE built electric power plants around the world, Steinmetz's department was charged with designing all of the equipment (alternators, motors, transformers, and so forth) associated with these installations. This meant a flood of patent applications for Steinmetz. GE allowed him to publish his research (which he did in twelve books and 150 articles on AC systems alone) as long as he did not disclose "proprietary" details. In 1902 he was named head of the Electrical Engineering Department at Union College, in which capacity he was able to perfect his pedagogical approach to the subject.

The Steinmetz Legend

Steinmetz was physically deformed, about four feet tall, and spoke English with a thick German accent. According to a GE official who interviewed him 1892: "I was startled … by the strange sight of a small, frail body surmounted by a large head, with long hair hanging to the shoulders, clothed in an old cardigan jacket, cigar in mouth, sitting cross-legged on a laboratory work table." Scientifically trained, he developed an influential philosophy of engineering that was based on a distinction between rational equations, derived from basic physical principles, and empirical equations, based on experimental research. Steinmetz liked to work with rational equations but understood that engineers, who frequently had to confront real technical problems for which no physical solution was readily available, must also use empirical formulas. In 1922 when he succeeded in creating lightning under laboratory conditions, the press hailed him as a modern Jove and elevated him to the status of wizard shared by Edison and Albeit Einstein, who seemed able to command nature to do their will. He died 26 October 1923.

Source:

Ronald R. Kline: Steinmetz: Engineer and Socialist (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).