Background
Steinmetz was born on April 9, 1865 in Wrocław, Poland, the only son of Caroline (Neubert) and Karl Heinrich Steinmetz, a government railway employee.
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mathematician electrical engineer
Steinmetz was born on April 9, 1865 in Wrocław, Poland, the only son of Caroline (Neubert) and Karl Heinrich Steinmetz, a government railway employee.
After early education at the Gymnasium, Steinmetz entered the University of Breslau, where he remained for five years. Placed under police surveillance in 1887, he eventually fled to Zurich, shortly before completing the Ph. D. in mathematics, and there studied mechanical engineering. Steinmetz received an honorary M. A. from Harvard (1902), and honorary Ph. D. from Union College, and served as president of both the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (1901) and the Illuminating Engineering Society (1915).
As socialist meetings and press had been banned in Germany, Steinmetz fled to Zürich in 1888 to escape possible arrest. Faced with an expiring visa, he emigrated to the United States in 1889. In the U. S., under the tutelage of his employer, Steinmetz became increasingly absorbed in the practical aspects of electrical engineering. He established a small laboratory at the factory, where he did much of his scientific research. Steinmetz’ experiments on power losses in the magnetic materials used in electrical machinery led to his first important work, the law of hysteresis. This law deals with the power loss that occurs in all electrical devices when magnetic action is converted to unusable heat. Until that time the power losses in motors, generators, transformers, and other electrically powered machines could be known only after they were built. Once Steinmetz had found the law governing hysteresis loss, engineers could calculate and minimize losses of electric power due to magnetism in their designs before starting the construction of such machines.
In 1892 Steinmetz gave two papers before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on his new law concerning hysteresis loss. 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. Thus, Steinmetz’ reputation was assured at the age of 27.
His second contribution was a practical method for making calculations concerning alternating current circuits. This method was an example of using mathematical aids for engineering the design of machinery and power lines, so that the performance of the electrical system could be predicted in advance without the necessity of going through the expensive and uncertain process of building the system first and then testing it for its efficiency. Steinmetz developed a symbolic method of calculating alternating-current phenomena and in so doing simplified an extremely complicated and barely understood field so that the average engineer could work with alternating current. This accomplishment was largely responsible for the rapid progress made in the commercial introduction of alternating-current apparatus.
Steinmetz’ method of calculation was presented to an uncomprehending audience at the International Electrical Congress in 1893. His book Theory and Calculation of Alternating Current Phenomena (coauthored with Ernst J. Berg in 1897) was read and understood by only a very few. The problem that Steinmetz faced was that electrical engineers were not taught enough mathematics to understand his new mathematical treatment of problems using complex numbers. To educate the electrical engineering profession, he published several textbooks, including Engineering Mathematics (1911), and expanded his original 1897 book into three separate volumes. Gradually, through his writing, lecturing, and teaching, his method of calculation with complex numbers was universally adopted in work with alternating currents.
In 1893 the newly formed General Electric Company purchased Eickemeyer’s company, primarily for his patents, but Steinmetz was considered one of its major assets. At General Electric, Steinmetz gained an expanded opportunity for research and implementation of his ideas. He was assigned to the new calculating department, the first job of which was to work on the company’s proposal for building the generators at the new Niagara Falls power station. In 1894 the General Electric Company transferred its operations to Schenectady, New York, and Steinmetz was made head of the calculating department. He at once began to indoctrinate the engineers with his method of calculating alternating-current circuits.
Steinmetz’ third major scientific achievement was in the study and theory of electrical transients - that is, changes in electrical circuits of very short duration. A prime example of this phenomenon is lightning, and Steinmetz’ investigation of lightning phenomena resulted in his theory of traveling waves and opened the way for his development of devices to protect high-power transmission lines from lightning bolts. In the course of this work he also designed a generator that produced a discharge of 10, 000 amperes and more than 100, 000 volts, equivalent to a power of more than 1, 000, 000 horsepower for 1/100, 000 of a second. This was his last major project at the General Electric Company, where he had become head of the engineering consulting department.
In his later years Steinmetz also engaged in public affairs to a considerable degree, serving as president of the Board of Education of Schenectady, New York, and as president of the city council. He served as president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1901-1902. He died in Schenectady on October 26, 1923.
Steinmetz fostered the development of alternating current that made possible the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States, formulating mathematical theories for engineers. He made ground-breaking discoveries in the understanding of hysteresis that enabled engineers to design better electromagnetic apparatus equipment including especially electric motors for use in industry.
Steinmetz was a lifelong agnostic.
Charles was a member of the original Technical Alliance, board member on the Schenectady Board of Education, president of the Common Council of Schenectady, president of the AIEE (1901-1902), first vice-president of the International Association of Municipal Electricians.
Steinmetz suffered from dwarfism, hunchback, and hip dysplasia, as did his father and grandfather.
Although Steinmetz loved children and family life, he knew that both his father and grandfather suffered from the same spine deformity that afflicted him. Therefore, he did not marry, for fear of passing on his deformity to any descendants.
When Joseph LeRoy Hayden, a loyal and hardworking lab assistant, announced that he would marry and look for his own living quarters, Steinmetz made an unusual proposal regarding living arrangements. He proposed that Hayden's new wife and prospective family move into a large house Steinmetz had already built with its own research lab, greenhouse, and office. He carefully courted Hayden and his wife Corinne, before broaching his proposal. Hayden favored the idea, but his wife was very wary of this unorthodox setup. She finally agreed after Steinmetz acceded to her conditions, notably that she could "run the house as I see fit".
After an uneasy start, the arrangement worked well for all parties, especially after the Haydens had three children. Steinmetz legally adopted Joseph Hayden as his son, and became the "grandfather" of the children, entertaining them with fantastic stories and spectacular scientific demonstrations. The unusual but harmonious living arrangements lasted for the rest of Steinmetz's life.
