Steinmetz Is Not Yet Forty Years Old and
Has Taken Out Over One Hundred
Patents.
Charles P. Steinmetz, chief expert at the Schenectady Electrical Works,
was born in Breslau, Germany. Though he is only forty years old, he has
already taken out more than one hundred patents for electrical devices,
and some of these are of immense value.
His father was a railroad employee, and on German railroads the pay is
small and the duties exacting. But the father managed to send his son to
the University of Breslau, and here he distinguished himself in
mathematics and chemistry, and spent his leisure time in chemical and
mechanical experiments at home.
At that time the German government was making an effort to stamp out
socialism, and laws of unusual severity were passed against those who
advocated it. Bismarck, who headed the anti-socialist movement, saw to it
that the laws were vigorously enforced. The natural result was a reaction
against the conduct of the government, and the universities became
permeated with socialism.
Steinmetz, then a boy of seventeen, was drawn into the work of
socialistic agitation, and he became the editor of a paper during a period
when the real editor was in prison for _lese majeste_.
The paper was finally suppressed, and Steinmetz's connection with it was
reported to the university authorities. Then he received information that
a warrant was out for his arrest and he fled to Zurich, Switzerland. Here
he supported himself by tutoring, and by writing for electrical magazines
and for a daily paper.
The articles for the daily paper paid him two dollars a week. His income
was pitifully small, but he managed to save a few dollars, and, meeting
with a young American from San Francisco, he decided to relinquish his
ambition to become a professor of mathematics in some German university.
He then emigrated to America.
Lands as a Poor Immigrant.
Steinmetz and his American friend landed in New York with just twenty
dollars between them. They hired a small room in Brooklyn, where they
started housekeeping together. Steinmetz had acquired this knack during
his Zurich days, and through his first year in America he lived with his
friend in one room, doing their cooking and washing on a gas-stove, and at
the same time conducting electrical and chemical experiments.
Steinmetz had with him when he arrived in this country a couple of letters
of introduction, one to a man who manufactured electrical and chemical
supplies on a small scale. This letter was the first presented, but on
visiting the place Steinmetz was unable to see the manufacturer. He was,
however, told to call again. He called again, and was once more put off
with a polite invitation to return. After two more calls Steinmetz
realized that he was an unwelcome visitor. He thought it over for a few
moments, then laughed and, turning to the clerk, said:
"Oh, well, all right. He'll have to call on me, now, if he wants me--and I
think he will."
Eventually the manufacturer did want Steinmetz, but never got him, for
Steinmetz took the second letter of introduction to Rudolph Eickemeyer,
head of the Eickemeyer Elevator Company, of Yonkers. Eickemeyer sized the
young man up, and at once put him to work as a draftsman, at twelve
dollars a week.
It was while in Yonkers that Steinmetz drew attention to his ability by a
series of articles in an American electrical magazine on alternating
currents. This was followed by the first of the inventions and
improvements that laid the foundation of Steinmetz's substantial fortune.
From the first Steinmetz had taken a lively interest in America and
everything American, and the views for which he was forced to fly from
Europe were so modified that they agreed with the new conditions in which
he found himself. Speaking of them, he said:
"In this country they would be theories without any chance of practical
application, and there is no use in a theory merely for theory's sake."
When the Eickemeyer concern was taken over by the General Electric Company
Steinmetz went with it and was hailed as its greatest asset. He was first
sent to the Thomson-Houston Company--the Lynn, Massachusetts, branch of
the General Electric--and there he worked out the first successful plan
for transmitting power and light, on a large scale, over long distances,
and for controlling currents.
Incidentally he made several important discoveries and improvements in the
arc and incandescent lights and in electric motors.
A Mathematical Wonder.
In addition to being a thorough electrician, Steinmetz is a mathematical
wonder, and there are few tricks of the lightning calculator that he
cannot duplicate and go one better. It had been his intention to become a
professor of mathematics, and doubtless he would have done so had he
remained in Germany. The salary and fees of the professorship would have
given him at best a couple of thousand dollars a year. His work in this
country pays him a big salary, and this is supplemented by a large income
from patents.
Personally he is one of the most popular men in the business. "The
professor," as he is generally known, has been generous in offering
assistance to young electricians, and he has patiently spent his time in
aiding in the development of their ideas. He has shown the same skill in
bringing the best out of men that he has used to such effect in handling
machinery.