Image in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Steinmetz and Thomas Edison in the library of the Barcliff Lodge. Steinmetz also worked with traveling waves, which he used to develop several devices and protect high-power transmission lines from bolts of lightning. His experiments in transient theory helped him to better understand lightning and resulted in the first “man-made lightning”. During his time there, he studied the theory of electrical transients (changes in electrical circuits of short duration), particularly the phenomena of lightning. In 1893, Charles Proteus Steinmetz was hired by Thomas Edison to work for him at General Electric. Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Thomas Edison, and Electricity Through his research, Steinmetz made a complicated concept more accessible, which helped make the commercialization of the AC apparatus possible. Steinmetz became very well known for his AC hysteresis theory and AC steady-state circuit theory, in which he devised a symbolic method of calculating AC phenomena.
At the age of 27, he had solved a puzzle that had thwarted the likes of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. In 1892, he established the “law of hysteresis” or “Steinmetz’s equation”, which allowed engineers to calculate and minimize losses of power due to any magnetism in their designs. In order to find a solution to the trolley car problem, Steinmetz dedicated himself to the study the laws of magnetic hysteresis. AC can operate across larger distances, but could cause power loss due to the laws of magnetic hysteresis, or the delay in the change of a magnetic field each time the AC creating the field reverses. He was tasked with finding a way to run trolley cars via alternating currents as opposed to direct currents. While at Osterheld and Eickenmeyer, Steinmetz gained a positive reputation for his prowess in math and engineering. Around this time, Steinmetz changed his first name to Charles, to sound more American, and his middle name to Proteus, after a character from Homer’s Odyssey. In America, Steinmetz was offered a job by his friend and fellow engineer Rudolf Eickenmeyer at his company Osterheld and Eickenmeyer. Image in the public domain in the United States, via Wikimedia Commons. In 1883, he started pursuing a degree at the University of Breslau (which is now the University of Wrocław).īecause of Steinmetz’s involvement with a local socialist newspaper, which could have gotten him arrested, he fled to Switzerland, and then New York, in 1888.Ĭharles Proteus Steinmetz, who had hereditary dwarfism and hip dysplasia. As a young boy, he excelled in his studies and showed great aptitude in math, physics, and literature. He also developed a fundamental law of magnetism - the “law of hysteresis” - and was granted more than 200 patents.Ĭharles Proteus was born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz on April 9, 1865, in Poland. Charles Proteus Steinmetz is the 463rd most popular mathematician (up from 514th in 2019), the 603rd most popular biography from Poland (down from 581st in 2019) and the 20th most popular Polish Mathematician.Electrical engineer, mathematician, and inventor Charles Proteus Steinmetz wrote volumes on the theory of alternating current (AC) that are still used to educate engineering students today. His biography is available in 24 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 22 in 2019). Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Charles Proteus Steinmetz has received more than 443,429 page views. He made ground-breaking discoveries in the understanding of hysteresis that enabled engineers to design better electromagnetic apparatus equipment, especially electric motors for use in industry.At the time of his death, Steinmetz held over 200 patents. He 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.
Charles Proteus Steinmetz (born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz, Ap– October 26, 1923) was a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer and professor at Union College.
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