4 ms·

Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the Wizard of Schenectady (2011)

27 points by dilawar 8y ago

eganist 8y ago
Fun fact: General Electric in Schenectady is represented by zip code 12345
oxymoron 8y ago
This is a good article. The anecdote about Henry Ford’s generator probably isn’t true though: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/know-where-man/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/know-where-man/
- neonate 8y ago
  Yup. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/ has better sources and traces it back to 1908.
starbeast 8y ago
>"One Friday afternoon in 1921, Steinmetz hopped in his electric car and headed off for a weekend at Camp Mohawk" I wonder what he would have made of the fact that people are arguing about whether electric cars are practical almost 100 years later.
- nine_k 8y ago
  It's a bit like nuclear fusion power. Working prototypes have been demonstrated decades ago. Something that would be viable economically is a whole different kettle of fish. With fusion power, it's not reached yet. With electric cars, it's only starting to emerge on mass markets.
  - starbeast 8y ago
    I don't know where you get that idea. The current problem with fusion is not that it isn't economic, it is that it is not yet at the stage where it produces excess power that can be used. The electric cars 100 years ago were functional as a form of transport.
    - nine_k 8y ago
      I tried to express the imperfection of the comparison by saying "a bit like". Both nuclear fusion producing energy and an electric car capable of driving some distance were demonstrated long ago. At that moment, neither was economically viable compared to alternatives (both based on combustion). Both remained in that non-viable state for decades. Electric cars seem to have crossed the border of viability in certain niches; fusion power still has not.
      - starbeast 8y ago
        Fusion power has not yet reached ignition, without that it is not just uneconomic, it is not working period. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_energy_gain_factor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_energy_gain_factor
    - NikolaeVarius 8y ago
      They were functional, but gasoline cars quickly became much cheaper/much faster/and had greater range. Also with highways, gasoline cars could make do with less infrastructure required to actually use them.
iorrus 8y ago
Elementary Lectures On Electric Discharges, Waves And Impulses, And Other Transients Is a very interesting readable book he wrote
- escherplex 8y ago
  Google Books has a scanned 1914 edition of this available for download: https://ia902307.us.archive.org/26/items/elementarylectu00steigoog/elementarylectu00steigoog.pdf https://ia902307.us.archive.org/26/items/elementarylectu00st... Steinmetz was also the originator of the Phasor Transform used in steady state RLC circuit calculations. And BTW that's phasor as in Argand plane not phaser as in Star Trek. :)
mindcrime 8y ago
I remember reading a book on Steinmetz when I was in high school. I was really awed by this guy and the stuff he did. Before Nicola Tesla was one of my idols, Charles Steinmetz was the major figure in engineering who I was enamored with. As I recall from the book, he went on a trip once, and forgot to take his log tables (this was back when lots of math was done using printed tables of logarithms). He sent a request to have his secretary have his printed log tables delivered to him, but by the time they arrived, he'd worked them all out and recreated the tables himself from scratch. Edit: I think this is the book in question, if anybody is looking for more on Steinmetz. There's also a much more recent biography of Steinmetz that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. So there are at least two books on him available. https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Tamed-Lightning-Steinmetz/dp/B000ITMMXG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1545858253&sr=1-1&keywords=man+who+tamed+lightning https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Tamed-Lightning-Steinmetz/dp/...
peter_d_sherman 8y ago
Excerpt: "Ford, whose electrical engineers couldn’t solve some problems they were having with a gigantic generator, called Steinmetz in to the plant. Upon arriving, Steinmetz rejected all assistance and asked only for a notebook, pencil and cot. According to Scott, Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. On the second night, he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Ford’s skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. They did, and the generator performed to perfection. Henry Ford was thrilled until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. Ford acknowledged Steinmetz’s success but balked at the figure. He asked for an itemized bill. Steinmetz, Scott wrote, responded personally to Ford’s request with the following: Making chalk mark on generator $1. Knowing where to make mark $9,999."

27 points by dilawar 8y ago

Fun fact: General Electric in Schenectady is represented by zip code 12345

This is a good article. The anecdote about Henry Ford’s generator probably isn’t true though: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/know-where-man/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/know-where-man/

neonate 8y ago
Yup. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/ has better sources and traces it back to 1908.

starbeast 8y ago

>"One Friday afternoon in 1921, Steinmetz hopped in his electric car and headed off for a weekend at Camp Mohawk" I wonder what he would have made of the fact that people are arguing about whether electric cars are practical almost 100 years later.

nine_k 8y ago
It's a bit like nuclear fusion power. Working prototypes have been demonstrated decades ago. Something that would be viable economically is a whole different kettle of fish. With fusion power, it's not reached yet. With electric cars, it's only starting to emerge on mass markets.
- starbeast 8y ago
  I don't know where you get that idea. The current problem with fusion is not that it isn't economic, it is that it is not yet at the stage where it produces excess power that can be used. The electric cars 100 years ago were functional as a form of transport.
  - nine_k 8y ago
    I tried to express the imperfection of the comparison by saying "a bit like". Both nuclear fusion producing energy and an electric car capable of driving some distance were demonstrated long ago. At that moment, neither was economically viable compared to alternatives (both based on combustion). Both remained in that non-viable state for decades. Electric cars seem to have crossed the border of viability in certain niches; fusion power still has not.
    - starbeast 8y ago
      Fusion power has not yet reached ignition, without that it is not just uneconomic, it is not working period. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_energy_gain_factor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_energy_gain_factor
  - NikolaeVarius 8y ago
    They were functional, but gasoline cars quickly became much cheaper/much faster/and had greater range. Also with highways, gasoline cars could make do with less infrastructure required to actually use them.

iorrus 8y ago

Elementary Lectures On Electric Discharges, Waves And Impulses, And Other Transients Is a very interesting readable book he wrote

escherplex 8y ago
Google Books has a scanned 1914 edition of this available for download: https://ia902307.us.archive.org/26/items/elementarylectu00steigoog/elementarylectu00steigoog.pdf https://ia902307.us.archive.org/26/items/elementarylectu00st... Steinmetz was also the originator of the Phasor Transform used in steady state RLC circuit calculations. And BTW that's phasor as in Argand plane not phaser as in Star Trek. :)

mindcrime 8y ago

I remember reading a book on Steinmetz when I was in high school. I was really awed by this guy and the stuff he did. Before Nicola Tesla was one of my idols, Charles Steinmetz was the major figure in engineering who I was enamored with. As I recall from the book, he went on a trip once, and forgot to take his log tables (this was back when lots of math was done using printed tables of logarithms). He sent a request to have his secretary have his printed log tables delivered to him, but by the time they arrived, he'd worked them all out and recreated the tables himself from scratch. Edit: I think this is the book in question, if anybody is looking for more on Steinmetz. There's also a much more recent biography of Steinmetz that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. So there are at least two books on him available. https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Tamed-Lightning-Steinmetz/dp/B000ITMMXG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1545858253&sr=1-1&keywords=man+who+tamed+lightning https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Tamed-Lightning-Steinmetz/dp/...

peter_d_sherman 8y ago

Excerpt: "Ford, whose electrical engineers couldn’t solve some problems they were having with a gigantic generator, called Steinmetz in to the plant. Upon arriving, Steinmetz rejected all assistance and asked only for a notebook, pencil and cot. According to Scott, Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. On the second night, he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Ford’s skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. They did, and the generator performed to perfection. Henry Ford was thrilled until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. Ford acknowledged Steinmetz’s success but balked at the figure. He asked for an itemized bill. Steinmetz, Scott wrote, responded personally to Ford’s request with the following: Making chalk mark on generator $1. Knowing where to make mark $9,999."