Charles Proteus Steinmetz · Charles Proteus Steinmetz

Charles Proteus Steinmetz was a Union College Professor of Electrical Engineering, 1902-1913 and Professor of Electro-Physics (non-teaching) from 1913-1923.

Steinmetz was born Carl Augustus Steinmetz in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) in 1865. Although he had a physical condition called kyphosis or abnormal curvature of the spine, Steinmetz was physically active and enjoyed the outdoors.

Steinmetz studied mathematics at the University of Breslau. As editor of a socialist newspaper, he was placed under police suspicion because of his politics. Minus a degree, he fled to Switzerland in 1888 and enrolled at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where he took the only engineering courses of his career. Later that year and still without a degree, he boarded a ship to the U.S.

Steinmetz noted: ‘When I landed at Castle Garden (New York City), from the steerage of a French liner I had ten dollars and no job and I could speak no English.” Because of his advanced knowledge of physical sciences and mathematics, he soon began working for Rudolf Eickemeyer, a successful manufacturer of electric streetcar motors. In 1891, Steinmetz published the ‘law of hysteresis.’ This principle is used to calculate energy loss in order to build more efficient machines. By 1893, Steinmetz began working at the newly formed General Electric Company (G.E.) and a year later moved to Schenectady. Steinmetz became an American citizen in 1894 and cast his first vote as a naturalized citizen that same year. He worked at G.E. until his death in 1923.

Sources: Encyclopedia of Union College History, p. 673. Compiled & edited by Wayne Somers, 2003. The Story of Steinmetz, by General Electric,, Schenectady, NY, 1939.