Posted by
Gray Ghost on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 9:47:27 AM
This morning, I read an excellent article concerning Thomas Alva Edison, written by my fellow electrical engineer "Redhead". In this article, Edison is described as an "@$$hole". "Redhead" is indeed correct. The real Edison is in no way is like the "Edison" portrayed by Spencer Tracy, in the 1940 movie, "Edison, The Man". Instead, he was a vindictive, aggressive, recluse. But he was a great "tinkerer". Although he "stole" many of the inventions he is famous for perfecting, he did have many ideas that deserve recognition. "Redhead’s" article can be found at the following address:
http://redhead.blogtownhall.com/2009/09/28/modern_corporate_warfare.thtml
One of the many things Edison did that are richly deserving of fame was the "help" he gave to Charles Proteus Steinmetz in becoming a "world known" electrical engineer. Perhaps Edison did this for personal gain. But the "world" benefited from this "greed".
Charles Proteus Steinmetz (April 9, 1865 – October 26, 1923) was born in Breslau, a province of Silesia. At an early age, he astonished his teachers with his understanding of physics and mathematics. He had been deformed since birth (dwarfism, hunchback, and hip dyplasia). And he had lost his mother at the age of one year. But he found "release" in the study of science. He entered the university at Breslau in 1883 and specialized in mathematics and the physical sciences.
He also read widely in economics and politics, and in 1884 he associated himself with the Socialist party in Breslau. As he pursued his scientific education, he also continued his political activities, a pattern he was to continue throughout his life. As ghost editor of the Breslau Socialist newspaper, People's Voice, Steinmetz attracted the attention of the police. In 1888, just as he had finished the work for his doctor's degree, he learned of plans for his arrest and fled to Switzerland. He never received his degree. He immigrated to the United States in 1889.
Despite his earlier efforts and interest in socialism, by 1922 Steinmetz concluded that socialism would never work in America because the country lacked a "powerful, centralized government of competent men, remaining continuously in office" and because "only a small percentage of Americans accept this viewpoint today."
At the International Electrical Congress in Chicago in 1893 Steinmetz made one of his greatest contributions to the electrical engineering community. In a lecture and presentation describing the mathematics of alternating current phenomena (which had not previously been explained by earlier engineers), Steinmetz used the term "phasor" for his simplified mathematical representation of an electricity waveform. This "property" has greatly simplified the analysis of AC circuits. Since the 1970's, phasor measurement units have been used to measure the "health" of wide area electrical networks such as the US Electrical Grid.
Hysteresis Loss As Expressed By Steinmetz
One of Steinmetz's great research projects was concerned with the phenomena of lightning. He undertook a systematic study of it, resulting in experiments of man-made lightning in the laboratory. This work was published and Steinmetz was called the "forger of thunderbolts", being the first to create "artificial" lightning in his GE football field-sized laboratory and high towers, using 120,000 volt generators. He also erected a lightning tower to attract lightning and studied the patterns and effects of lightning hits on tree bark, resulting in several theories and ideas (like the effect of lightning on plant growth).
He fostered the development of alternating current (AC) that made possible the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States. He formulated many of the mathematical theories used by electrical engineers. He made the first important discoveries in the understanding of hysteresis and "sequence reaction studies" that enabled electrical engineers to design electric motors and study "events" on an electric system.
In August of 1973, my wife and I traveled to Schenectady, New York. As an employee of the General Electric Company, I was to be trained as an "application engineer". It was at Schenectady, that a "country" engineer (myself) gained the training and knowledge that my father and grandfather (both electrical engineers) lacked. It was in Schenectady that I became intimately acquainted with Charles Proteus Steinmetz. I trained under engineers who trained under Steinmetz. My master in engineering was acquired at Union College under professors who had also trained under Steinmetz.
It can be said, that my knowledge of the field of electrical engineering is a direct result of Thomas Alva Edison’s greed and the scientific discoveries of a "hunchback" German, Charles Proteus Steinmetz.
For those who would like some additional information on Steinmetz, I recommend going to the following sites:
http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/steinmetz.html
http://www.yonkershistory.org/stein.html
http://www.union.edu/N/DS/s.php?s=1512