#steinmetz

Tuning a 'Steinmetz' Grand Piano made in the 1930s Great Malvern, Worcestershire

Charles Proteus Steinmetz was a German-American mathematician and electrical engineer. He was a very short man with a hunchback, but that didn't prevent him from becoming one of the more significant contributors to the knowledge of electricity. Steinmetz's mathematical work with regard to alternating currents helped revolutionize the electric power industry in the United States with his ground-breaking discoveries in the understanding of hysteresis (a lag between input and output in a system upon a change in direction). This discovery enabled engineers to design far better AC systems for use in commercial applications.

Steinmetz moved to the U.S. in 1889 after fleeing imprisonment in Germany for his socialistic political views. He immediately became acquainted with engineers such as Elihu Thomson, Mihajlo Pupin and Thomas Edison (all rivals of Nikola Tesla and the Westinghouse Co.). Although Steinmetz was new to the political differences in the commercial development of power distribution (AC vs. DC), it wouldn't take long before his new friends pressured him into joining their side against the opposition.

But before he teamed up with Thomson-Houston Electric (which later merged with Edison Electric to form General Electric), Steinmetz pointed out certain flaws in their understanding of polyphase AC generators. During a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (Dec.16, 1891), a paper written by Pupin on polyphase AC generators was discussed. One of Pupin's arguments was that Ferraris and Dolivio-Dobrowolosky created the first polyphase motors. This was key to GE engineers because this allowed them to combat Westinghouse and Tesla's AC patents. Steinmetz, in turn, was quick to call out the mistakes. In the discussion, Steinmetz says:

"Ferraris built only a little toy, and his magnetic circuits, so far as I know, were completed in air, not in iron…

"This three-phase current system has been brought up the last time as something entirely new. I cannot agree with that in the least. For already in the old Tesla motor the three phases of current, only that in the three wires that go out from the central station the three currents have not a difference of phase of exactly 120 degrees, but two have a difference of 90 degrees, and either one of these two currents has with the third a difference of phase of 135 degrees. But if now the "Allgemeine Electricitats Gesellschaft" transmits currents of less than 120 degrees difference of phase-well, then the Dobrowolsky system comes back exactly to the old three-wire system of Tesla, only that the motor is certainly built somewhat differently. But that does not matter. Mechanically, the motor is undoubtedly improved, for there are several years' time between the old Tesla three wire motor and the new German three phaser. Whether the latter shows any improvements in its principles, is a question which is anything but beyond doubt.

"But in the new Dolivo von Dobrowolsky system of electric distribution, I really cannot see anything new but the mechanical construction of motors and generators. That it became so famous is, I think, entirely due to the success of the grand transmission of power over such an enormous distance as 116 miles, which cast a halo around everything that was used with this transmission, and so made the rotary motor famous; but, in reality, I think ordinary synchronous motors might just as well have been used, and would have worked just as successfully, so that the choice of the particular motor had nothing to do with the success of the power transmission."

Un día como hoy. Fallece Charles Proteus Steinmetz, matemático e ingeniero eléctrico

⇒ Un día como hoy, pero de 1923: Fallece Charles Proteus Steinmetz, matemático e ingeniero eléctrico nacionalizado estadounidense, sus estudios sobre la corriente alterna facilitaron la utilización de este tipo de energía en la segunda etapa de la Revolución industrial.

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