The engineer who asked for the Ford 10,000 dollars just for an idea. The incredible story of the deformed genius that opened was electric in the US
Charles Proteus Steinmetz, a genius of electrical engineering has remained famous for the most expensive bill for seemingly trivial intervention. He collected from Ford plants around $ 10,000 only for a chalk sign and an idea. Steinmetz inaugurated was electric in the USA.
Charles Proteus Steinmetz Photo Wikipedia
One of the most important scientists of modern history was Charles Proteus Steinmetz. He was an engineer specialized in electricity, from Germany, a true genius of his times. He remained legendary after receiving a huge bill, for those times, from the famous industrialist Henry Ford, for seemingly trivial intervention. Steinmetz is a true legend of the scientific world, inaugurating was electric in the United States.
How did the owner of the Ford car factory pay, 10,000 euros for an idea
The story appeared in the magazine “Life” in 1965, after the editors spoke with Jack B. Scott, the son of an engineer at Ford plants. The story was confirmed by other people who heard it from the relatives who had worked for the same car factory. Witnesses say that at the beginning of the 20th century, Ford factories were facing a serious technical problem. It was about a defective gigantic generator. Due to him, the production was stopped and, every day, the company's owner, Henry Ford lost significant amounts of money. All company engineers were actually outdated. They didn't know how to repair the generator. Henry Ford was desperate. A close relative suggested to call Charles Steinmetz, considered a genius of electronics, nicknamed the “Schenectady wizard”. Searched by Ford's people, Steinmetz came immediately to the Ford factories in Dearborn, Michigan.
“Ford, whose electrician engineers had failed to solve problems with a gigantic generator, called Steinmetz at the factory. Arriving at the factory, Steinmetz refused any form of assistance and only asked for a notebook, a pencil and a piece of chalk. According to Scott's testimonies, Steinmetz listened to the generator. It took two days and two nights.wrote Gilbert King, winner of the Pulitzer Award in an article for Smithsonia Magazine. Interesting was the payment note sent by Steinmetz, industrialist Henry Ford.
For this intervention, that is, for the diagnosis and the sign made with a chalk, engineer Steinmetz asked for $ 10,000. “Steinmetz offered him a detailed payment note: a dollar for the chalk sign and $ 9,999 for discovering the problem,” added Gilbert King, in the same work. Henry Ford paid the bill without grinding. He had just saved his business.
The deforming genius of Germany became a fugitive socialist
Charles Steinmetz was a real phenomenon of electronic engineering but also a special character. He was born in 1865 in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). He had a serious health problem. More precisely, it had a serious deformation of the spine. Because of this he had a cock, a higher shoulder and his head and arms seemed bigger than the trunk. In addition, it had a height that did not exceed 1.30 meters. Instead he had a glittering mind. In Germany, it was called Carl August Rudolph Steinmetz and was incredibly intelligent. He was performing in the field of classic physics, mathematics and literature. This is how he arrived at the University of Breslau graduated with Magna cum Laudae.
The young Steinmetz, however, had political concerns considered illegal and dangerous by the German authorities. Specifically, he had entered some socialist circles and had published some left articles. For this reason he came to the attention of the police and had to flee the country. Initially in Switzerland then in the United States. He arrived on the island of Ellis in 1888 and was rejected by the authorities because of the deformity. The friend with whom he arrived in Germany, however, convinced that he is a great man. Was left to enter the United States. Impressing through his mathematics and physics knowledge, Steinmetz was immediately employed at Eickemeyer and Osterheld, a New York company.
The man who inaugurated the “golden age” of electrical engineering
Within the company he identified and explained, through a mathematical equation, which later became known as the “law of Steinmetz” phenomena that govern power losses, leading to discoveries in both electrical and DC. “America enters a golden age of electrical engineering”said Gilbert King. Finding the progress made by Steinmetz, the company “General Electric” and Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, bought the entire Yonkers electric motor company with the patents of Steinmetz but also with his services.
In 1894 he installed in his paradise at Schenectady, on the banks of the Hudson river. It will spend three decades at General Electric and its impact was major, becoming the most famous character of the electric industry. At least in the United States. Steinmetz was walking with the kayak, he had made a collection of exotic plants and reptiles, but he lacked a family. He had avoided marrying knowing that his deformity was genetic. So he adopted a whole family. Of an engineer. He left them all. Steinmetz died at 58, in sleep, following a heart attack.
