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Hero of the Day - Charles Proteus SteinmetzCharles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923) 
Rotary Founder Paul Harris quote Steinmetz in discussion the power of Rotary for world peace.

"No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions." - Charles Proteus Steinmetz

Charles Proteus Steinmetz was a giant of a pioneer in the field of electrical engineering, who invented a commercially successful alternating current motor. Only four feet tall in real life, his middle name Proteus, was named after the Greek god who could take on any shape or size. 

Charles Steinmetz was born in Breslau, Prussia on April 9, 1865. Breslau is now the city Wroclaw, Poland. He studied in Breslau, Zurich and Berlin. Shortly after receiving his Ph.D. in 1888, Steinmetz was forced to flee Germany after writing a paper critizing the German government. Charles Steinmetz was an active socialist and held strong anti-racist beliefs. He immigrated to the United States in 1893 and was hired by the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York.

After studying alternating current for a number of years, Charles Steinmetz patented a "system of distribution by alternating current" (A/C power), on January 29, 1895.

Steinmetz retired as an engineer from General Electric to teach electrical engineering at that city's Union College in 1902. General Electric later called back as a consultant. He had worked on a very complex system that was broken. No one could fix it no matter how hard the technicians tried. So they got Steinmetz back. He traced the systems and found the malfunctioning part and marked it with a piece of chalk

Charles Steinmetz submitted a bill for $10,000 dollars. The General Electric managers were taken back and asked for an itemized invoice.

He sent back the following invoice:

  1. Making the chalk mark $1
  2. Knowing where to place the chalk mark $9,999

Charles Steinmetz died on October 26, 1923 and at the time of his death, held over 200 patents.

Read what Harris Quoted of Steinmetz

Photographs on this page are from the archives of the Rotary Club of Wallingford Vermont, the home town of Paul Harris and are part of an archival work by Matts Ingemanson
 

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RGHF Mission: As an effort to serve others, RGHF accumulates and preserves the complete history, values and philosophy of the Rotary movement, as well as encourages others to do the same at every level of the Rotary movement, and publishes those histories, values and philosophies on the internet, as well as other forms of media as expedient. 17 March 2003, amended 20 December 2007, Rotary Global History Fellowship Board of Directors.

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