Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An intellectual biography of Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923), the German immigrant scientist who became chief engineer at General Electric, leader of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Socialist councilman in Schenectady, New York, and part-time professor of political economy at Union College. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The US is a land of opportunities for its immigrants, but many an immigrant has offered an opportunity for the country to grow and distinguish itself in the world. This absorbing biography narrates the accomplishments and ironies in the life of a remarkable man who not only made good here, but became a household word and a respected voice of science and industry. Coming from Germany with a background in engineering and a vision of socialism, Steinmetz landed in America when he was barely 24. In due course he became a major force in the General Electric Company as well as in the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He spent most of his productive years exploring and inventing, primarily in the field of alternating currents and power transmission, garnering some 200 patents to his credit. In 1902, Harvard University described him as the "foremost expert in applied electricity in this country and therefore in the world." But Steinmeitz was also active in politics and profuse with public pronouncements, conservative in some scientific matters, but liberal in political thought; a tool in a successful capitalist institution (GE), but convinced that socialism would inevitably come to the US and to the world at large. Though an acknowledged expert in applied physics, he wrote an early readable exposition of relativity theory. Kline says all this and more, interestingly and with insight, in this book of sound and impressive scholarship. All levels. V. V. Raman; Rochester Institute of Technology