Lecture

By: Charles Steinmetz

Date: 1908

Source: Steinmetz, Charles Proteus. General Lectures on Electrical Engineering, 3rd ed. Schenectady, N.Y.: Robson & Adee, 1908, 149–150.

About the Author: Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923) was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). He studied mathematics as a doctoral candidate at the University of Breslau, but university officials expelled him for advocating socialism. To escape arrest for his radicalism, he immigrated to the United States, where he rose to chief engineer for General Electric. He was the author of twelve books and some 150 articles.

Introduction

The harnessing of electricity as a source of power was an achievement of the nineteenth century. In 1831 British physicist Michael Faraday created a prototype of the dynamo (the electric generator), but not until 1880 did engineers and...