CHARLES P. STEINMETZ - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED CHECK 08/08/1904 - HFSID 2144

CHARLES P. STEINMETZ
Steinmetz filled out this $40 check in 1904 to his half-sister Clara.
Check signed "Charles P. Steinmetz". Pencil notation near right edge in unknown hand. 6¾x2½ with perforations on left edge. Aug. 8, 1904. Check no. 659 for $40, payable to Miss Clara Steinmetz and drawn on Steinmetz's account at The Schenectady Trust Company. Endorsed on verso: "Clara W. Steinmetz". Clara was Charles's half-sister. According to Time's obituary on Charles, Clara was his only relative in the United States when he died. In 1893, Steinmetz (1865-1923, born Carl August Rudolph Steinmetz in Breslau, Prussian Silesia, now Wroclaw, Poland) introduced a new formula for calculating alternating current. In that year he started work at General Electric (GE), becoming chief consulting engineer in 1910. In 1900, a group of three led by Charles P. Steinmetz formed the General Electric Research Lab, the first U.S. industrial laboratory devoted to research, innovation and technology. The German-born American inventor and electrical engineer's theories and mathematical analysis of alternating current systems helped establish them as the preferred form of electrical energy in the U.S. and throughout the world. He advanced research by substituting laboratory methods based on mathematical principles for the older practice of developing a theory and building a model to test it. Lightly toned and creased. Normal cancellation holes, some of which touch handwriting and signature. Cancellation holes just nick the "C" in Charles and touch 3 words of writing. Light show-through of endorsement at right margin. Folded thrice and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.