CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ
Check signed by Steinmetz for $3 and payable to "Litterary [sic] Digest"
Check signed "Charles P. Steinmetz". With pencil notation near right edge. 6¾x2½, with perforated top, left and bottom edges. Dec. 1, 1907. Check no. 1271 for $3, payable to "Litterary [sic] Digest" and drawn on Steinmetz's account at The Schenectady Trust Company. 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 bank stamps and cancellation holes, which touch handwriting and signature. Staple hole near upper left corner. Light tears near both bottom corners. Paper loss in left edge. Folded thrice and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.