Topic: Fun #51 - Charles Steinmetz & Steinmetz Electric Motor Car Corporation

[Otto Puzzell]

A renaissance man from the first half of the previous century.

For 1 point, identify this sharp-dressed man, and his association with the automotive industry.

Be sure to answer all parts of the question, if you'd like the point.

Only complete answers will earn a point

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I'll post a 'clean' picture once it is solved.  

[Otto Puzzell]

Experts?

[fyreline]

That's the famous General Electric engineer, Professor Charles Proteus Steinmetz. His diminutive form gave little indication of his towering intellect. Steinmetz was an early and very vocal proponent of the electric car, owning a 1914 Detroit Electric that was featured in the automotive press at the time and for many years thereafter. I'm uncertain exactly what "connection" to the automotive industry you're looking for beyond his advocacy of electric cars?

[Otto Puzzell]

You're on the right path. Keep digging - you'll find it.

[D-type]

Steinmetz could not drive a car and had a couple of embarrassing incidents trying to learn. 

So, he bought a car, a Cadillac I think, and had it rigged up with a duplicate set of controls.  So Steinmetz  could then "drive" down the road waving to his friends whilst a chauffeur drove it from the back seat.

Probably not what you're looking for but I hope this raises an occasional smile.

[Otto Puzzell]

Steinmetz could not drive a car and had a couple of embarrassing incidents trying to learn. 

So, he bought a car, a Cadillac I think, and had it rigged up with a duplicate set of controls.  So Steinmetz  could then "drive" down the road waving to his friends whilst a chauffeur drove it from the back seat.

Probably not what you're looking for but I hope this raises an occasional smile.

That is an amusing story. 

His connection with the automotive business exceeded the endorsement of electric vehicles, and the purchase of a Cadillac. But not by too much.

[fyreline]

I'm not finding anything that substantially adds to what has already been said. Good luck to others.

[streamliner]

Could it be that his electric car's motor was incorporated into the rear axle and he inadvertently therefore also invented the rear differential found on most subsequent cars???

[Otto Puzzell]

Could it be that his electric car's motor was incorporated into the rear axle and he inadvertently therefore also invented the rear differential found on most subsequent cars???

That's a good one too - but that's not the answer I'm after

[fyreline]

OK, here's yet another Steinmetz story that's auto industry related (just barely, so I hope it's NOT the answer):

Life magazine in 1965 printed this story on Steinmetz. Jack B. Scott wrote in to tell of his father’s encounter with the Wizard of Schenectady at Henry Ford’s River Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford, whose electrical engineers couldn’t solve some problems they were having with a gigantic generator, called Steinmetz in to the plant. Upon arriving, Steinmetz rejected all assistance and asked only for a notebook, pencil and cot. According to Scott, Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. On the second night, he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Ford’s skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. They did, and the generator performed to perfection. Henry Ford was thrilled until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. Ford acknowledged Steinmetz’s success but balked at the figure. He asked for an itemized bill. Steinmetz, Scott wrote, responded personally to Ford’s request with the following:

Making chalk mark on generator:        $1.
Knowing where to make the mark:      $9,999.

He also (briefly) had his own electric automobile company - Charles Steinmetz formed the Steinmetz Electric Motor Car Co. in 1920 to designed prototypes of several electric vehicles. The company was in Brooklyn, where it produced an industrial truck and a lightweight delivery car.

The first electrical Steinmetz truck hit the road in early 1922 by climbing a steep hill in Brooklyn as a publicity stunt. In October, the company claimed to have developed a five-passenger coupe.

Steinmetz planned for the company to turn out 1,000 trucks and 300 cars annually, but that was cut short by his death in 1923. The company folded shortly after Steinmetz's death when a lawsuit from a shareholder revealed that the company had misrepresented the number of cars being produced.

[Otto Puzzell]

He also (briefly) had his own electric automobile company - Charles Steinmetz formed the Steinmetz Electric Motor Car Co. in 1920 to designed prototypes of several electric vehicles. The company was in Brooklyn, where it produced an industrial truck and a lightweight delivery car.

Voilà - it was as simple as that

[D-type]

Whether apocryphal or not, I rather prefer the Ford story 

[fyreline]

Steinmetz was truly a Renaissance Man, as Otto alluded to in the opening question. He's well worth reading up on if you're unfamiliar with him and his work.  This one was a lot of fun.

And isn't that the point?