Jan. 29, 1895: Electrifying!

By Randy Alfred
01.29.09

1895: Charles Proteus Steinmetz receives a patent for a "system of distribution by alternating currents." His engineering work makes it practical to build a widespread power grid for use in lighting and machinery alike.

Steinmetz was born Carl August Rudolph Steinmetz in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) on April 9, 1865 (the day Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox to end the U.S. Civil War). While a university student, he wrote for a socialist newspaper and had to flee Germany in 1888 during an anti-radical crackdown. After a stop in Switzerland, he arrived in the United States in 1889.

Rudolph Eickenmeyer hired the young engineer to work on a project to run streetcars on alternating current. Steinmetz wanted to minimize the power loss, or hysteresis, caused by the reversing magnetic fields of AC circuits. the rest