Steinmentz Electric Car Company

[Don Jr.]

Hi, I had dinner with a gentleman who's relative  financially backed the Steinmentz Electric Car company back in 1921. He knows very little of the history. Does anyone here in the forum have info or direct me where to where I might find info for him? Thank you.

[TerryB]

See this on eBay 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224420401939?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=RVPtqeQsRKO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

 

[TerryB]

Another

https://scripophily.net/steinmetz-electric-motor-car-corporation-1921-early-electric-car-company/

[Don Jr.]

Thank You. I saw the Stock certificate but not the other paperwork. The financial man's name was Charles Mathew. Assume he lived around Schenectady area but will check on this. Wonder if any of the electric trucks or cars survive today? I had the great fortune to help restore parts of Steinmentz's Detroit Electric when Union College undertook the project. I remember the car sitting almost abandoned in a field just off the road as a kid. No one cared about it back then. A team and myself restored the running boards, tail light, headlights and the carriage lights on it. Very talented folks I worked with back then for a major corporation. Will pass this info along. Thanks for the reply.

[1937hd45]

There was a Steinmetz Spark Plug, don't know if he manufactured it or just sold his name to it. Bob 

[Don Jr.]

Will check on it. Gentleman I am inquiring for has little to go on except his grandfather was involved in this. I would ride my bike down to Steinmentz's home on Wendell Ave. in Schenectady as a kid in the  late 1950's and sit on a bench where the house stood and try to visualize where the lab was attached to the house back then. My understanding is the house was left to the local hospital. It was used from about 1923 for 15 years for training nurses but went to rack and ruin so it was demolished post war period. As I got older myself and a local historian would travel to the site to cut the lawn as it was neglected and nobody cared. It is now kept up by the city. Thanks.

[bryankazmer]

I was also a kid in Sch'dy - his name is "Steinmetz," no second "n."  We knew where the iron fence around Union College was bent so our skinny selves could sneak into football games without paying.

[alsancle]

This sort of reminds me of some of the steam car ventures of the 1920s that were basically stock swindles,  including Doble.

It is unclear how often the founders understood what they were getting involved with in regards to the stock offerings.

[alsancle]

[Rusty_OToole]

I don't know about the car or truck but Charles Steinmetz was acknowledged a scientific and mathematical genius. In the early days of electrical invention they could design an electric motor but never knew until they tried it, whether it would work or not. Some worked great, others worked very poorly and no one understood why.

 

Steinmetz figured out how to calculate all the parameters mathematically. His first calculations covered 5 or 6 pages for one motor. Then he invented a new system of mathematics that allowed him to do all the calculations on half a page.

 

He seems to be forgotten today but at one time was as esteemed as Tesla in his own field.