A PRACTICAL SCIENTIST

When a man of genius dies, the world not only regrets the man, but selfishly perhaps, regrets the unborn brain-children which his genius would certainly have brought forth. In Dr. Steinmetz's death, humanity, not merely engineering or science, has suffered a tremendous loss. For eventful as his life has been, his potentialities were limitless, and until the last moment he was engaged in investigations of the utmost value.

Rarely has such thorough-going scientific knowledge been coupled with such facilty of practical application. The inexpertness of the men of so-called "pure science" in making the fruits of their labor useful to civilization has resulted in parallel, but until very recently, widely separated growths of Industry and Science; and even now the engineer, who is supposed to bridge the gap, reaches from the side Industry only part way to the edges of Science. It is true that "practical" men have traditionally, at least, scorned the aid of the theorists, for being practical, they had to be shown. And if the theorists did not effect any kind of union with commerce, it was either because they could not demonstrate their theories convincingly or because they failed to grasp the importance, and shrank from wordly contact into the congenial company of their fellows. The slogan of modern engineering--"If it's not practical, it's not good theory" is comparatively recent, and no one has put it more into practice than Dr. Steinmetz.

All of the modern development, of course, is not due to him; but it was during his lifetime that great manufacturing companies began to organize research departments, laboratories of the finest kind, and consulting staffs of scientific men. As everyone knows, he was the first consulting engineer of the General Electric Company, and developed its first consulting body; and under his hands their grew up at Schenectady one of the best electircal laboratories in the world. Once shown the possibilities of science, the commercial world has not been slow; but it had to be shown. Among the first of those who could really prove that an investment in scientific knowledge brought substantial returns was Dr. Steinmetz; that alone makes him one of the immortals.