查尔斯.斯坦因梅茨（Charles Steinmetz）是数学家，工程师和发明天才。 1883年，出生于美国缅因州费尔菲尔德的查尔斯.科芬创办了自己的鞋业制造公司。1892年4月，也就是爱迪生发明灯泡后的13年，爱迪生电气公司与汤姆森.休斯敦电气公司合并成为通用电气（以下简称GE）。当时合并后的通用电气已经拥有1万名员工和数千项专利，是一家庞大的超级公司。
就在科芬担任通用电气公司第一任董事长期间，他就完成了两项意义深远的创新：
一是创办了美国首家公司实验室——通用电气研究实验室，引进性格怪僻但才华横溢、极具发明天才的德国移民——查尔斯.斯坦因梅茨作为公司的研发人员。当时科芬的副手是发明天才伊莱修.汤姆森的学生、擅长生产管理的公司总裁艾德温.赖斯（Edwin Rice）。1892年通用电气成立之初，赖斯在阅读报告时发现了一个年轻的德国移民查尔斯.斯坦因梅茨，游说对方加盟失败后，他找到科芬，表示为了得到斯坦因梅茨，希望GE收购斯坦因梅茨所在的公司。于是，科芬不仅完成了这一并购，甚至协助赖斯建立了GE研究实验室，为性格怪僻的施坦因梅茨提供研究空间。1894年，斯坦因梅茨进入GE，并被聘任主持新成立的公司计算部门的工作。他主持了许多高度复杂的项目，包括在尼亚加拉瀑布上建立发电站等。斯坦因梅茨于1903年从GE退休，成为联合学院的教授，但一直担任GE的顾问。斯坦因梅茨拥有200多项专利。
斯坦因梅茨挺不容易的，身体不好（遗传），髋关节有问题，驼背，是个侏儒，身高1米4，于1923年10月26日去世，享年58岁。画个叉，一块钱。
知道在哪儿画，九百九十九。 这个故事已经成了都市传奇（Urban legend）。主角是斯坦因梅茨或Nikola Tesla，公司是GE或福特（FORD）。
有的说要价一万，有点扯了。那是一九零几年，一万可是个大数目, 等于今天的几十万～100万。
“斯坦因梅茨从GE退休后，于1902年在纽约的Union College教授电气工程。GE后来请他回去做顾问并修复一个非常复杂的故障系统，因为技术员们怎么也无法修复该系统。他跟踪系统的运行，找到了故障部分，然后用粉笔在上面做了标记。
斯坦因梅茨要求得到1万美元的报酬。GE的经理要求他列出具体的花销。他返回了下列花销：用粉笔标记：1 美元；知道在哪里标记：9999 美元。” 下面这个版本像那么回事，出问题的是个大发电机，要价一千也合理。
In the early years of this century, Steinmetz was brought to GE's facilities in Schenectady, New York. GE had encountered a performance problem with one of their huge electrical generators and had been absolutely unable to correct it. Steinmetz, a genius in his understanding of electromagnetic phenomena, was brought in as a consultant -- not a very common occurrence in those days, as it would be now.
Steinmetz also found the problem difficult to diagnose, but for some days he closeted himself with the generator, its engineering drawings, paper and pencil. At the end of this period, he emerged, confident that he knew how to correct the problem.
After he departed, GE's engineers found a large "X" marked with chalk on the side of the generator casing. There also was a note instructing them to cut the casing open at that location and remove so many turns of wire from the stator. The generator would then function properly.
他留了个字条，告诉他们在做记号处把发电机盖打开，然后减少定子绕组线圈匝数（就是少绕几圈，斯坦因梅茨给出了确定圈数），发电机就会正常运转。
And indeed it did.
Steinmetz was asked what his fee would be. Having no idea in the world what was appropriate, he replied with the absolutely unheard of answer that his fee was $1000.
Stunned, the GE bureaucracy then required him to submit a formally itemized invoice.
They soon received it. It included two items:
1. Marking chalk "X" on side of generator: $1.
2. Knowing where to mark chalk "X": $999.移民美国进关时，斯坦因梅茨遇到麻烦
Almost Turned Away
Charles Steinmetz immigrated to the United States in 1889, However, Steinmetz was almost turned away at Ellis Island because he was a dwarf and the immigration officers considered Steinmetz medically unfit. Luckily, a traveling companion vouched that Steinmetz was a rich mathematical genius.
移民官哪儿那么好唬的，他不相信斯坦因梅茨懂数学，决定出一个比较高深的问题考考斯坦因梅茨同学：二加二等于几？
斯坦因梅茨认真想了一会儿，然后小心翼翼地回答：4。
移民官这才放行。都是牛人啊
In their day, Steinmetz, Edison and Nikola Tesla were all famous, to the point of being household names.
就像当今的盖茨，乔布斯，咋个不哏（Mark Zuckerberg），Elon Musk（Nikola Tesla转世？）。老乡见老乡，两眼放光光
An April 23, 1921 photograph of Albert Einstein being given a tour of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) Brunswick New Jersey wireless station along with leading RCA scientist and officers as well as engineers and scientists from the General Electric Company, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and Western Electric Company.
第二排站在爱因斯坦和斯坦因梅茨中间的那位老兄长久以来被误认为是Nikola Tesla。Note: This picture has the popular culture attribution of being a depiction of Nikola Tesla standing in the second row between Einstein and Steinmetz. Tesla historian Marc Seifer identified the man as AT&T engineer John Renshaw Carson.[7] RCA News, Volume 2 By Radio Corporation of America (1921)[8], Capital District Library Council Digital Collections and RCA Engineer, Volume 17, RCA Research and Engineering, 1971 page 4 also identify the man between Einstein and Steinmetz as "John Carson".