“All creatures great and small; the Lord God made them all.”
The dispensation of human gifts and deficits seems to be the province of fate, chance, the odds of probability, kismet, and providence divine. Few of us are endowed with both great gifts and handicaps. When I researched Charles Steinmetz, it brought back memories from my career.
I remember visiting a special education classroom. One of the children, a young girl, was a hunchback, and had much extra hair growing from her arm. Her mental faculties were also gravely impaired. She was a little Pisces with a number of handicaps and no readily apparent corresponding gifts.
I had a student in my second-grade class whose mother gambled and who was killed in an auto accident. He had received little home support, yet on standardized tests which are notoriously difficult—I do not feel they really fairly judge students—he did surprisingly well. Fate had dealt him a poor hand, but yet the creator had given him high intelligence. He was a Scorpio.
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Charles Proteus Steinmetz
Charles Proteus Steinmetz, an Aries (April 9, 1865), stood only four feet tall and had dwarfism, hunchback, and hip displasia. He amazed his teachers in Germany with his ability in math and physics. He had both pronounced handicaps and a remarkable intellect. Coming under suspicion by the authorities for participating in a socialist group—Steinmetz had almost completed his doctorate—he fled first to Zurich; then he emigrated to the United States in 1889. (Wikipedia)
Charles began working for General Electric in 1893. “His experiments led to the law of hysteresis, which deals with power loss in electrical machinery when magnetic action is converted to usable heat; the constant he calculated (by age 27) has remained a part of electrical engineering vocabulary.” (Britannica)
Steinmetz also developed a simplified method of calculating alternating current phenomena. He studied short duration changes in electrical circuits. His theory of travelling waves led to the development of devices to protect transmission lines from lightning bolts. Steinmetz designed a generator and patented over 200 inventions. (Ibid)
Charles Steinmetz lived in Schenectady, New York. For fun he went hiking, canoeing, and experimented with photography with a group of bachelor engineers. Steinmetz became good friends with a lab assistant, Joseph Hayden. They developed the first magnetic arc lamp which later was used to light street corners. Hayden cooked for his boss and slept in a cot in his laboratory so he could nap during their long working hours. (“Charles Proteus Steinmetz: The Wizard of Schenectady,” by Gilbert King, Smithsonian Magazine, August 11, 2011)
When Hayden married, Steinmetz coaxed he and his wife to live with him in his large mansion. The arrangement worked well. Steinmetz treated the couple’s children as his own as a kind of surrogate grandfather. (Ibid)
Charles had a large greenhouse, and he filled it with orchids, fern, and cacti. He also collected reptiles and insects including alligators, rattlesnakes, and black widow spiders. (Ibid)
One time Guglielmo Marconi asked him about his Gila monster. “He’s dead, Steinmetz replied. “He was too lazy too eat.” (Ibid)
In 1921 Charles Steinmetz visited a vacation home he had built in Camp Mohawk. Lightning damaged the house and shattered a silver glass mirror. He put it back together and was convinced it showed the lightning’s path of discharge. He built a 120,000-volt lightning generator, and in front of an audience of reporters hurled bolts which partially decimated a model town. (Ibid)
Thomas A. Edison visited Steinmetz in 1922. He was old and almost entirely deaf. Steinmetz tapped out a message in Morse Code on Edison’s knee, and the two had a delightful conversation. (Ibid)
Steinmetz never married for he did not want to pass on his disabilities to his offspring. He passed away in 1923.
Charles Steinmetz Birth Chart
Charles Steinmetz, born on April 9, 1865, was an Aries with the Moon in Libra and Leo Rising. His Mercury was in deep thinking Taurus together with Pluto thus giving him skill in research and the ability to look very deeply into things.
Saturn at Libra 27 d was conjoined with the North Node of the Moon at Scorpio 0. With that aspect “your soul took on many lessons to learn…” The qualities of Saturn—persistence, structure, and consistency– were enhanced. (Astrology: A Stellar Tool for Self-Reflection, posted by Stargazer on June 22, 2020)
Those with the North Node in Scorpio are resilient and can arise above adversity. (“North Node in Astrology: Meaning and Traits” by Sonya Schwartz in Authority Astrology, October 25, 2023)
Steinmetz’s Black Moon Lilith was in Libra. This position indicates a fascination with relationships but for some reasons there are difficulties. (Cafe Astrology: Black Moon Lilith in the Natal Chart)
As might be expected, Charles’ Uranus was heavily aspected. It was trine Saturn. “Scientific work is favored.” Initiative and willpower are coupled with patience and caution. Powers of concentration are strengthened. (Parker, The New Complete Astrologer, p. 146) The square from Jupiter probably made him a bit restless. The Moon square gave Steinmetz talent and high intellectual ability. (Ibid, p. 138)