THE IMPORTANCE OF EVERYONE! A PLUMBER, ELECTRICIAN AND DR. STEINMETZ!

THE IMPORTANCE OF EVERYONE – A PLUMBER, ELECTRICIAN AND DR. STEINMETZ!

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© December 18, 2009

Over the weekend, our electrical heating and air conditioning system went out. At the same time, our hot water heater went on the blink. We were experiencing a mild cold wave in Florida and were not used to being unable to take a shower, use our electrical dishwasher or even to wash our hands in hot water.

Not being handy, we have what is called “Home Shield,” which provides such services at a hefty quarterly cost, which we have been paying for nearly twenty-two years, or since we returned from Europe and made this our home.

There are two things I have learned:

(1) The things that I can do well, and

(2) The things that I cannot do at all.

In my long life, I’ve never crossed that barrier so I have saved myself the embarrassment of having to pay for the damages I caused because I tried to do something myself of which I lacked the expertise.

So, today I had an electrician and a plumber come to my house, sort out my problems and with due diligence enjoy watching them solve them with panache.

The electrician had only to check the reset button in the air conditioner, and voila, heat and cool air were back.

The plumber had only to drain the water heater and replace the heating coil, and voila, hot water returned.

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The speed, agility and modesty with which these two men did their jobs reminded me of a personal favorite of mine, the irascible and cocky German-American mathematician and electrical engineer, Charles Proteus Steinmetz (April 9., 1865 – October 26, 1923), who one day found himself consulting for General Electric.

The system electrical generators were down and GE was losing money, and quickly brought Steinmetz in to solve the problem.

He examined the machines, checked them with his instruments, and then asked for a rubber hammer. He gently ran his hand over the steel skin of the cylinder, marked it with a chalk, and then gave it a single blow at that spot. The system came alive the generators kicked in and operations resumed.

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Later, the Director of Operations received a consulting fee from Dr. Steinmetz for $10,000. The director contacted the consultant and said, “Your fee of $10,000 seems extravagant. Five people have to sign off on this type of request and so I will need an itemized bill describing your services.” Dr. Steinmetz said that would be no problem. Here was the itemization of his charges:

$1.00 for hitting the system with a hammer.

$9,999.00 for knowing where to place the blow.

This was reported a number of years ago in The Reader’s Digest. Steinmetz, who had more than 200 patents to his name, suffered the ignominy of dwarfism and being a hunchback. He made his mind that of a super cerebral athlete. Indeed, much of General Electric’s rise to prominence is accredited to Dr. Steinmetz's inventions in the area of artificial lighting.


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I told this story to the electrician and the plumber citing how important they were in their special knowledge, as Steinmetz was with his. We need electrical engineers, but we also need plumbers and electricians as well, and none more than the other, but all equally the same.

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