SCHENECTADY — A 1914 electric car once owned by General Electric's engineering wizard Charles P. Steinmetz is headed for this weekend's Union College commencement.
The aluminum-frame Detroit Electric sedan, which has 14 batteries, is capable of reaching 40 mph. On Tuesday morning, the operating car was practically silent — except for the screeching of its wheels — with Gene Davison, a technician at the college's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in the driver's seat.
"This car connects with our history and history of Charles Steinmetz," said John Spinelli, who accompanied Davison. Spinelli is associate professor and chair of the engineering department that Steinmetz founded at Union. "He believed in a liberal arts education for engineers (and) we still offer it today."
Steinmetz, a renowned General Electric inventor, helped Thomas Edison develop the company's alternating current system, which permitted long-distance transmission of electrical power. The car, which has rechargeable lead-acid batteries, was bought for Steinmetz in 1914. After his death in 1923, the vehicle was found in a field at a West Glenville farm. In the 1970s, it was restored at Union College. The car found a home in the '90s at the Saratoga Auto Museum and later was moved to a warehouse in Gloversville. In 2005, the vehicle was on display at the Edison Exploratorium, a Broadway gallery of GE memorabilia founded by John Harnden. There, the car was equipped with new batteries.
"We wanted it back into use for the community," Davison said.
The car will be on the road Sunday in a parade preceding the graduation and arrive on campus for the ceremonies.
Thurston Sack, president of the Exploratorium, thinks the car's appearance will spark enthusiasm in a city that once boomed with GE workers and business.
"People like Einstein … went to Steinmetz," said Sack. "He drew people to work around him and we're trying to wake up the genius of the city."
James Hedrick, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, hopes that Steinmetz's car at Sunday's graduation will inspire students by recognizing technological history.
"It is a full cycle," he said. "Everyone talks about electric cars as if it's a new idea, and it will be interesting for students to see this may be the way of the future and not just a way of the past."