In Schenectady, Steinmetz used his budding reputation as an “electrical genius” to build the G.E. team.

“Steinmetz recruited a number of really talented people to the company. And I would say in the long run that was his greatest contribution to General Electric. Names that most people don’t know, but names that some people do, like Alexanderson for example. He was attracted to the idea of working for General Electric originally by the mystique of Steinmetz.

Among those people hired were the Berg brothers, first Ernst Berg and then his younger brother Eskel. The Berg brothers and Steinmetz came to Schenectady not long after Rice came in 1894.”

Julia Kirk Blackwelder