20
1, FEBRUARY 2014
Dissemination of the Phasor Method in Electrical
Engineering in China
Liangliang Zhang and Yinzhao Lei
AbstractSynchrophasors, widely used in the monitoring and
analysis of power systems, evolved from the phasor method pre-
sented by Charles Proteus Steinmetz in 1893. The phasor method
is a mathematical method for solving linear sinusoidal steady-state
circuits and time-varying electromagnetic fields. This paper traces
the history and diffusion of the phasor method in the discipline
of electrical engineering in China. In 1914, Sidney Roby Sheldon,
an American teacher at the Government Institute of Technology
of the Communications Ministry, Shanghai, China, introduced the
phasor method to his students in his Alternating Currents course.
The textbook used was Elements of Electrical Engineering (Volume
II) by William Suddards Franklin and William Esty. In 1920, The
Electrical Magazine published a paper Complex number and its
application by Sijiu Shi (editor of the electrical engineering sec-
tion of this periodical). This is the earliest example found of Chi-
nese literature introducing the phasor method. In the 1930s, Prin-
ciples of Alternating Currents, an American electrical engineering
textbook that includes the phasor method, was translated by Chi-
nese scholars; this Chinese version promoted the use of the phasor
method in Chinas electrical engineering field. Alternating Current
Circuits, authored by the Chinese university professor Pen Tung
Sah and published in 1948, may be the earliest example of the
phasor method being included in a Chinese electrical engineering
textbook; it played an important role in popularizing the phasor
method in China.
Index TermsAlternating current (ac) circuit, China, complex
numbers, diffusion, electrical engineering, history of electrical
engineering, phasor method.
I. INTRODUCTION
S YNCHROPHASORS, or synchronized phasor measure-
ments, provide a way to synchronize real-time phasor
measurements. They are now widely used for real-time power
system dynamic monitoring, state estimation of power sys-
tems, and fault location in transmission systems. They evolved
from the phasor method presented in August 1893 by the
German-born American electrical engineer Charles Proteus
Steinmetz (18651923) [1], [2]. Steinmetzs work simplified
solving alternating current (ac) circuits, accelerated the devel-
opment of electric circuit theory, played a decisive role in the
popularization of ac technology during the 1880s1890s, and
Manuscript received September 23, 2012; revised April 04, 2013; accepted
May 02, 2013. Date of publication May 27, 2013; date of current version January
30, 2014. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of
China under Grant 51077002.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Beihang Uni-
versity, Beijing 100191, China (e-mail: nucmath@126.com; railightning@yeah.
net).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TE.2013.2262686
0018-9359 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 57, NO.
promoted the commercialization of ac equipment. Yet, who
introduced the phasor method to China, and how? And then how
was it subsequently popularized? Little research has gone into
answering these questions; such research would enrich Chinese
electrical engineering history, provide an understanding of how
Western electrical engineering and science was introduced to
China in the early 20th century, and offer a deeper insight into
Sino-American technological and cultural exchanges during
the Late Qing Dynasty (18511911) and the Republic of China
(19121949).
II. INTRODUCTION OF THE PHASOR METHOD TO CHINA
The Late Qing Dynasty Periodical Full-text Database [3] and
the Dacheng Old Periodical Full-text Database [4] that cover
much literature published between 18931911 were searched
for references to the phasor method, as were Chinese books on
electrical technology published from 18931911, among them
Electrical Overview [5], Summary of Electricity [6], and Elec-
trical Measurements and Calculations [7]. No mention of the
phasor method was found, so it can be inferred that it was not
included in periodicals and books published in the Late Qing
Dynasty.
Missionaries played an important role in bringing Western
scientific and technological knowledge to China, and most of
the introduction of general science knowledge is due to them.
However, since expertise is generally promulgated at the uni-
versity level, investigating Late Qing Dynasty colleges that had
Electrical Machines departments, and in particular those depart-
ments teachers and their teaching materials, will reveal how
and when the phasor method was introduced to China. The re-
sults of this are given in this paper.
A. Chinese Students Access to the Phasor Method in 1914
The Capital Imperial Polytechnic College was founded in
1904 and established the Department of Electrical Machines in
1907 [8][10]. Subsequently, it was taken over by the School of
Engineering of Peking University in 1947 and classified into Ts-
inghua University in the Chinas departmental reorganization in
1952. Research was conducted on the teachers and the teaching
materials they used in this early period when the Department of
Electrical Machines was first established [8], [9], [11][16]. In-
formation relevant to the phasor method has yet to be found in
this material.
The Shanghai Industrial College of the Ministry of Posts and
Telegraphs (SICMPT) was the predecessor of todays Shanghai
Jiao Tong University and Xian Jiaotong University, called Nan
ZHANG AND LEI: DISSEMINATION OF PHASOR METHOD IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING IN CHINA
Fig. 1. 1914 three-year curriculum of the Department of Electrical Machinery
(source: Shanghai Jiao Tong University Archives).
Fig. 2. Subject-matter content and textbook for the Alternating Currents course
(source: Shanghai Jiao Tong University Archives).
Yang College in the period 19111912, and renamed the Gov-
ernment Institute of Technology of the Communications Min-
istry (GITCM) in 1912. In 1908, SICMPT established a Depart-
ment of Electrical Machines with a three-year academic system.
The Colleges regulations recorded in 1908, 1911, and 1913
listed the courses designed for students of electrical engineering,
but without specifying the teaching materials for each course.
There is thus no way to know if students were taught the phasor
method or not.
The Government Institute of Technology Catalogue, pub-
lished in 1914 in English, provided the curriculum, shown in
Fig. 1, of GITCMs Department of Electrical Machinery (the
name used from 19121921). Under the heading Outlines
of the Course, the Catalogue gave the main content and
textbooks for each course.
It can be seen from Fig. 1 that the Department of Electrical
Machinery offered 36 courses over three years, among them the
Alternating Currents course, taught for 4 h per week in the first
and second terms of the senior year. Fig. 2 shows the subject-
matter content and textbook for this course.
The date of publication of the textbook Elements of Electrical
Engineering (Volume II) by Franklin and Esty is not listed in the
Catalogue, but a copy in the Xian Jiaotong University Library
shows it was published in 1911. The seal on the title page of
the textbook, shown in Fig. 3, indicates that it was purchased
21
Fig. 3. Title page of Elements of Electrical Engineering (source: Xian Jiao-
tong University Library).
by Nan Yang Collegehence in 1911 or 1912, soon after it
was published in America by Macmillan & Co. It follows that
this college used relatively new teaching material for the Al-
ternating Currents course. This book, also used at the time by
Electrical Engineering departments at some American univer-
sities, mainly dealt with the topic of alternating currents. The
authors were both at Lehigh University, with William Suddards
Franklin (18631930) being a professor of physics and William
Esty (18681928) being a professor of electrical engineering.
This textbook has 16 chapters and 422 pages. The phasor
method appears in Chapter 5, The Use of Complex Quan-
tity [17]. The Alternating Currents course outline given in
the Catalogue lists ac theory among its contents, and the
phasor method was included under ac theory. Thus in 1914,
third-year GITCM students in the Department of Electrical
Machinery were taught the phasor method in this course, from
this textbook.
B. Sidney Roby Sheldons Introduction of the Phasor Method
to Chinese Students
In the early period of the GITCMs Department of Electrical
Machinery, the specialized sophomore- and senior-year courses
such as Direct Current, Direct Current Laboratory, Alternating
22
Fig. 4. Sidney Roby Sheldon (18731959) (source: [20]).
Currents, Alternating Current Laboratory, and Electrical Ma-
chine Design were all taught by foreign teachers. At the time,
these were the Americans Sidney Roby Sheldon (18731959)
and Herbert Brooks Sanford (18821972). In 1914, courses
such as Direct Current Laboratory and Electrical Machine
Design were mainly taught by Sanford, and the Alternating
Currents course was taught by Sheldon. It follows that it was
Sheldon who taught the phasor method to GITCM students in
1914.
Sidney Roby Sheldon (Fig. 4) was an 1894 graduate of the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA, receiving a Bach-
elor of Science degree in electrical engineering. He worked with
Diamond Electric Manufacturing Co., Peoria, IL, USA, from
1896 to 1897 and was an instructor in electrical engineering at
Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA, from 1898 to 1899. He
then worked at Wagner Electric Co., St. Louis, MO, USA, from
1900 to 1901 and at Western Electric Co., Chicago, IL, USA,
in 1902 before becoming a professor of mechanical and elec-
trical engineering at the University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA,
where he stayed from 1902 to 1910 [18]. In August 1910, he was
employed to teach in the Department of Electrical Machines
at the SICMPT, where he was appointed as department head.
In August 1927, he returned to America, moving to Seattle,
WA. During his 17 years with the Department of Electrical Ma-
chines at SICMPT, he laid a solid foundation for the depart-
ment. His important contributions to Chinas higher education
in electrical engineering were recognized by his being awarded
the Order of the Precious Brilliant Golden Grain (fifth class
in 1914 and fourth class in 1919 successively) by the Beiyang
Government [19].
III. POPULARIZATION OF THE PHASOR METHOD IN CHINA
A. US-Trained Chinese Students Teach the Phasor Method
In the 1920s, when American teachers such as G. Thompson
(18881974) and Sidney Roby Sheldon left Nan Yang Univer-
sity of the Communications Ministry (formerly the SICMPT)
in succession, American-trained Chinese students took over as
faculty members teaching the Alternating Currents course [21]
andby extensionthe phasor method. Among these were
Duanxing Hu (18881946), who received a Masters degree
in electrical engineering from The Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH, USA, and Chongzhi Wang (18971958), who
obtained a Masters degree in science from the Department
of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, in 1922. They began by
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 57, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2014
Fig. 5. Introduction of the paper Complex Number and Its Application.
using original English textbooks and teaching in English. Then,
they gradually began to use Chinese teaching materials that
they wrote themselves, using the original English textbooks as
reference books. Furthermore, they taught both in English and
in Chinese, thus making the language transition for the phasor
method.
B. First Appearance of the Phasor Method in Chinese
Literature
In 1920, Sijiu Shi, editor of the electrical engineering sec-
tion of The Electrical Magazine, published the paper Complex
Number and Its Application, which appeared in the first three
issues of this periodical [22][24], as shown in Fig. 5. This is
the earliest reference found to the phasor method in the Chinese
literature. This paper pointed out that the symbolic method (i.e.,
the phasor method) opened a new era in solving ac circuits and
demonstrated how to solve ac circuits by using complex num-
bers.
C. Chinese Translation Promoted the Diffusion of the Phasor
Method
Yuanpei Cai (18681940), president of the Academia Sinica,
published the paper On Nationalized Text-book [25] in Shen
Bao on April 27, 1931. In this paper, he advocated for Chi-
nese-written textbooks and recommended that Chinese univer-
sities should be using Chinese-written textbooks as soon as pos-
sible. Other Chinese scholars also criticized the practice of using
English textbooks in Chinese universities and encouraged Chi-
nese scholars to write textbooks in Chinese. They argued, It
is not good that Chinese teachers teach Chinese students using
foreign textbooks continually and sometimes even lecturing in
English. Chinese academics will never be independent and our
nation will be in peril if this continues [26]. Therefore, during
the 1930s, some Chinese scholars began to translate American
or European electrical engineering teaching materials into Chi-
nese. Among these is the Chinese translation of Principles of
Alternating Currents, which included the phasor method. This
was translated from 1930 on by the junior class of the Depart-
ment of Electrical Engineering at National Zhejiang University,
who graduated in 1932 [27]. The English textbook Principles
of Alternating Currents, written by Ralph Restieaux Lawrence
(18731962), associate professor of electrical engineering at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was in general use in the
1930s as the textbook for ac circuits courses in Electrical En-
gineering departments at Chinese universities such as National
ZHANG AND LEI: DISSEMINATION OF PHASOR METHOD IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING IN CHINA 23

Chiao Tung University, National Tsinghua University, National

Zhejiang University, and National Pei Yang University. In 1933,
Hankai Zhuang, an alumnus of the Department of Electrical En-
gineering at Zhejiang University who worked in the Electric
Company of JinPu Railway in the Pukou District of Nanking,
learned that a Chinese translation of Principles of Alternating
Currents had been finished and originally scheduled for publi-
cation in the winter of 1932 by the Commercial Press. How-
ever, this publication plan was disrupted when the press was
almost entirely destroyed by the Japanese army on January 28,
1932 [28]. When the Chinese translation of Principles of Alter-
nating Currents was published somewhat later, it became the
textbook used for ac circuits courses by electrical engineering
departments in most Chinese universities and promoted the dif-
fusion of the phasor method in China.

D. Earliest Chinese Teaching Material to Include the Phasor

Method
Apart from translating foreign electrical engineering teaching
materials, some Chinese scholars began to write Chinese
teaching materials by drawing on textbooks written by Amer-
ican scholars. Of these, Alternating Current Circuits [29],
published in March 1948 and written by Pen Tung Sah
(19021949), an electrical engineer who studied and lectured
in America before returning to China, was the earliest example
found to date of Chinese electrical engineering teaching mate-
rial that includes the phasor method; its title page is shown in
Fig. 6.
The preface of Alternating Current Circuits remarked, Com-
plex quantities have been widely used in AC circuit and are Fig. 6. Title page of Alternating Current Circuits by Pen Tung Sah.
a glory of theoretical mathematics. Most electrical engineers
know how to calculate complex quantities, but probably do not
original English textbook Elements of Electrical Engineering
fully understand the relationship between complex quantities
(Vol. II), to using a Chinese translation of the American textbook
and AC circuits. Instead of analyzing the circuit by using vec-
Principles of Alternating Currents, and then to using the Chi-
tors, this book uses the method of representing AC potential,
nese-written textbook Alternating Current Circuits; from em-
alternating current, and AC power (particularly the latter) by
ploying foreign teachers, to employing American-educated Chi-
complex quantities. The method used in this book is different
nese teachers, to employing Chinese teachers educated in China;
from previous books, and the reader must pay attention to this
and from teaching in English, to teaching in Chinese and Eng-
point.
lish, and then to teaching exclusively in Chinese.
Alternating Current Circuits was primarily intended to meet
the needs of third-year electrical engineering undergraduate stu- ACKNOWLEDGMENT
dents. Selected as a university textbook by the Ministry of Ed-
ucation, it became the standard textbook for ac circuits courses The authors would like to thank Dr. Q. Ou, a professor with
at most Chinese universities. In manuscript form, it was used the University History Research Office, Shanghai Jiao Tong
as a handout in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Xi- University, for providing The Government Institute Technology
amen University in 1946, and in March 1948 it was formally Catalogue published in 1914.
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Liangliang Zhang was born in Shanxi Province, China, in 1978. She received
the B.S. degree in mathematics from Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China, in
2002, and the M.S. degree in mathematics from the Nanjing University of Aero-
nautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China, in 2008, and is currently pursuing the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at Beihang University, Beijing, China.
Her main research interest is the history of electrical engineering in China.
Yinzhao Lei was born in Henan Province, China, in 1956. He received the B.S.
degree from the Zhengzhou University of Technology, Zhengzhou, China, in
1981, the M.S. degree from Xian Jiaotong University, Xian, China, in 1989,
and the Ph.D. degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1995, all in
electrical engineering.
He is currently a Professor of electrical engineering with Beihang University,
Beijing, China. His research interests include electromagnetic theory and its
applications, electromagnetic compatibility analysis of complex systems, non-
destructive testing by electromagnetic methods, and the history of electrical en-
gineering in China.