Charles Steinmetz, the electrical wizard of the General Electric Company, who died in 1923, was an inveterate smoker. When a notice forbidding smoking was posted in the General Electric plant, he ignored it until an executive asked if he was aware of the rule.
The next day Steinmetz did not show up, and for two days no one heard from him, while important work remained untouched. Then began a serious search, which ended in the lobby of a Buffalo hotel where he was found sitting at ease in a huge chair and puffing a cigar.
Told that the whole company was looking for him, and asked why he had left so unceremoniously, he calmly replied, "I came up here to have a smoke." After that the smoking rule was never applied to him.
查爾斯．施泰因梅茨是美國通用電器公司的電工奇才，一九二三年去世。他嗜好吸煙，不可救藥。通用電器工廠曾貼出禁煙告示，他卻全然不理。終於，有行政人員問他知不知道這禁煙規例。
第二天，施泰因梅茨沒有上班。其後兩天，音訊無全，工廠的要務遂告停頓。同事連忙四出尋訪，最後在水牛城一家旅館的大廳找到他。他當時正安坐巨型椅子上，在吸雪茄。
同事說全公司都在找他，問他為什麼猝然離去。他從從容容回答說：「我要吸口煙，就到這裏來。」從此，禁煙規例對他網開一面。