Ernst Werner von Siemens
| Werner von Siemens | |
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| Born | 13 December 1816 Lenthe, Germany |
| Died | 6 December 1892 (aged 75) |
| Fields | Inventor |
Ernst Werner von Siemens (known as Werner von Siemens) (13 December 1816 – 6 December 1892) was a German inventor and industrialist. Siemens' name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens. He was also the founder of the electrical and telecommunications company Siemens.
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Biography
Early years
Werner Siemens was born in Lenthe, today part of Gehrden, near Hannover, Germany, the fourth child (of fourteen) of a tenant farmer. He is a brother of Carl Heinrich von Siemens and Carl Wilhelm Siemens, sons of Christian Ferdinand Siemens (31 July 1787 - 16 January 1840) and wife Eleonore Deichmann (1792 - 8 July 1839). They had two more brothers, Hans Siemens (1818-1867) and Friedrich August Siemens (8 December 1828 - 24 May 1904), married and father to Friedrich Carl Siemens (6 January 1877 - 25 June 1952 in Berlin), married on 22 May 1920 in Berlin to Melanie Bertha Gräfin Yorck von Wartenburg (1 February 1899 in Klein Oels - 15 May 1950 in Berlin) (the parents of Heinrich Werner Andreas Siemens (born 28 September 1921, Annabel Siemens (born 3 May 1923), Daniela Siemens (born 31 July 1926) and Peter Siemens (born 8 November 1928).
Middle years
Siemens left school without finishing his education, but joined the army to undertake training in engineering. His training helped him tremendously. Siemens was thought of as a good soldier, as he received various medals for his services. Upon returning home from war, he put his mind to other uses. He is known world-wide for his advances in various technologies, and chose to work on perfecting technologies that have already been established. Siemens invented a telegraph that used a needle to point to the right letter, instead of using Morse code. Based on this invention, he founded the company Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske on 1 October 1847, with the company taking occupation of its workshop on 12 October.
The company was internationalised soon after its founding. One brother of Werner represented him in England (Sir William Siemens) and another in St.Petersburg, Russia (Carl von Siemens), each earning separate recognition in their own right. Following his industrial career, he was ennobled in 1888, becoming Werner von Siemens. He retired from his company in 1890 and died in 1892 in Berlin.
The company, reorganized as Siemens & Halske AG, Siemens-Schuckertwerke and – since 1966 – Siemens AG was later led by his brothers, his four sons Arnold, Wilhelm, and Carl Friedrich and his nephews Hermann, Ernst and Peter von Siemens. Siemens AG is still one of the largest electrotechnological firms of the world.
Later years
Apart from the pointer telegraph Siemens made several contributions to the development of electrical engineering and is therefore known as the founding father of the discipline in Germany. He built the world's first electric elevator in 1880[1]. His company produced the tubes with which Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen investigated x-rays. He claimed invention of the dynamo although others invented it earlier. On 14 December 1877 he received German patent No. 2355 for an electromechanical "dynamic" or moving-coil transducer, which was adapted by A. L. Thuras and E. C. Wente for the Bell System in the late 1920s for use as a loudspeaker.[2] Wente's adaptation was issued US patent 1,707,545 in 1929. Siemens is also the father of the trolleybus which he initially tried and tested with his "Elektromote" on 29 April 1882.
Personal life
He married twice, first in 1852 to Mathilde Duman (died 1 July 1867) and second in 1869 to his relative Antonie Siemens (1840 - 1900). Children from first marriage were Arnold von Siemens and Georg Wilhelm von Siemens. Children from second marriage were Hertha von Siemens (1870 - 5 January 1939), married in 1899 to Carl Dietrich Harries, and Carl Friedrich von Siemens.
Patents
- U.S. Patent 415,577 — Electric meter (19 November 1889)
- U.S. Patent 428,290 — Electric meter (20 May 1890)
- U.S. Patent 520,274 — Electric railway (22 May 1894)
- U.S. Patent 601,068 — Method of and apparatus for extracting gold from its ores (22 March 1898)
See also
- de:Werner von Siemens more in-depth than English version
- Friedrich von Hefner-Alteneck One of Siemens's aides
- Werner-von-Siemens-Ring
References
- ↑ The History of the Elevator - Elisha Otis
- ↑ Ed. M. D. Fagen, "A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: The Early Years", Bell Laboratories, 1975, P. 183.
External links
- Biography, Siemens Corporate Archives
- WernervonSiemens.com — Telecom Pioneers by Phonebook of the World
- Loudspeaker History (U. of San Diego)
- Short biography and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Further reading
- Werner von Siemens, Lebenserinnerungen, Berlin, 1892 (reprinted as Mein Leben, Zeulenroda, 1939).
- Werner von Siemens, Scientific & Technical Papers of Werner von Siemens. Vol. 1: Scientific Papers and Addresses, London, 1892; Vol. 2: Technical Papers, London, 1895.
- Sigfrid von Weiher, Werner von Siemens, A Life in the Service of Science, Technology and Industry, Göttingen, 1975.
- Wilfried Feldenkirchen, Werner von Siemens, Inventor and International Entrepreneur. Columbus, Ohio, 1994.
- Wilfried Feldenkirchen / Eberhard Posner, The Siemens Entrepreneurs, Continuity and Change, 1847–2005, Ten Portraits, Munich, 2005.
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