Ernst Werner von Siemens
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Ernst Werner von Siemens (known as Werner von Siemens) (December 13, 1816 – December 6, 1892) was a German inventor and industrialist.
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Biography
Werner Siemens was born in Lenthe, near Hanover, Germany; the fourth child (of fourteen) of a tenant farmer. He left school without finishing his education, but joined the army to undertake training in engineering.
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 October 1, 1847, with the company taking occupation of its workshop on October 12.
Soon after its founding the company internationalised. 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.
The company, reorganized as Siemens & Halske AG, Siemens-Schuckertwerke and – since 1966 – Siemens AG has later been led by his brothers, his three 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.
Apart form 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. On December 14, 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. Template:Ref 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 April 29, 1882.
Siemens' name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens.
Patents
- Template:US patent -- Electric meter
External links
- Corporate biography
- Werner von Siemens.com Telecom Pioneers by Phonebook of the World
- Loudspeaker History
References
- Template:Note Ed. M. D. Fagen, "A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: The Early Years", Bell Laboratories, 1975, P. 183.
Further reading
- 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.cs:Ernst Werner von Siemens
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