NLMK Group
NLMK Group
NLMK Group
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Panorama GREAT INVENTORS 33<br />
Inside one of the largest<br />
pavilions at the<br />
International<br />
Electrical Exhibition in<br />
Frankfurt. 1891<br />
it to the group of ‘young hopefuls<br />
of the Prussian military school’.<br />
In 1838 he graduated with a rank<br />
of junior officer and splendid<br />
knowledge of physics, mathematics,<br />
chemistry and expectations of a<br />
brilliant career. But these dreams<br />
soon fell apart with the death of<br />
Werner’s parents. What could a<br />
junior officer do without any money<br />
and a bunch of younger siblings<br />
to take care of? Siemens, however,<br />
was convinced that the family was<br />
most important, and did his best to<br />
provide his relatives with a decent<br />
life and good education. And in<br />
time he was proven right.<br />
The next several years were spent<br />
by Siemens serving in the army,<br />
while also attempting to become<br />
an inventor, as he spent his spare<br />
time designing various devices. His<br />
military career provided a small but<br />
stable income and his pastime gave<br />
him hope that someday, using his<br />
technical abilities, he would break<br />
free from his almost miserable life<br />
in the garrison. Eventually, it did<br />
happen.<br />
Siemens was sent to military<br />
prison for seconding a duel. Here<br />
he engaged in research and was<br />
able to replicate the experiment of<br />
the Russian researcher B. Jacobi<br />
for galvanic application of gold and<br />
silver to surfaces. Because Siemens<br />
invented his own galvanizing<br />
machine, once released from prison,<br />
he was able to obtain a patent for<br />
it, and his brother Wilhelm sold<br />
it to the British in 1843 for 1,500<br />
pounds, which was a windfall.<br />
But it was still some time before<br />
Siemens became really successful<br />
having focused on the telegraph.<br />
In the 1840s Prussia and other<br />
German states continued to rely on<br />
the optical telegraph as the main<br />
means of fast communication over<br />
long distances. Its key disadvantage<br />
was that it depended heavily on the<br />
weather. Researchers and inventors<br />
around the world, including<br />
Siemens, were eagerly looking for a<br />
The Elektromote<br />
designed by Werner von<br />
Siemens was the world’s<br />
first trolleybus