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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

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