NLMK Group

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