Dec. 27, 1888] 



NATURE 



195 



The compilation of a biography is almost proverbially 

 difficult. To give a true and unbiased account of a life 

 that has passed away, to show the fnan as he was and as 

 he ought to be known, requires at all times delicacy, and 

 tact, and peculiar ability in the writer to enter into the 

 spirit of the life. The biography of a scientific man and 

 of a great public character requires special gifts besides. 

 But when the friend, the public man, has but recently 

 stood among us, the difficulty is greatly enhanced. To 

 hold the middle course between disclosing too much and 

 too little ; to avoid entering into particulars which might 

 prove offensive to friends, or injurious to the material 

 interests of those who are left to carry on the work of him 

 who is gone, and yet to make the biography something 

 more than a mere lifeless catalogue of events and under- 

 takings, of successes and failures — to do this is difficult 

 under any circumstances, almost impossible except after 

 the lapse of many years. 



We cannot feel that Mr. Pole's efforts have been 

 crow'ned with entire success. Undoubtedly he has not 

 erred on the side of indelicately disclosing what should 

 not be made public. But above all things Siemens was 

 sociable and friendly, domestic and hospitable, and ready 

 to throw himself into the concerns of others, whether 

 personal or scientific. This man, always kindly, always 

 lovable, we find too little of in the biography now 

 before us. 



We cannot think that the form of writing which Mr. 

 Pole has adopted is happy or advantageous. Chapter 

 III., which gives an account of Siemens's school and 

 college days, will probably be found, by general readers 

 the most interesting part of the book. This is simply on 

 account of the continuity in its style. The remaining 

 chapters are divided into short sections, each with a 

 separate heading in capitals or italics— like an American 

 newspaper. Each one of these little sections gives an 

 account of the progress of some invention during two or 

 three years perhaps. The story then breaks off, and 

 another invention is put before the reader. At the end 

 of the chapter comes a short paragraph headed Dofn:sttc 

 Life. Then the round recommences. Two or three 

 hundred pages of these paragraphs leave the mind in a 

 state of perfect bewilderment. We admit the difficulty 

 of giving a continuous and interesting account of the life 

 of this many-sided man ; but we do not think it has been 

 lessened by this method of treatment. 



The letters also which are printed, with the excep- 

 tion of those from Dr. Werner von Siemens, the Berlin 

 brother, are very disappointing. The remainder — from 

 the Shah and other Princes, and from Ambassadors and 

 secretaries of great men— are absolutely without interest. 

 The same must be said of the pages of little obituary 

 notices, many of them three lines long, from the morning 

 and weekly newspapers. 



Turning to the subject of the biography, our task is 

 more congenial. A very chequered life lies before us^ 

 so far as anxiety and happiness are concerned — grea. 

 failures, great successes, difficulties which to most men 

 would have proved insuperable, enthusiastic determina- 

 tion and indomitable courage in this man which overcame 

 them all, a life-long struggle steadily growing to remarkable 

 success. 



To those who knew Sir William Siemens onlv as the 



successful engineer of Palace Houses or the hospitable 

 owner of Sherwood, as President of the British Associa- 

 tion or of the Society of Telegraph-Engineers, it is in- 

 structive and interesting to trace his early days of mixerf 

 failure and success. His ingenuity and inventive powel 

 were very striking. At the age of twenty we find him 

 making inventions in connection with electro-plating, 

 governing of steam-engines, printing, &c., patenting them 

 and selling the patents in England. His knowledge at 

 this early age was, naturally, not equal to his enthusiasm 

 and to his inventive fertility. The results obtained were 

 by no means always satisfactory. Sometimes he made 

 a little money : as often what he made by one invention 

 was swallowed up almost to the last penny in endeavouring 

 to realize or to bring forward something new. 



Siemens's first undoubted success was his water-meter, 

 in 1852. He had already been engaged in several im- 

 portant undertakings, besides having, early in life, taken 

 many patents, to which we have just alluded ; and he 

 had invented and realized his regenerative heating, which 

 subsequently became of the highest importance. But 

 the water-meter supplied a real need in a thoroughly* 

 satisfactory way ; and it was immediately taken up and 

 yielded him a handsome income. With its success com- 

 menced the thorough success of its inventor, and he was 

 thus, as Sir William Thomson remarks, " enabled event- 

 ually to find his home among us, and to give us primarily 

 the benefit of his great inventiveness in all directions." 

 It is interesting to chronicle this result, for there are 

 many, to whom the name of Siemens is almost a house- 

 hold word, who have never so much as heard of the 

 invention. 



The two great engineering labours with which Siemens's 

 name will always remain associated are electric tele- 

 graphy and regenerative heating. With regard to the 

 former, the initiative seems to have come from Berlin, 

 where his elder brother. Dr. Werner von Siemens, had 

 commenced an electrical business about 1844. This 

 business at first consisted in designing and making tele- 

 graph instruments ; but soon the construction of land, 

 lines became a part of the work. About 1848, WiUiam 

 Siemens was appointed agent in England for the Berlin 

 firm ; and his work grew with its growth. The time 

 was, of course, opportune in the extreme. Soon we hear 

 of the Berlin firm undertaking enormous land line con- 

 tracts ; and, naturally, when the time came, the Eng- 

 lish firm, which had arisen out of the agency of 1848, 

 commenced to take part in the prodigious English 

 work of girdling the earth with submarine cables. The 

 history of these vast undertakings is most interesting ; but 

 unfortunately it is marred in the book before us by the 

 misfortune of being scattered over many chapters, mixed 

 up with a host of matters comparatively unimportant. 



With regard to regenerative heating, we cannot do 

 much more than remark that its importance is probably 

 not yet fully realized. One great difficulty Siemens had 

 to contend with was the cheapness of fuel ! When he 

 attempted to introduce his method among the salt manu- 

 facturers, it was scarcely worth their while to make the 

 necessary chaiiges in their evaporating plant so long 

 as fuel could be so easily obtained. In works on the 

 large scale, such as iron-making and glass making, 

 the improvements introduced by him are already appre- 



