'54 



AW rURE 



[December 15, i8q2 



In 1844 the young artillery officer was appointed to the 

 important post of Superintendent of the Artillery work- 

 shops, and in 1847 he became a member of the commission 

 then instituted for introducing the electric telegraph into 

 Prussia. Next year his military duties called him to 

 Kiel, where in conjunction with his brother-in-law. 

 Prof. Himly, he protected that port against the attack 

 of the Danish fleet, by means of submerged mines 

 connected with the shore by cables, at once the precursor 

 of the submarine cable and the torpedo. In the summer 

 of 1848, as commandant of Friederichsort, he built the 

 fortifications for the protection of the harbour of Ecken- 

 forde, which afterwards became so celebrated. In the 

 same year he was recalled to Berlin in order to erect a 

 line of telegraph from Berlin to Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 

 the first electric line laid in Germany, and with this his 

 official military career terminated, and he devoted his 

 attention altogether to those scientific discoveries and 



inventions which have made the name of Siemens a 

 household word in every region of the globe. 



In 1874 Dr. Werner Siemens was elected a member of 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences of BerUn, and the speech 

 he made upon that occasion enables one to understand 

 and appreciate his connexion with physical science. He 

 ^as professionally connected with the application of 

 science, which unfortunately left him but little leisure 

 for those purely scientific investigations to which he 

 always felt specially attracted. He says, to quote his 

 own words in the speech just referred to, " My problems 

 were generally prescribed by the demands of my pro- 

 fession, because the filling up of scientific voids which I 

 met with presented itself as a technical necessity. I will 

 only here mention cursorily my method of measuring 

 high velocities by means of electric sparks, the discovery 

 of the electrostatic charge of telegraph conductors and its 

 laws, the deduction of methods and formulas for testing 

 underground and submarine cables, as well as for deter- 

 mining the position of faults occurring in their insulation. 



NO. 1207, VOL. 47] 



my experimental observations on electrostatic induction, 

 and the retardation of the electric current thereby, the con- 

 ception and realization of a reproducible basis of measure- 

 ment for electrical resistance, the proof of the heating 

 of the dielectric of a condenser by sudden discharge, 

 the discovery and explanation of the dynamo electric 

 machine. I think I may claim that many of my technical 

 contributions are not without scientific value, among 

 which I may mention the differential regulator, the 

 manufacture of insulated conductors by pressing gutta- 

 percha around them, telegraphic duplex, diplex, induction 

 and automatic recording instruments, the ozone apparatus, 

 and measuring instruments of different kinds. I had the 

 honour of seeing these recognized by receiving from 

 the Berlin University the distinction of Doctor of Phil- 

 osophy, honoris causa" 



The reply to this speech was made on behalf of the 

 Berlin Academy by Prof, du Bois Reymond, the 

 Secretary of the Physical and Mathematical Section, 

 and some of the words he then spoke will show how 

 Germany appreciated one of her ablest sons, one whom 

 we also may claim, for when Werner Siemens was born, 

 the King of England was Elector of Hanover. " By 

 appropriating such a scientific form as yours, my dear 

 Siemens, no Academy need be untrue to the laws of its 

 foundation. Yours is the talent of mechanical discovery, 

 which primitive people not improperly described as 

 divine, and the cultivation of which constitutes the as- 

 cendancy of modern culture. Without having yourself 

 worked with your hands in practical mechanics, you 

 have reached the highest point in that art as creating 

 and organizing head. With clear view and daring mind 

 you soon grasped the great practical problems of electric 

 telegraphy, and thus secured to Germany an advantage 

 which , Gauss, Wilhelm Weber, and Steinheil could not 

 have procured for it. Your labours were for electricity 

 what Frauenhofer's were for light, and you are the 

 James Watt of electro-magnetism. Now you rule over 

 a world which you created. Your telegraph lines sur- 

 round the globe. Your cable ships navigate the ocean. 

 Under the tents of nomads using bows and arrows, 

 through whose hunting grounds your messages pass, 

 your name is mentioned with superstitious awe." 



This poetical description is fully justified by the great 

 undertakings that have been carried out by the Siemens 

 firm. The Indo-European telegraph, 2750 miles in 

 length, passes across Europe, through a part of Russia to 

 Tabreez and Teheran in Persia, and thence to India. 

 But for the international character of the firm this work 

 could probably never have been accomplished. But with 

 Mr. Carl Siemens in St. Petersburg, Dr. Werner in Berlin, 

 and Mr. WiUiam in London, to carry out the necessary 

 negotiations, the tender was accepted in June, 1869, and 

 the work was completed in December of the same year. 

 Since then eighteen cables of a total length exceeding 

 21,000 miles have been constructed at their Woolwich 

 works and laid in the Atlantic by the Faraday, by the 

 firm of Messrs. Siemens Brothers and Co., Limited, of 

 which firm Dr. Werner von Siemens was Chairman and 

 Mr. Alexander Siemens is the Director in London. 



In a single line of the speech just alluded to Dr. 

 Werner refers to the dynamo machine. On this machine 

 the whole supply of electricity for lighting, transmission 

 of power, and other large purposes is dependent ; and it 

 is interesting in this connexion to note that the only 

 rival to the electric light for large effects is the regenera- 

 tive gas lamp invented by Dr. Werner's youngest brother, 

 Mr. Frederick Siemens, the inventor, with Sir William 

 Siemens, of the regenerative gas furnace. 



Dr. von Siemens was a Knight of the Prussian order 

 pour le mcrite, an honour conferred only on those who 

 have been distinguished for their services to science and 

 industry. The honorary degree conferred upon him by 

 the University of Berlin, and his membership of the 



