Wvs satz final indd
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- A band of brothers
- “A solid career in telegraphy”
- Founding a company
- Around 1850
14 15 were his fi rst successes in gilding a teaspoon. 5 But in fact, as we have already seen, he had been granted the patent for his gilding technique even before his imprisonment. So the description in his autobiography is myth. But it carries a message for the reader: once Werner von Siemens had set himself a goal, even fortress walls could not keep him from achieving it. As of October 1, 1842, Second Lieutenant Siemens was reas- signed to the artillery workshop in Berlin. His superiors had real- ized that he could be more useful to the army there than in a fort’s artillery unit. Their assessment was that “with his preferred inclination to scientifi c study, he has little military talent”. 6 Being
a duty offi cer at the Berlin artillery workshop was ideal for Werner. Here he could work on additional inventions, while at the same time drawing inspiration from the royal capital’s scientifi c com- munity. He was a member of the Physical Society of Berlin from its founding in January 1845, held lectures there, and came to know major scientists like the physiologist Emil du Bois-Reymond. A band of brothers As an offi cer, it was diffi cult for Werner von Siemens to market his fi rst patent. In his search for highly solvent potential buyers, he had to rely on the support of his brother William, barely 20 years old, thus adding a business aspect to the brothers’ already close relationship. Early in 1843, William sailed for England, where af- ter tough negotiations he was able to sell the rights to the gilding method to silver manufacturer George Richards Elkington for a substantial sum. Following that success, both Werner and William now dedicated themselves to “invention speculation” of the most diverse kinds. In 1844, William moved permanently to England, where he settled as an engineer. In Berlin, Werner von Siemens gradually took in his younger brothers Carl, Friedrich and Walter to live with him. In November 1845 he was fi nally authorized to act as their legal guardian. He realized that as a consequence he would be almost constantly short of funds – his modest salary as a second lieutenant was not The later founders of the Physical Society of Berlin, 1842. Emil du Bois-Reymond is seated in the middle 1845 The Physical Society in Berlin is founded. Today, under the name “Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft”, it is the world’s largest professional organization of its kind, with more than , members. 1843 Elkington, Mason & Co., a fi rm in Birmingham, England, is the leader in electroplating and gilding far beyond British borders.
16 17 really enough to support them. Hopes for income from new in- ventions failed to bear out. It was typical of him not to be discour- aged. He fi rmly believed in a better future. He later wrote: “I have always lived more in the future than in the present; as long as the future smiles on me, I can readily bear the rough sides of the present, which is seldom entirely attractive!” 7
8 At a business partner’s suggestion, in July 1846 Werner von Siemens began working with electrical telegraphy. This new tech- nology, developed in England, was now to be introduced in Prus- sia. Within a few weeks, he developed a new design model for a pointer telegraph, a mechanism invented nine years earlier by Englishmen Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke. Werner’s device synchronized the operation of two correspond- ing telegraphs electrically, so that the Siemens pointer telegraph was more reliable than the Wheatstone version. If the operator of the transmitting telegraph pressed a letter key, this interrupt- ed the current, and the pointer on the receiving device stopped on the same letter.
Around his 30th birthday, Werner von Siemens recognized that he was not getting ahead working with a wide range of different inventions. With remarkable resolve, he therefore decided to start over again. He now concentrated entirely on “magnetical telegra- phy”. This strategy represented a considerable risk, because at that time not a single example of his improved pointer telegraph had ever been built. What would happen if his design proved in- adequate? Werner could not build the telegraph himself – he had to fi nd a skilled mechanic who could. As 1846 turned to 1847, Emil du Bois-Reymond, whom he knew from the Physical Society, put
England, the motherland of industrialization, is at the height of its economic dominance. Many inventors seek their fortunes here.
In England, Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke develop an electrical telegraph apparatus. In the USA
, Samuel F. B. Morse introduces the fi rst electrical “writing telegraph”. 18 19 him in touch with the precision mechanic Johann Georg Halske. That connection would prove to be a major stroke of luck. 9
At the time, the military had a monopoly on telegraphy in Prus- sia. The director of telegraphy and the telegraphy commission were subordinate to the General Staff of the Army. Once Halske had built the fi rst Siemens telegraph, Werner von Siemens was in a position to convince the Telegraphy Commission of his inven- tion’s advantages. The director of telegraphy then arranged for him to be reassigned to serve the Telegraphy Commission. That put Werner von Siemens under the agency that decided on build- ing telegraph lines and awarding the associated contracts. Meantime Werner made the necessary preparations to found a telegraph construction company jointly with Johann Georg Halske. Since neither of them had the necessary capital, Johann Georg Siemens, an eminent lawyer and a cousin of Werner’s, stepped in with a rather large loan as an additional partner. The company was founded when the articles of incorporation were signed on October 1, 1847. A few days later, Werner von Siemens got a Prussian patent for the pointer telegraph. Now production could begin. 10 Siemens and Halske had rented a building on a rear courtyard at Schöneberger Straße 19, in the immediate vicinity of the Anhalt railroad station. The two company founders would live in the same building. Because of Siemens’ status as an offi cer in service with the Telegraphy Commission, the company appeared at fi rst only under Halske’s name, as “Werkstatt Halske” – “The Halske Workshop”. At the time, the Telegraphy Commission was planning to lay a number of underground telegraph lines in Prussia. They had set a competition for builders from Germany and other countries for March 15, 1848, in Berlin; the results would decide who would get the contracts. Werner von Siemens felt his success was assured, but the competition suddenly had to be called off because on that very day, the revolutionary rioting that had been spreading among other European cities also broke out in Berlin. That night, Werner von Siemens experienced the Berlin “Barrikadenaufstand” (barricade revolt) fi rst-hand. His own sympathies lay with the rev- olutionaries, who were demanding fundamental citizens’ rights and a German national state. A few weeks later, fi lled with nationalistic enthusiasm, he vol- unteered to join the German-Danish war over the status of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. His sister Mathilde now lived in Kiel, where her husband, the chemist Carl Himly, had been ap- pointed to a professorship. Werner von Siemens and his brother- in-law secured Kiel harbor against attack by the Danish fl eet. The two of them built the fi rst marine mine blockade there, made of sacks of gunpowder that could be ignited electrically. Werner then Siemens pointer telegraph (replica), 1847
The fi rst electrical telegraph line in Prussia goes into operation: an experimental line between Berlin – the capital – and Potsdam.
Berlin residents gather at the Schlossplatz. As the military begins to clear the plaza, chaos sets in and two shots are fi red. The “Barrikadenaufstand” (barricade revolt) breaks out, leaving several hundred dead.
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