Ernst Werner Siemens (later known as von Siemens starting in 1888; pronounced SEEM-ənz; German: [ˈziːməns, -mɛns]; born December 13, 1816; died December 6, 1892) was a German electrical engineer, inventor, and business leader. The SI unit of electrical conductance, called the siemens, is named after him. He started a large company that works in electrical and communication systems. Siemens invented several important devices, including electric trams, trolley buses, electric trains, and electric elevators.

His dynamo, a type of electrical generator, helped start the modern use of electricity. He also worked on the development of electric cars.

Biography

Ernst Werner Siemens was born in Lenthe, now part of Gehrden near Hannover, in the Kingdom of Hanover within the German Confederation. He was the third child (of fourteen) of Christian Ferdinand Siemens (born July 31, 1787; died January 16, 1840) and Eleonore Deichmann (born 1792; died July 8, 1839). His father was a farmer who worked the land owned by the Siemens family, an old family from Goslar, documented since 1384. His brothers were Carl Heinrich von Siemens and Carl Wilhelm Siemens.

After finishing school, Siemens planned to study at the Bauakademie Berlin. However, his family had many debts and could not afford tuition, so he joined the Prussian Military Academy’s school for artillery and engineering from 1835 to 1838. There, he received training as an officer. He was known as a skilled soldier, earned medals, and helped invent electrically charged sea mines used during the First Schleswig War to stop a Danish blockade of Kiel.

After returning home from the war, Siemens focused on improving existing technologies. He became famous for his work in various fields. In 1843, he sold the rights to his first invention to Elkington of Birmingham. Siemens created a telegraph that used a needle to point to letters, instead of using Morse code. Based on this, he founded the company Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske on October 1, 1847, and opened a workshop on October 12.

The company grew quickly. One brother, Sir William Siemens, represented him in England, and another, Carl von Siemens, did so in St. Petersburg, Russia. Both gained recognition. In 1888, Siemens was ennobled and became Werner von Siemens. He retired from his company in 1890 and died in 1892 in Berlin.

The company was later reorganized as Siemens & Halske, Siemens-Schuckertwerke, and, since 1966, simply Siemens. It was led by his brother Carl, his sons Arnold, Wilhelm, and Carl Friedrich, his grandsons Hermann and Ernst, and his great-grandson Peter von Siemens. Siemens AG is now one of the world’s largest electrical engineering companies. The von Siemens family still owns 6% of the company’s shares (as of 2013) and holds a seat on the supervisory board, making them the largest shareholder.

Besides the pointer telegraph, Siemens made many important contributions to electrical engineering, earning him the title of the discipline’s founding father in Germany. He built the world’s first electric passenger train in 1879 and the first electric elevator in 1880. His company produced tubes used by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen to study X-rays. Siemens claimed to invent the dynamo, though others also developed similar devices around the same time. On December 14, 1877, he received German patent No. 2355 for an electromechanical “dynamic” or moving-coil transducer. This design was later adapted by A. L. Thuras and E. C. Wente for the Bell System in the 1920s as a loudspeaker, and Wente’s adaptation was granted U.S. patent 1,707,545 in 1929.

In May 1881, Siemens & Halske started the world’s first electric tram service in Groß-Lichterfelde, a Berlin suburb. Siemens also invented the trolleybus, testing it on April 29, 1882, using his “Elektromote.”

He married twice: first in 1852 to Mathilde Drumann (died July 1, 1867), daughter of historian Wilhelm Drumann; and second in 1869 to Antonie Siemens (1840–1900). His children from the first marriage were Arnold von Siemens and Georg Wilhelm von Siemens. His children from the second marriage were Hertha von Siemens (1870–January 5, 1939), who married Carl Dietrich Harries in 1899, and Carl Friedrich von Siemens.

Siemens supported social democracy and believed industrial progress should not benefit capitalism alone. He also disagreed with the idea that science leads to materialism.

Werner von Siemens’ portrait was on the 20ℛℳ banknote issued by the Reichsbank from 1929 to 1939. The note remained in use until the introduction of the Deutsche Mark on June 21, 1948.

In 1923, German botanist Ignatz Urban named Siemensia, a monotypic genus of flowering plant from Cuba in the Rubiaceae family, after Werner von Siemens.

U.S. patents

• United States patent 322,859 — Electric train system (21 July 1885)
• United States patent 340,462 — Electric train system (20 April 1886)
• United States patent 415,577 — Electric meter (19 November 1889)
• United States patent 428,290 — Electric meter (20 May 1890)
• United States patent 520,274 — Electric train system (22 May 1894)
• United States patent 601,068 — Method and machine for removing gold from its ores (22 March 1898)