Siemens’ full name: Ernst Werner von Siemens (1816-1892) is a world-famous German inventor, entrepreneur, and physicist who laid and improved submarine and underground cables, Electric wires, built electrified railways, proposed the open-hearth steelmaking method, innovated the steelmaking process, and founded Siemens.

Personal profile

Born in a peasant family in Hanover, he is the fourth of 12 children in the family. Because of his poor family, Siemens joined the army after finishing high school. Siemens became very interested in telegraph technology during his service and invented the compass telegraph machine that became popular in the 19th century. Later, Siemens was sentenced to 5 years in prison for dueling with others. In prison, Siemens built a small electronics laboratory and conducted some electrical research

In 1847, Siemens and engineer John George Halske relied on 6,842 thalers of silver coins invested by his cousin. (1 taler is equivalent to 3 marks) The Siemens-Halsk Telegraph Manufacturing Company was established to mainly produce the compass telegraph invented by Siemens. This company was later the predecessor of Siemens. In 1848, Siemens won the contract for the telegraph line from Frankfurt to Berlin, and great development began.

As a physicist, Siemens’ love for technology has directly affected the development of Siemens. When Siemens was founded, in addition to relying on telegraph business, it supported the development of its main business by developing and promoting new technologies. In addition to managing the company, Siemens spends more time on research and invention.

In 1866, Siemens proposed the working principle of a generator, and a Siemens engineer completed mankind's first self-excited DC generator. In the same year, Siemens also invented the first DC motor. These technologies developed by Siemens are often immediately commercialized and put into the market, or applied to new products. For example, elevators (1880), electric locomotives (1879), trams (1881), trolleybuses (1882), etc. were all first put on the market by Siemens using the inventions of its founders. Ironically, electric cars, which did not begin to develop until the end of the 20th century, were first invented by Siemens in 1898.

In 1890, Siemens retired. Kaiser Friedrich III had previously granted him the title of nobility. Siemens' name is also used to name the unit of electrical conductivity.