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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
272
V.
DR.
WERNER
SIEMENS.
THE
leading
electrician
of
Germany
is
Dr.
Ernst
Werner
Siemens,
eldest
brother
of
the
same
distinguished
family
of
which
our
own
Sir
William
Siemens
was
a
member.
Ernst,
like
his
brother
William,
was
born
at
Lenthe,
near
Hanover,
on
December
13,
1816.
He
was
educated
at
the
College
of
Lubeck
in
Maine,
and
entered
the
Prussian
Artillery
service
as
a
volunteer.
He
pursued
his
scientific
studies
at
the
Artillery
and
Engineers'
School
in
Berlin,
and
in
1838
obtained
an
officer's
commission.
Physics
and
chemistry
were
his
favourite
studies;
and
his
original
researches
in
electro-gilding
resulted
in
a
Prussian
patent
in
1841.
The
following
year
he,
in
conjunction
with
his
brother
William,
took
out
another
patent
for
a
differential
regulator.
In
1844
he
was
appointed
to
a
post
in
the
artillery
workshops
in
Berlin,
where
he
learned
telegraphy,
and
in
1845
patented
a
dial
and
printing
telegraph,
which
is
still
in
use
in
Germany.
In
1846,
he
was
made
a
member
of
a
commission
organised
in
Berlin
to
introduce
electric
telegraphs
in
place
of
the
optical
ones
hitherto
employed
in
Prussia,
and
he
succeeded
in
getting
the
commission
to
adopt
underground
telegraph
lines.
For
the
insulation
of
the
wires
he
recommended
gutta-percha,
which
was
then
becoming
known
as
an
insulator.
In
the
following
year
he
constructed
a
machine
for
covering
copper
wire
with
the
melted
gum
by
means
of
pressure;
and
this
machine
is
substantially
the
same
as
that
now
used
for
the
purpose
in
cable
factories.
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