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See also:ERNST See also:WERNER VON See also:SIEMENS (1816-1892)
, See also:German electrician, was See also:born on the 13th of See also:December 1816 at Lenthe in See also:Hanover
.
After attending the gymnasium at See also:Lubeck, he entered the Prussian See also:army as a volunteer, and for three years was a See also:pupil in the Military See also:Academy at See also:Berlin
.
In 1838 he received a See also:commission as See also:lieutenant in the See also:artillery, and six years later he was appointed to the responsible See also:post of See also:superintendent of the artillery workshops
.
In 1848 he had the task of protecting the See also:port of See also:Kiel against the Danish See also:fleet, and as commandant of
Friedrichsort built the fortifications for the See also:defence of Eckernforde See also:harbour
.
In the same See also:year he was entrusted with the laying of the first See also:telegraph See also:line in See also:Germany, that between Berlin and See also:Frankfort-on-See also:Main, and with that See also:work his military career came to an end
.
Thenceforward he devoted his energies to furthering the interests of the newly founded See also:firm of See also:Siemens and Halske, which under his guidance became one of the most important See also:electrical undertakings in the See also:world, with branches in different countries that gave it an See also:international See also:influence; in the See also:London See also:house he was associated with See also:Sir See also: Another task to which he devoted much See also:time was the construction of a See also:selenium photometer, depending on the See also:property possessed by that substance of changing its electrical resistance according to the intensity of the See also:light falling upon it . He also claimed to have been, in 1866, the discoverer of the principle of self-excitation in See also:dynamo-electric See also:machines, in which the residual See also:magnetism of the See also:iron of the electro-magnets is utilized for excitation, without the aid of permanent See also:steel magnets or of a See also:separate exciting current . In another See also:branch of See also:science he wrote several papers on meteorological subjects, discussing among other things the See also:causation of the winds and the forces which produce, maintain and retard the motions of the See also:air . In 1886 he devoted See also:half a million marks to the See also:foundation of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt at See also:Charlottenburg, and in 1888 he was ennobled . He died at Berlin on the 6th of December 1892 . His scientific See also:memoirs and addresses were collected See also:sand published in an See also:English See also:translation in 1892, and three years later a second See also:volume appeared, containing his technical papers . |
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