Werner von Siemens
Co-founder 1847Background
Werner von Siemens was a Prussian artillery officer who invented a method for insulating telegraph wire using gutta-percha. When the Prussian military recognized the strategic value of his invention, he resigned his commission and, with Johann Georg Halske, founded 'Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske' in Berlin on October 12, 1847, building the first long-distance telegraph line in Europe between Berlin and Frankfurt. In 1866 he discovered the dynamo-electric principle and built a self-excited dynamo that generated electricity without an expensive permanent magnet -- a discovery, building on Michael Faraday's earlier work, that made large-scale, affordable electric power generation possible and became the technical foundation for the modern electrical-equipment industry. Siemens went on to expand the company into electrical infrastructure, medical technology, and electric trains before retiring in 1890; his brother Karl Heinrich and sons Arnold and Georg Wilhelm grew the firm further, building a vast new industrial site west of Berlin from 1897 that became known as Siemensstadt.