Siemens has been at the forefront of technological change and social progress in the UK since 1843.
This was the year that William Siemens, a 19-year-old engineer and entrepreneur from Hamburg, set foot in England armed with a patent for a revolutionary electroplating process.
William Siemens subsequently took out a string of patents, some developed in co-operation with his elder brother Werner. Several of these related to telegraph equipment, which provided the basis for his company’s growth.
Experimentation
William Siemens’ principle interest at this time lay in the science of heat, particularly relating to steam engines and furnaces, and from his earliest days he was concerned about waste.
The steel works he built in Landore, South Wales, were largely geared to experimenting, and he developed the process known as the regenerative principle, whereby the hot fumes leaving a furnace are led back to heat the furnace itself.
This process was to revolutionise glass production by re-using some of its hitherto wasted exhaust fumes to further increase the heat of the glass molt.
Innovation
The company, Siemens Halske, was established as a partnership by Werner Siemens in Berlin in 1847, to take advantage of the latest advances in communications technology, and quickly established a reputation as one of the leading innovators in the field.
The company’s London office opened in 1850 and formally became Siemens Halske & Co in 1858; William and Werner Siemens’ partner Halske, a young German mechanic, was bought out of the company in the mid-1860s.
The company grew rapidly, opening three factories specialising in making submarine telegraph cables. In 1873 it laid the first undersea cable linking Britain and the US, spawning an exciting new age of communication, and by 1914 half of all cables connecting Europe and North America were laid by Siemens.
Influence
Over the years, some of the world’s most influential inventions can be attributed to Siemens. These include the first automatic dial telegraph in 1847 and in the same year, the first alarm bell system to warn railway workers of approaching trains.
Siemens also introduced the first devices for measuring voltage and resistance in 1860, and its founder’s measurement system for resistance – the Ohm – was adopted as the standard in 1884.
The company’s discovery of the electro-dynamic principle in 1886 was the starting point for electrical power engineering, giving us power generation and electric motors.
Siemens built the world’s first electric train for Bush Mills, Northern Ireland, in 1879 and, in 1883, the first public railway designed by Siemens was opened on Brighton seafront and still runs today.
A principle pioneer of the UK’s electricity industry, Siemens installed the world’s first commercial power station, and also its first electric street lighting, in Godalming, Surrey in 1881.
Technology
Siemens has also been at the forefront of radio and television technology, making some of the first mass-affordable receivers. The company also made some of the earliest engines for passenger-carrying aeroplanes in 1922 and pioneered electric locomotive design in 1930.
More recently, the company was behind the first 1Mb memory chip to go into production in 1988, the world’s fastest neural computer, Synapse 1, in 1992, and the first GSM mobile phone with colour display in 1997.