Beginnings and initial expansion (1847 - 1865)
With the design of the pointer telegraph, Werner von Siemens lays the foundation in 1847 for today’s Siemens AG. Within a few years, the craftsman’s workshop founded in Berlin as the “Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske” develops into an internationally active corporation.
The first workshop of Siemens & Halske in Berlin, 1847
Werner Siemens – known as Werner von Siemens from 1888 when he was raised to the nobility – was born in 1816 in Lenthe, near Hanover, Germany. As his family lacked the resources to pay for a university education, he joined the Prussian army in 1835, where he spent three years studying mathematics, physics, chemistry and ballistics at the Artillery and Engineering Academy in Berlin. Werner von Siemens was awarded his first Prussian patent in 1842 – for an electrolytic method of gold and silver plating. His younger brother Wilhelm later marketed this invention successfully in Britain.
Werner von Siemens was awarded his first Prussian patent in 1842 – for an electrolytic method of gold and silver plating. His younger brother Wilhelm later marketed this invention successfully in Britain.
In 1846, Werner von Siemens hit upon an idea for improving the Wheatstone telegraph. Using just simple means – cigar boxes, tinplate, pieces of iron, and some insulated copper wire – he designed his own pointer telegraph. He entrusted the apparatus‘ construction to a mechanical engineer, Johann Georg Halske, who was won over by its simplicity and reliability. In Berlin in October 1847, the two men formed their own company, Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske, and set up a small workshop in a back building at 19 Schöneberger Strasse. A week after the company was founded, the design of the pointer telegraph was awarded a patent in Prussia.
In 1847, Werner von Siemens developed a gutta percha press that made it possible to create seamless insulation for copper wire. This and the pointer telegraph marked two key advances on the road toward modern telecommunications. A year later, the company received a government contract to install a telegraph line between Berlin and Frankfurt/Main – the company’s first major success – and Siemens managed to complete the line in time for the Prussian monarch’s election as Germany’s hereditary emperor.
The lack of follow-up contracts from the Prussian state plunged the company into a crisis during the early 1850s, but its fortunes turned when it received new orders from Russia and Britain. In 1853, Siemens & Halske began building a telegraph network in Russia, which stretched from Finland to the Crimea, covering a distance of around 10,000 kilometers. The company was also contracted by the Russian government to provide maintenance services. In 1855, Werner von Siemens set up a subsidiary in St. Petersburg, headed by his brother Carl.
At this time, activities in Britain were gradually expanding. The English business was managed by Werner’s brother Wilhelm, who later made England his home and changed his name to Charles William Siemens. In 1858, the subsidiary Siemens, Halske & Co. (renamed Siemens Brothers in 1865) was set up in Britain. The subsidiary’s operations centered on the production and laying of submarine cables, which it began manufacturing at its own cable plant at Woolwich on the River Thames in 1863.