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1886 – Winter Palace in St. Petersburg ablaze with electric light
Palace Square in St. Petersburg with the Alexander Column and Winter Palace (on the right), undated
Siemens & Halske had already acquired a license for the Edison light bulb patents in 1883, and the importance of electric lighting as a Siemens business had been growing ever since. In his adopted country of Russia, Werner’s brother Carl von Siemens strove to put the electric lighting business on a firm footing in the face of heavy competition from gas lighting as the established form of illumination, even to the extent of financing the public illumination of numerous squares in St. Petersburg out of his own pocket.
Early in 1885, existing contacts to the Tsar’s court brought the company an order for the temporary illumination of a banquet in the Winter Palace. Carl reported to his brother Werner: “Everyone was charmed. The hall was transformed into a conservatory and used for the dinner. Every large palm tree was surrounded by a table, so that, apart from the palms, the room looked almost like a summer dance hall in Berlin.” Further orders followed throughout the winter, also for other palaces owned by the Tsar. Carl von Siemens was satisfied: “Next winter the whole palace should be lit electrically. This will have very positive consequences for us.” And at the beginning of October the Tsar’s court did in fact issue the hoped-for order. Carl wrote: “The Emperor [Tsar] has […] allotted the sum of 500,000 rubles for the illumination of the Winter Palace, and he will decide himself which parts of the building are to be illuminated. For the first part of the building Carl needed 1,000 lamps of the best quality, “[…] Now it is of course very important for us that the Emperor […] has his illumination and is satisfied with it.”
The Siemens brothers were very conscious of the promotional effects of an order like this. Carl in particular repeatedly pointed this out: “The business is securely in our hands, but we must do everything to satisfy the Emperor. Do all you [his brother Werner] can as well to make sure that everything we order from there for this system is of very high quality. We must do that bit more […]. It is a new phase in the development of our business here and this order will trigger a large number of others.” To this Werner replied: “It is very gracious of the Emperor to want us to light his palace! Make sure you do your part well.”
As is often the case with such high-priority projects even today, difficulties soon arose between the Berlin factory as the supplier and the business in St. Petersburg. The Tsar wanted to see some results by November, so that the necessary dynamos had to be delivered in four weeks. This information was not at first registered, so that Carl was given a delivery time of nine weeks, which must have put him in a state of panic: “The note on the order that the machine must be delivered in four weeks has been totally ignored. This is the limit! Nine weeks will put us in an appallingly embarrassing position,” he wrote furiously to his brother Werner. The latter was able to remedy the situation with the help of his son Wilhelm and the delivery time was corrected to four weeks. The situation was further exacerbated by the fact that a competitor was fitting a large theater in St. Petersburg with electric light at the same time. However, the rival firm had major problems with their lamps, so completion was continuously being delayed. Carl wrote with satisfaction: “Everything will soon be finished in the Winter Palace. Schmirnoff however seems to be nowhere near finishing in the Mariinsky Theater. If we complete the lighting of the Winter Palace first, this will be a major triumph for us.”
At the turn of the year 1885/1886, the preparations in the Winter Palace were completed. The Tsar’s court intended to present the illumination for the first time on the occasion of a ball. The first trial in mid-January was a huge success, and everyone was very pleased. The Tsar only saw the new electric lighting himself at the beginning of February. Then too everything went smoothly, the Tsar was highly satisfied and Carl wrote with great relief to Berlin, that “the affair […] has caused a furore.”
Machine room of a power plant belonging to the Gesellschaft für Elektrische Beleuchtung, Moscow ca. 1910
Orders for electric lighting of public squares and streets as well as private orders steadily increased afterwards, so that during the year Carl von Siemens founded a “Gesellschaft für elektrische Beleuchtung,” a company designed to serve the lighting sector alone. By World War One, the company had increased its nominal capital tenfold, but in 1915 it was confiscated as a German company.
January 14, 2011 – Dr. Florian Kiuntke