Werner von Siemens's Birthday
Next: December 13, 2026
The engineer who harnessed electricity.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the birthday of Werner von Siemens, born on 13 December 1816 in Lenthe, near Hanover, the son of a tenant farmer. He left school without a diploma, joined the Prussian army and studied science there. In 1847 he designed a reliable pointer telegraph, and with the precision mechanic Johann Georg Halske founded a small Berlin workshop to make it. In 1866, building on the work of Michael Faraday, he discovered the dynamo-electric principle, which made it possible to generate electricity cheaply and on a large scale.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, but the company he founded, Siemens, keeps his story alive through its historical institute and archives. It is a good day to notice how much of daily life runs on electric power: his dynamo machine was the forerunner of today's large generators. In 1867 he predicted that technology could now generate electric power 'of unlimited strength'.
Did you know
- In 1870 the Indo-European telegraph line, built partly by his company, cut the time to send a message from London to Calcutta from 30 days to 28 minutes.
- In 1879 his company presented the world's first electric railway powered by an external electricity supply.
- The SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens, is named after him.
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