Early Life | Charles William Siemens (1823-1883)
Charles William Siemens was born on April 4, 1823, at the little village of Lenthe, about eight miles from Hanover, where his father, Mr. Christian Ferdinand Siemens, was ‘Domanenpachter,' and farmed an estate belonging to the Crown. His mother was Eleonore Deichmann, a lady of noble disposition, and William, or Carl Wilhelm, was the fourth son of a family of fourteen children, several of whom have distinguished themselves in scientific pursuits. Of these, Ernst Werner Siemens, the fourth child, and now the famous electrician of Berlin, was associated with William in many of his inventions ; Fritz, the ninth child, is the head of the well-known Dresden glass works ; and Carl, the tenth child, is chief of the equally well-known electrical works at St. Petersburg. Several of the family died young ; others remained in Germany ; but the enterprising spirit, natural to them, led most of the sons abroad — Walter, the twelfth child, dying at Tiflis as the German Consul there, and Otto, the fourteenth child, also dying at the same place. It would be difficult to find a more remarkable family in any age or country. Soon after the birth of William, Mr. Siemens removed to a larger estate which he had leased at Menzendorf, near Llibeck.
As a child William was sensitive and affectionate, the baby of the family, liking to roam the woods and fields by himself, and curious to observe, but not otherwise giving any signs of the engineer. He received his education at a commercial academy in Liibeck, the Industrial School at Magdeburg (city of the memorable burgomaster, Otto yon Guericke), and at the University of Gottingen, which he entered in 1841, while in his eighteenth year. Here he attended the chemical lectures of Woehler, the discoverer of organic synthesis, and of Professor Himly, the well-known physicist, who was married to Siemens's eldest sister, Mathilde. With a year at Gottingen, during which he laid the basis of his theoretical knowledge, the academical training of Siemens came to an end, and he entered practical life in the engineering works of Count Stolberg, at Magdeburg. At the University he had been instructed in mechanical laws and designs ; here he learned the nature and use of tools and the construction of ma- chines. But as his University career at Gottingen lasted only about a year, so did his apprenticeship at the Stolberg Works. In this short time, however, he probably reaped as much advantage as a duller pupil during a far longer term. Young Siemens appears to have been determined to push his way forward.
Excerpted from Heroes of the Telegraph by J. Munro, publication date 1891, digitized by Google, Public Domain USA . Online at archive.org
Rudolph Lehmann (died 1905)/Public Domain
TitleSir (Charles) William Siemens (né Karl Wilhelm Siemens)
Sir Carl Wilhelm Siemens FRS FRSA (4 April 1823 – 19 November 1883), anglicised to Charles William Siemens, was a German-British electrical engineer and businessman.
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The regenerative furnace is the greatest single invention of Charles William Siemens, using a process known as the Siemens-Martin process. The electric pyrometer, which is perhaps the most elegant and original of all William Siemens's inventions, is also the link which connects his electrical with his metallurgical researches. Siemens pursued two major themes in his inventive efforts, one based upon the science of heat, the other based upon the science of electricity; and the electric thermometer was, as it were, a delicate cross-coupling which connected both.
Extracted from Wikipedia