Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/252

 of electricity to the deposition of metals, for which Werner had already obtained a Prussian patent. In this invention a thermo-electric battery supplied the electric current, and there were also certain improvements in the solutions (alkaline hyposulphites) used for gilding and silvering.

For some reason, probably because it was in this country that the greatest progress had been made in electro-plating, the brothers determined to try and dispose of the invention in England. William was despatched in 1843 for the purpose. Speaking many years afterwards at a meeting of the Birmingham and Midland Institute (of which he was then president), he gave an account of the difficulties attending this first visit, when he was so ignorant of the language of the country that he was led to visit an ‘undertaker,’ under the idea that he was the proper person to take up and dispose of his invention. Ultimately, however, perseverance triumphed over difficulties, and he sold his process to Messrs. Elkington for 1,600l.

Such a success stimulated the brothers to fresh efforts. William gave up his position at the Stolberg factory in 1844, and started for London with two fresh inventions—a ‘chronometric governor’ for steam engines, devised by Werner and worked out by William; and the process of ‘anastatic printing,’ invented by Baldamus of Erfurt, and developed by the brothers. The value set on these two inventions was excessive, and no capitalist could be found willing to purchase either, meritorious as they were. The ‘governor’ was an instrument of extreme ingenuity; it was fully appreciated by leading mechanical engineers, and obtained prizes from the Society of Arts in 1850 and at the exhibition of 1851. It did not, however, come into practical use for its intended purpose—a purpose, indeed, for which it was too delicate—though it was afterwards successfully applied by Sir George Airy for regulating the movement of certain instruments at Greenwich Observatory.

The anastatic process was long employed for the reproduction of printed matter, and has only been superseded by modern photographic methods. It was a transfer process. The page to be copied was moistened with acid and laid down on a metal plate. On pressure being applied, the result was a slight etching of the metal by the acid in the parts in contact with the unprinted portions of the paper, and a slight setting off of the ink from the printed portions. The plate could then be inked up and printed from by the usual lithographic methods. The process, however, brought no profit to its introducer, and the factory which he started for its application was a source of considerable loss. The first five years of Siemens's stay in England were thus productive of small encouragement, and in 1849 he even discussed the idea of emigrating with Carl and Frederick to California, then in the first flush of the gold discoveries. The next invention about which the brothers busied themselves, though it contained within itself the germs of ultimate success, was no more profitable than its predecessors. The regenerative steam engine and condenser seem to have been mainly the invention of William Siemens, though the idea had previously been suggested by others. It was the outcome of efforts to prevent the great waste of energy which occurs in all forms of heat engine in consequence of the high temperature at which the products of combustion are discharged, and also from the steam being condensed to water after a portion only of its heat has been utilised as energy.

The means of remedy employed were philosophical and the principle sound, but the first application of the method was unsuccessful. The most important feature of the invention was that the steam after use in the cylinder passed through what Siemens's biographer, Dr. Pole, in his description ingeniously terms a ‘metallic respirator,’ to which it imparted a large share of its heat, and it therefore reached the condenser in a partly cooled state. The water from the condenser was afterwards forced back through the respirator, absorbing its heat, and it was thus raised in temperature on its way to the boiler.

In the engine itself further means were adopted for economising heat, but in spite of all the labour and ingenuity expended upon it during a space of twelve years (it was patented in 1847 and not finally abandoned until 1859), it never realised the hopes of its inventor. That the merits of the invention were recognised is shown by the fact that a leading firm of Birmingham engineers, Messrs. Fox & Henderson, paid Siemens a considerable sum for a share in the patent, and also engaged his services at a salary which provided him with a sufficient means of livelihood. In addition to this he was now earning money in other ways, and in 1851 he made his first genuine success with an invention by producing a water-meter, which fulfilled its intended purposes so well, and was so superior to other instruments, that in a year or two it was producing a handsome income from royalties, and the inventor's long struggle against adverse fortune was at an end.