Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/254

 designed by William Siemens, though he had no previous knowledge or experience of marine engineering. The execution of works of such magnitude, indeed, involved the designing and construction of much new machinery and apparatus. In all this detailed work William Siemens took his full share, though as time went on, and the concerns with which he was associated increased in importance, he withdrew from detail work and confined himself more to supervision and initiation.

While the telegraph was being perfected, other applications of electricity were in course of discovery. In 1867 the principle of the modern dynamo (the immediate conversion of motive power into electricity without the aid of permanent magnets) was simultaneously published by three inventors, William Siemens (on behalf of Werner), Sir Charles Wheatstone [q. v.], and Cromwell F. Varley [q. v.] In the later development of the machine Werner Siemens and his firm took a very important share. As soon as electric lighting became practical, the Charlton firm took it up, though none of the leading inventions connected with it can be associated with the name of William Siemens. The firm supplied some of the machines first used for lighthouse illumination, and one of the earliest electric-light installations in London—that of the British Museum—was carried out by them in 1879.

William was also one of the first to suggest the transmission of power by electricity, and to apply electric power to locomotion in the Portrush railway in 1883. His electric furnace, invented in 1879, was long without much practical application, but has of recent years been turned to important industrial account as a means of providing heat otherwise unattainable. His ‘bathometer’ for estimating sea-depths without a sounding line has not come into practical use, but has received the admiration of all qualified to appreciate its ingenuity. His electric thermometer has proved useful in cases where it was required to record temperatures at inaccessible or scarcely accessible positions, specially in deep-sea investigations. His researches into the effect of electric light on plants were only carried far enough to prove the possibility of aiding the growth of plants and fruit by its means; they await practical development. Lastly, it is worth mention that he took out a patent in 1855 in which he anticipated the latest device for producing extremely low temperatures by the expansion of liquefied gases already cooled down to the lowest attainable point. How prolific was his inventive faculty is shown by the fact that no less than 113 English patents were taken out in his name.

Siemens's inventions and his scientific work brought him many honours. He was president of the mechanical section of the British Association in 1869, and president of the association itself in 1882; he was the first president (1872) of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, and in 1878 he became president of the same society for the second time; he was president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (1872), and of the Iron and Steel Institute (1877), and chairman of the council of the Society of Arts (1882); he was an hon. D.C.L. of Oxford and LL.D. of Dublin and Glasgow. He received the Albert medal of the Society of Arts in 1874, the Howard prize of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1883, and the Bessemer medal of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1875. He received many foreign orders, including the French legion of honour, and in 1883, only seven months before his death, he was knighted in recognition of his services.

Apart from their practical applications, his contributions to pure science were not numerous, but he submitted to the Royal Society in 1882 some ingenious speculations as to the source of solar energy. He conceived that gaseous matters might be dissociated by the radiant solar energy and driven out by centrifugal action at the sun's equator, to be drawn in towards the poles and subjected to intense combustion. The theory, though well received at the time, has been neglected since. This was his last important piece of work. He died on 18 Nov. 1883, and was buried in Kensal Green after a funeral service in Westminster Abbey, where a memorial window was set up in his honour. He married, in 1859, Anne, daughter of Joseph Gordon, W.S., of Edinburgh, and sister of Lewis Gordon, professor of engineering in Glasgow University; she died on 12 April 1901. They had no children.

William Siemens was a born inventor, but he was also, what so few inventors are, a shrewd and capable man of business. He made a large fortune, and used it liberally. He offered 10,000l. towards the erection of a hall of science for the use of the various engineering societies, but the offer was not accepted. During his lifetime he established prize medals at King's College, London, at the Birmingham and Midland Institute, and at the City and Guilds of London Technical Institute. After his death Lady Siemens provided funds for the foundation of a Siemens electrical laboratory, as a memorial, at King's College, London.

Siemens's collected works, including his