PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS

OF

WERNER YON SIEMENS

OF THE

UNIVERSITY
CALIFORNIA

Yerlag von Julius Springer inBerlirxN.

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS

OF

WERNER VON SIEMENS

TRANSLATED
BY

W. C. COUPLAND

€:.SE LIBft4*r>.
OF THE X

:VER-SITT)
OF >/

LONDON: ASHER & Co

13 BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN

1893

TK l
SS'A

Printed by Gustav Schade (Otto Francke) Berlin (Germany).

Harzburg, June 1889.

"_Lhe clays of our years are threescore years and
ten. or even by reason of strength fourscore years*'
- that is a serious monition to one who is approach-
ing the mean point between these limits, and who
has still much to do ! We ma^ indeed, speaking gene-
rally, console ourselves with the thought that others
will do what we ourselves have riot been able to
accomplish, that the world accordingly will be no per-
manent loser; but there are certain tasks in regard
to which this consolation is of no avail, since the
performance of them can devolve upon no other. In
this category falls the autobiographical narrative which
I have promised my family and my friends.

I confess that the proposed undertaking has
weighed heavily on my mind, being fully conscious of
possessing the talent neither of the historian nor of
the man of letters, and having had always a more lively
interest in the present and the future than in the
past. Further I have no good memory for names and
dates, and also not a few events of my tolerably
changeful existence are utterly beyond recall. On the
other hand, however, I am desirous of being my own

2 INTRODUCTION.

chronicler, in order to preclude the possibility of
future misunderstanding and misinterpretation of my
endeavours arid actions, arid I have an idea also, that
it will be instructive and stimulating to the coming
generation to be shown plainly how a young man. with-
out inherited resources and influential supporters, nay
even without proper preliminary culture, may solely
through his own industry rise, and do something
useful in the world. I shall not expend much
thought on literary form, but shall jot down my
recollections just as they occur to me. being only
anxious that my statements may be clear and truth-
ful, and my impressions arid feelings faithfully re-
produced. I shall, however, at the same time try to
indicate those inner and outer forces which have
borne me through weal and woe to the desired goals,
and which have made my evening of life an easy and
sunny one.

Here in my secluded villa at Harzburg I hope to
find the needful calm for such a retrospect, for amid
the scenes of my active labours, in Berlin and Char-
lottenburg, I am too much claimed by the demands of
the hour to be able without interruption to devote
any considerable time to reflection on my own past.

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

CALIFORNIA-

My earliest recollection is of an act of juvenile
heroism, which perhaps imprinted itself so indelibly
on my mind on account of its striking effect on the
development of my character. My parents lived till

\ my eighth year in Lenthe near Hanover, where I was
born , and where my father farmed the estate (Ober-

I gut) of a Herr von Lenthe. I must have been about
live years of age when, playing one day in my father's
room, sister Matilda, my senior by three years, was
led in weeping copiously. She was on her way to
the parsonage for her knitting lesson, but a dangerous
gander, she complained, kept barring her entrance into
the parsonage yard, and had already repeatedly snapped
at her. Accordingly she stoutly refused, despite all
her mother's coaxing, to repair to her lesson without
a companion. My father, too, could not succeed in
shaking her determination. At last he gave me his stick,
which was considerably bigger than myself, saying:
4 'Then Werner shall go with you, who I hope has
more courage than you have."' At first that appeared
to me somewhat questionable, for my father dismissed
me with the injunction: i;If the gander conies, only go
towards him bravely and hit him well with the stick,
then he will run away!" And so it turned out. When

4 EARLIEST YOUTHFUL REMEMBRANCE.

we reached the yard-gate, the gander ran towards
us with outstretched neck and terrible hissing. My
sister turned tail shrieking, and I was strongly tempted
to follow suit, but I trusted the paternal counsel and
encountered the monster, with eyes shut indeed, but
hitting out doughtily with the stick right and left.
And lo, fear came upon the gander, and he returned
cackling noisily to the flock of geese that had also
betaken themselves to flight.

It is curious what a deep and lasting impression
this first victory made on my childish mind. Even
now. after well nigh 70 years, all the persons and
surroundings, associated with this important event,
stand clearly before my eyes. With it too is connected
the only remembrance that remains to me of the
appearance of my parents in their younger years: and
numberless times in difficult situations of life the
victory over the gander has unconsciously stimulated
me, not to yield to threatening dangers, but to over-
come, by boldly confronting, them.

| My father came of a family settled since the Thirty

Years War on the northern declivity of the Harz
mountains, and engaged for the most part in agri-
culture and forestry. An old family legend, which it
is true is rejected as unproven by recent historians,
runs, that some venerable ancestor came in the Thirty
Years War to North Germany with the troops of Tilly,
was present at the storming of Magdeburg, then
married a citizen's daughter whom he had snatched
from the flames, and settled in the Harz region. As

FAMILY. 5

the existence of a reliable genealogical tree, somewhat
| rare in middle - class families, proves, there has always
prevailed a certain cohesion in the Siemens family. In
recent times the gathering taking place every five
years in some spot of the Harz. as well as an insti-
tution founded in 1876. have contributed to confirm
this cohesion of a family now very widely distributed.
As most of the Siemens my father was very
proud of his family, and often told us children of
members of it who had in some way or other distin-
guished themselves. Of these celebrities, save my
grandfather with his fifteen children, my father being
the youngest. I remember only a military councillor,
who held a position of authority in the council of the
free town of Goslar at the time when the town lost
its direct connection with the empire. My grandfather
had rented the estate of the Baron of the Empire von
t Grote. consisting of the manors Schauen and Wasserleben

o

at the foot of the northern part of the Harz moun-
tains. Wasserleben was my father's birthplace. Of the
stories which my father loved to recount to us children,
two have remained vivid in memory.

About 120 years ago the petty court (Duodez-
hof) of the Baron of the Empire von Grote was
startled by the intimation that King Frederick II of
Prussia was about to trespass on the imperial-baronial
domain in his march from Halberstadt to Goslar. The
old baron of the Empire awaited his powerful neigh-
bour in befitting manner along with his onlv son, at

o O f

the head of his customary contingent to the imperial

6 FAMILY.

army consisting of two men. arid accompanied by his
vassals - - my grandfather and his sons, all on horse-
back.

As old Fritz with his mounted escort approached
the boundary, the imperial baron rode a few paces
to meet him. and in due form bade him welcome "in
his territory". The king, in whose memory perhaps
the existence of this neighbouring realm had grown

O o o

somewhat dim, appeared surprised at the greeting,
returned however the compliment in proper form, and
remarked turning to his retinue: "Messieurs, voila deux
souverains qui se rencontrentP This caricature of old
imperial glory has always remained in my memory,
and very early kindled in us children the longing for
\ future national unity and greatness.

There was another event of even greater impor-
tance for the miniature state of Grote than the fore-
going. My father had four sisters one of whom.
Sabina. was very amiable and beautiful: excellencies
which the young baron of the Empire was not slow to
perceive, who accordingly offered her his heart and
hand. It is unknown to me what attitude the old
Freiherr assumed at this crisis; but from my grand-
father the young gentleman met with a decided rebuff.
The latter was unwilling that his daughter should enter
a family where she would not be treated as an equal,
holding tenaciously to the opinion of his time, that
bliss and blessing can only spring from a union of
like and like. He forbade his daughter all further

o

intercourse with the vouno* nobleman, and resolved

AUNT GROTE. 7

to facilitate the same by removing her from the
parental roof. But the young folk were manifestly
possessed by the spirit of the new era. for on the
morning of the arranged departure my grandfather
received the dire intelligence, that the young baron
had carried off his daughter the previous night. Where-
upon great excitement and hot pursuit of the flown
birds by the grandfather and his five grown-up sons.
The trail of the fugitives was followed to Blankenburg

o o

and there ended in the church. When entrance had
been effected the young couple were found stationed
at the altar, where the pastor had just pronounced
the nuptial benediction!

How the family drama immediately thereafter
developed itself it is no longer in my ability to say.
Unhappily the young husband after a few blissful
married years died without leaving any progeny. The
barony of Schauen passed therefore to collateral rela-
tions, with the annexed burden it is true of the obli-
gation to pay aunt Sabina for nearly half a century the
statutory imperial -baronial widow's pension. When a
* young artillery -officer I often visited the amiable and
sprightly old lady at Kolleda in Thuringia, whither she
had retired. "Aunt Grote"' was still beautiful even
in her old age, and formed at that time the acknow-
ledged centre of our family. For us young people she
possessed an almost irresistible charm, and it was a
real treat to hear her speak of the persons and scenes
of her to us dimly remote early life.

My father was a clever, well-educated man. He

or THE
UNIVERSITY

8 PARENTS.

had attended the grammar school at Ilfeld in the Harz,
and afterwards the University of Gottingen. in order to
prepare himself thoroughly for his chosen vocation as
agriculturist. He belonged with heart and soul to
that section of young Germany, which, growing up
amid the storms of the great French Revolution, was
enthusiastic for freedom and a united Fatherland.
Once in Cassel he had almost fallen into the clutches
of Napoleon's myrmidons, when taking part in the
weak attempts of certain visionary youths, who still
strove to offer resistance after the prostration of Prussia.
On his father's death he went to councillor Deich-
mann at Poggenhagen near Hanover, for the sake of
practical training in agriculture. There he speedily
fell in love with the councillor's eldest daughter, mv

o «/

beloved mother Eleanor Deichmann. and married her
his youth notwithstanding - - he had hardly attained
the age of 25 - - after obtaining the farming of the
Lenthe estate.

For twelve years my parents passed a happy life
in Lenthe. Unfortunately however the political con-
dition of Germany and especially of Hanover, then
again under English rule, was very depressing to a
man like my father. The English princes, who then
kept court at the Hanoverian capital, troubled them-
selves but little about the welfare of the country,
which they chiefly regarded as a hunting-ground.
The game-laws were in consequence very strict, so
that it was a common remark that in Hanover to
kill a stag was more criminal than to kill a man!

LENTHE. 9

A charge of damaging game, through the use of un-
lawful means for protecting his property, was the cause
of his leaving Hanover and seeking a new home in
Mecklenburg.

The Lenthe estate (Obergut) is situated on a
wooded ridge, the Benthe mountain, which joins on
to the extended Deister range. The stags and wild
boars, preserved for the royal chase and secure in
their inviolability, visited in large herds the Lenthe
fields with unmistakeable predilection. Although the
entire village exerted itself to protect the crops by a
nocturnal chain of guards, yet the game issuing forth
in masses often in a few hours annihilated hopes based
on the work of a whole year. In a severe winter,
when wood and field failed to afford the animals
sufficient sustenance, they frequently foraged in com-
plete herds in the villages themselves. One morning
the bailiff announced to my father that a herd of deer
had got within the farm- enclosure: the gate had been

o o

shut, and he wanted to know, what should be done with
the animals. My father gave orders that they should
be driven into a stable, and sent an express messenger
to the Royal Supreme Court Hunting Bureau in
Hanover with a notice of what had happened and
the inquiry, whether it pleased that the deer should
be sent to Hanover. That turned out however a
most unlucky business for him! After a very short
interval there appeared on the scene an imposing
commission of investigation, which liberated the stags,
and after a criminal inquiry of several days arrived

10 MENZENDORF.

at the conclusion, that violence had been offered to
the creatures, inasmuch as they had been driven
into the stall against their will! And my father
had to think himself lucky that he got off with a
heavy fine.

This is a picture in little of the then condition
of the "Royal Hanoverian Province of Great Britain"',
as my dear countrymen were pleased to call their
country with a certain pride. But even in the other
German lands the state of things was not overmuch
better, in spite of French Revolution and the glorious
War of Liberation. It were \vell if the relatively
fortunate youth of the present day now and again
compared their own condition with the woes and often
hopeless cares of their fathers, as a prophylactic
against pessimistic ideas and fancies.

The freeer surroundings, which my father sought,
he really found in the principality of Ratzeburg
appertaining to Mecklenburg-Strelitz. where he obtained
a lease of the grand- ducal domain of Menzendorf for

o

a long term of years. In this favoured little terri-
tory besides domains and peasant villages there was
only a single nobleman's estate. The peasants it is
true were still bound on the demesnes to services
incident to socage tenure, but in the years immediately
following our settling there these were abolished, and
the possession of the peasant was freed from all bur-
dens and even from almost all imposts.

Those were happy years of childhood which I and
my brothers and sisters passed in Menzendorf. growing

MENZENDORF. 1 1

up with the village youth tolerably free and unrestrained.
The first years we older children my sister Ma-

tilda. I and my younger brothers Hans and Ferdinand
- roamed at large and unhindered through wood and
wold. Our instruction was undertaken by my grand-
mother, who lived with us after her husband's death.
She taught us reading and writing and exercised our
memories by compelling us to learn by heart innumer-
able poems. Father and mother were too occupied
with their economic cares, and the latter also with
the rapidly increasing flock of my young brothers
and sisters, to be able to concern themselves much
with our education. My father was a thoroughly good-
hearted but likewise hot-tempered man, who punished
inexorably, if any of us did not do his duty, was
untruthful or guilty of a dishonourable action. Fear of
the father s wrath and affection for the mother, whose
sorrow we never intentionally occasioned, kept our little
band, otherwise somewhat unruly, in good order.
The care of the elder for the [younger children was
prescribed as primary duty. In fact it reached so far
that the seniors were punished with their juniors, if the
latter ever rendered themselves liable to punishment.
The said burden weighed especially upon me as the
eldest, and awakened and confirmed in me at a very
early age the feeling of obligation to care for my more
youthful brothers and sisters. Accordingly I assumed
the right to set the penal law in motion in respect of my
juniors, which not unfrequently led to counter-coalitions
and violent combats, which however were always fought

12 MENZENDORF.

out without invoking the parental intervention. I call
to mind an incident of that time, which I will relate,
as it is characteristic of our youthful life.

My brother Hans and I were wont to assail, and
not in vain, crows and birds of prey with self-fabri-
cated cross-bows, in the use of which we attained great
precision. One day. a dispute arising in connection
with the chase. I took the liberty of putting in prac-
tice the right of the stronger. My brother declared
this to be base, and demanded that the dispute should
be settled by a duel, in which my superior strength
would give me no advantage. I found that equitable,
and we proceeded to a cross-bow duel correct accor-
ding to the rules, which we had learnt from occasional
stories of my father of his student life. Ten paces
were measured off. and at my word of command
"Now" we both discharged our feathered arrows with
knitting-needle for head at one another. Brother Hans
had aimed well. His arrow hit the tip of my nose and
penetrated under the skin to the root. Our joint outcry
brought the father on the scene, who pulled out the
arrow and thereupon prepared for the chastisement of
the delinquent by taking out his pipe -stem. This con-
flicted with my sense of right. I stepped with decision
between father and brother and said: "Father it isn't
Hans' fault, we have been fighting a duel." I see still
the puzzled face of my father, who in justice could not
punish what he had done himself and considered honour-
able. He quietly replaced the pipe-stem in the bowl
adding only: "In future leave such nonsense alone."

TUITION. 13

When my sister and I outgrew the tuition of
grandmother Deichmann - - nee vori Scheiter, as she
never forgot to sign herself my father himself

undertook our instruction for half a year. The outline
of universal history arid ethnography, which he dictated
to us. was spirited and original, and formed the foun-
dation of my later knowledge. When I had reached
the age of eleven my sister was sent to a boarding-
school at Ratzeburg, whilst I attended the grammar-
school of the neighbouring market -town Schonberg
from Menzendorf. In fine weather I had to do the
something like three miles distance on foot. In wet
weather the footways were impassable, and I rode to
school on a pony. This, and my habit of always
being a match for practical jokes, soon led to chronic
war with the town -scholars, through whose midst
I had generally to force a way, lance, i. e. bean-stick,
in rest. This tourney, in which the farmer lads of
my village sometimes assisted me, continued a wrhole
year. It certainly contributed a good deal to call
forth my active powers, yielded however only very
indifferent scientific results.

A decided turning-point of my life occurred at
Easter 1828, when my father engaged a private tutor.
The choice was an exceedingly fortunate one. Spon-
holz. candidate of theology, was still a young man. He
was highly cultured, but in bad odour with his spiritual
superiors, his theology being too rationalistic, too little
positive, as one would say now^-a-days. Over us semi-
savage youths he contrived, even in the first weeks,

14 TUTOR SPONHOLZ.

to obtain a power mysterious! to me to this day. He
never punished us. hardly ever uttered a word of
blame, shared however frequently in our games, and
had the knack even through the medium of play of
evoking our good qualities and repressing our bad
ones. His teaching was in the highest degree stimu-
lating and ericoiira<rino\ He understood how to set

O DO

up really attainable goals for our labours, and streng-
thened our energies and our ambition by his delight
at the attainment of the proposed goal, which he himself
frankly shared with us. Thus he succeeded in very
few weeks in making out of unruly lazy boys the most
eager and industrious scholars, whom he had not to
urge to work, but rather to keep from attempting
too much.

In me especially he awakened the inextinguishable
feeling of delight in useful work and the ambitious

o o

desire actually to perform it. An important expedient
employed by him for this purpose was his stories.
If late in the evening our eyes began to close over
our work, he would beckon us to him on the leather
sofa wrhere he used to sit beside our work-table, and
whilst we clung to him paint us pictures of our own
future. These either represented as at the heights of
civil life, that we had scaled through industry and
moral fitness, and which enabled us to lessen the cares
of our parents • very considerable in that time of
great difficulty for the agriculturist - - or depicted our
wretched fate, if we relaxed in our efforts, and were
unable to resist temptation to evil.

SPOXHOLZ'S SUCCESSOR. 15

Unfortunately this happiest period of my boyhood
did not last long, not even a full year. Sponholz
had often attacks of deep melancholy, which probably
in part arose from his mistaken theological calling
and career, in part from causes which were unintel-
ligible to us children. During one such attack he
left the house on a dark winter's night, gun in hand,
and after a prolonged search was found in a remote
part of the estate with shattered skull. Our grief at
the loss of the beloved friend and teacher was
boundless. My own love and gratitude to him I have
retained to the present day.

Sponholz's successor was an elderly gentleman,
who had for years filled the office of private tutor
in noblemen's families. He was in almost all respects
the reverse of his predecessor. His educational system
was of a wholly formal character. He required that
before all things we should be docile and mannerly.
Anything boisterous was especially his aversion. We
had to be attentive and do our tasks at the prescribed
times, accompany him with decorum in our walks,
and riot disturb him out of school hours. The poor
man was sickly and after two years died of con-
sumption in our house. A stimulating and moulding
influence he certainly did not exert, and had it not been
for the previous training of Sponholz, whose effect was
enduring, the two years would have been pretty well
thrown away, at least as far as I and my brother
Hans were concerned. As for me the desire to do my
duty and to learn thoroughly had, thanks to Sponholz,

16 LUBECK GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

become so engrained, that so far from my ardour
being damped I rather urged the tutor to my pace.
In subsequent years the thought has often given
me a pang, that I so often robbed the poor sick
man of his needful rest by remaining after the close
of lessons for hours together at my desk, quietly
ignoring all the little devices he employed to be
rid of me.

On the death of the second tutor my father
determined to send brother Hans and myself to the
Lubeck grammar-school, the so-called Catherine
School, and carried out the plan after my confir-
mation in the parish church at Liibsee. As a result
of the entrance examination I was put in the upper,
and my brother in the lower fourth form. We were
placed in no regular boarding house , but lodged
with a Lubeck citizen, who at the same time boarded
us. My father had such an unbounded faith in my
trustworthiness that he also gave me the entire
custody of my somewhat giddy brother, whose law-
less nature had again come to the surface, as is evi-
dent from the nickname given him by the school
"mad Hans".

St. Catherine's School, Lubeck, consisted of the
grammar-school proper and the city school, both
under the same head-master and having similar classes
as far as the fourth form of the grammar-school. The
latter at that time enjoyed considerable scholastic
repute. The instruction was mainly confined to the
dead languages. The teaching in mathematics was

SCHOOL -STUDIES. 17

extremely defective and did not satisfy me ; in this
subject I was put into a higher class, although up
to that time I had only worked at Mathematics by
myself, as neither of my tutors knew anything of
it. The ancient languages on the other hand gave me
a great deal of trouble, through lack of thorough
grounding. Much as the study of the Classics interested
and excited me, the acquisition of the grammatical
rules, which offered no material for thought and

o

positive knowledge, was distasteful to me. In the
two following years I conscientiously worked myself
up to the highest form, perceived however, that I
should never find satisfaction in the study of ancient
languages, and resolved to devote myself to architecture, *
at that time the only technical branch. Accordingly
in the fifth form I dropped the study of Greek, and
took instead private lessons in Mathematics and land-
surveying, in order to prepare myself for entrance
into the Academy of Architecture at Berlin. On further
inquiry, however, it unhappily appeared that the course
at the Academy was too expensive, (at a time of ever-
increasing difficulty for the cultivators of the soil,
when the selling price of wheat was a florin per bushel)
to allow of my imposing so great a sacrifice upon my
parents, having regard to the interests of my younger
brothers and sisters.

- In these straits I found relief in the advice of
my preceptor in land-surveying, Freiherr von Billzings-
lowen, lieutenant in the Li'ibeck contingent, who had
formerly served in the Prussian artillery. He advised

UNIVERSITY

18 CHOICE OF A VOCATION.

me to join the corps of Engineers, where I should
have the opportunity of acquiring the same know-
ledge as a student of the Academy of Architecture.
When I confided this plan to my father he at once
consented, giving an additional important reason in its
favour, the truth of which has been clearly demonstrated
by recent German history. He said "The present
condition of things in Germany cannot possibly last.
A time will come when everything will be turned topsy
turvy. The only fixed point in Germany is however
the state of Frederick the Great and the Prussian
Army, and in such times it is always better to be
hammer than anvil." Accordingly at Easter 1834, in
my seventeenth year, I quitted the grammar-school,
and repaired with a very moderate supply of money
in my pocket to Berlin, in order to place myself among
the hammers of the future.

When the painful leave-taking of the old home,
of the intensely loved but overburdened and ailing
mother, and the numerous brothers and sisters affec-
tionately clinging to me, had been gone through.
my father took me to Schwerin, and from there
I entered on my pilgrimage. After I had crossed the
Prussian frontier and found myself on a straight dusty
road in the midst of a treeless and barren sandy
plain, the feeling of a terrible loneliness overcame me,
which was intensified by the melancholy contrast of
the landscape with the old familiar scenery. Before my

JOURNEY TO BERLIN. 19

departure a deputation of the most respected peasants
of the place had presented itself to my father with the
petition not to send "so good a lad'' to that famine-
stricken land Prussia: I should always find plenty to
eat at home! The peasants would hardly credit my
father, that beyond the desolate sandy borders lay
also fertile land in Prussia. Despite my firm resolve
to seek my advancement in the world through my
own efforts, it did indeed for a moment seem as
if the peasants were right and I was wending towards
a sorry future. It was therefore a consolation when
I met in my journeying a cheery and cultivated
young man, who like me was tramping knapsack
on back Berlinwards. He was no stranger there, and
proposed that I should go writh him to his inn, which
he greatly praised.

It was the button-maker's inn in which I took up
my quarters for the first night in Berlin. The host
soon perceived that I did not belong to his regular
patrons, and accorded me his good will. He protected
me from the tricks of the young button - makers,
and assisted me on the following day to discover the
address of a distant relative, Lieutenant von Huet, in
the Horse Artillery of the Guards. Cousin Huet
received me kindly, was seized by a mortal terror how-
ever when he heard I had put up at the button-
maker's inn. He at once gave orders to his servant
to fetch my knapsack from the inn and to engage a
room for me in a small hotel in the new Friedrich-
strasse, offered also after the needful improvement of

20 REQUEST FOR ADMISSION INTO THE PRUSSIAN ARMY.

my toilet to proceed with me to General you Ranch,
the chief of the corps of Engineers, and to inform
him of my desire.

The general strongly dissuaded me. as so many
cadets were already waiting their call to the artillery
and engineering school, so that I could not hope to get
in in less than four or five years. He advised me
to try the Artillery, whose cadets attended the same
school as the engineers and had considerably better
prospects*- I accordingly made up my mind to try my
luck in the artillery, and as there was no getting into
the Guards, I obtained an introduction from lieutenant
von Huet's father, colonel on the retired list, to Colonel
von Scharnhorst, commander of the 3rd Artillery-
Brigade, and proceeded blithe of heart to Magdeburg.

' The colonel - - a son of the celebrated organizer
of the Prussian army also indeed at first made

sundry difficulties, remarking that the applications for
cadetships were very numerous, and that of the
fifteen young men, who had already offered them-
selves, he could only take the four \vho should pass
the best examination* He finally however acceded
to my request, and promised to admit me to the
examination, provided his Majesty the King was pleased
to allow me, although a foreigner, to enter the army
of Prussia. My frank resolute bearing evidently took
his fancy; but most influential perhaps was the circum-
stance, that he saw from my papers that my mother
was a Deichmann of Poggenhageri, which adjoined his
father's estate.

ENTRANCE EXAMINATION. 21

As the entrance examination was not to take
place till the end of October I had still three months
for preparation. I therefore moved to Rhoden on
the northern slope of the Harz, where a brother of
my father owned some property, and there spent a
few weeks in familiar intercourse with my relations,
of whom the two pretty and amiable grown-up daughters
in particular made a great impression upon me; I
willingly allowed them to exercise their refining in-
fluence on the young and still somewhat unpolished
cousin. Then I went with my cousin Louis Siemens,
my junior by a few years, to Halberstadt, where I
prepared myself in good earnest for the entrance
examination.

The programme of the examination placed in my
hands by Colonel von Scharnhorst caused me however
a good deal of uneasiness. In addition to Mathematics,
History Geography and French were especially required,
and these subjects had been taught at the Ltibeck
grammar-school only in a very superficial manner.
I could scarcely hope to make good my deficiences in a
couple of months. There wras still wanting my discharge
from the Mecklenburg military service, which my father
would have to purchase, and the permission of the
King to enter the Prussian army. I inarched, therefore,
towards the middle of October with a heavy heart to
Magdeburg, where I was disappointed in not finding
the expected letter from home along with the necessary
papers. When nevertheless I was just about to start
for the examination at the prescribed hour, to my

22 ENTRANCE EXAMINATION.

great and joyful surprise I was met by my father, who
had himself driven over to Magdeburg in a light con-
veyance, in order to deliver into my hands the papers
by the right time, as the post in those days was far
from expeditious.

The examination took a favourable course for me
from the commencement, and beyond my expectation.
In Mathematics I was decidedly ahead of my fourteen
competitors. In History I had luck, and got off tolerably
well. In modern languages I was certainly weaker
than the others, but my better knowledge of the ancient
languages made up for it. The outlook was worse in
Geography; I soon perceived that most of them knew
more of the subject than I did. But here I was
favoured by a particularly lucky coincidence. The
examiner was a certain Captain Meiriicke, who had
the reputation of being a very learned and at the
same time original man. He passed for a great con-
noisseur of Tokay wine, as I afterwards learnt, and
that was perhaps the reason of his curiosity regarding
the situation of Tokay. No one knew, whereupon he
waxed very wrath. When my turn came last of all by
good hap it occurred to me, that Tokay wine had once
been prescribed to my invalid mother, and that it had
also borne the name of Hungarian wine. At my answer
"In Hungary, Captain!" his face brightened up, and
with the exclamation "But, gentlemen, you must
surely know Tokay wine!" he gave me the highest
mark in Geography.

So I was one of the fortunate four who had passed

AS RECRUIT. 23

the best examination, but still had to wait four anxious
weeks for the royal permission to enter the army, and
when at the end of November it arrived, I could not
immediately be admitted, because I had only been
born on the 13th of December 1816, and so had not
yet passed my seventeenth year. I, however, was
allowed a special drill-sergeant, who strenuously drilled
me in civilian dress in the Cathedral square.

My performance soon gained the approval of the
severe bombardier, although there was one point
which almost drove him to despair. I had extremely
curly light -brown hair, that absolutely refused to
conform to the military regulations , which required
that the hair should lie evenly on the temples. On
inspection-day the captain had expressed displeasure at
the disorderly hair of the recruit, and in consequence,
all conceivable experiments were instituted to conceal
in a measure this military blemish. The sediment of
a favourite Magdeburg beer seemed to be most effective.
I was obliged to order many a bottle for the purpose,
as unfortunately only the sediment could be of any
use to me. After repeated applications I succeeded
in rendering my hair tolerably smooth, but after an
interval it showed symptoms of revolt, and usually
on parade to the horror of the bombardier certain
rebellious locks persisted in protruding from the even
layer.

Despite the great exertions exacted, and the rough
and apparently harsh treatment at the hand of the drill-
sergeant. I still look back with pleasure to my time

24 PROMOTION.

when a recruit. The roughness is sheer habit arid
does not spring from intention to inflict pain. It
therefore does not go very deep, on the contrary has
something refreshing and stimulating about it. especially
if combined with humour, as has almost always been
the case with the models of military harshness known
to fame. The service over the incivility is forgotten.
and the feeling of comradeship is again uppermost.
The feeling of comradeship, which pervades the entire
Prussian Army from king to recruit, renders the strict
discipline, the toils and hardships reaching often to the
extreme limit of the capacity to undergo them, endu-
rable, and constitutes its cementing bond in woe and
weal. It will, accordingly, be often very hard for the
military veteran to feel comfortable in civil life: he
misses therein the reckless rudeness on a substructure
of good fellowship.

After six months drill came the great event of
advancement to the post of bombardier. It was an
elevating feeling to be now the superior of hundreds
and thousands and to be duly saluted by every private./
Then followed the order to the horse artillery, then
the interesting artillery practice, in which for the
first time I became aware of my technical abilities,
since what most found hard to comprehend appeared
to me matter of course. Lastly, in the autumn of 1835,
I received the longed-for order to attend the school
of the united artillery and engineers in Berlin, and
therewith the fulfilment of my ardent desire to have
an opportunity to learn something useful.

ARTILLERY AND ENGINEERING SCHOOL. 25

The three years, which from the autumn of 1835
to the summer of 1838 I spent at the Berlin Artillery
and Engineering School. I reckon to the happiest of
my life. The sociable life with young people of the
same age and with the same aims, the common study
under the guidance of able teachers, of whom I will
only name the mathematician Ohm. the physicist
Magnus, and the chemist Erdmann. whose instruction
opened to me a world new and full of interest,
made this time one of extraordinary enjoyment. In
addition to that. I found in one of the comrades
of my brigade, William Meyer, a real friend, with
whom till his death I was united by the bond of
the closest and completest friendship. I had before at
the Ltibeck grammar-school entered on the first stage
of such an intimate friendly alliance, and imagined
I had found in a fellow pupil a genuine friend, but
on calling upon him one day he gave orders to say he
was not at home, although I was perfectly sure that
he was in the house and concealing himself from me.
That appeared to me such an unpardonable breach of
proper friendship, that I severed the tie with intense
pain, and could never again bring myself to treat him
as a friend.

William Meyer I got to know when the horse-
artillery was stationed at Burg, whither he had been
ordered before me. He had a far from imposing
figure, was in no respect distinguished or talented,
possessed however a clear understanding, and pleased
me from the first by his straightforward unaffected

26 FRIEND MEYER. DUELS.

nature, and his unimpeachable sincerity and trustworthi-
ness. We chummed together at the School, lived and
studied together, had the same quarters then and
thenceforward, whenever circumstances allowed of
it. Our notorious friendship and the circumstance
that I revolted against the "tyranny of the ensigns",
which led to a duel with the senior of my room,
in which Meyer acted as my second, had the curious
result, that in almost all the duels which occurred in
the first year at the School. Meyer and I were chosen
as seconds of the opposing parties.

These duels were only in a few instances followed
by dangerous consequences, had however so far a very
useful effect as they tended to preserve a polite tone
in social intercourse.

Our year was the first in which the cadets were
admitted in limited numbers after a pretty stiff entrance
examination, and were then ordered to the School on
the completion of their year of service. Before that
no difference was made between the candidates for
commissions and others, and it was then often only
after the lapse of several years of service, which in
part had to be spent in barracks, that the ablest or
perhaps the best- recommended were ordered to the
School. The somewhat unpolished tone, which had
clung to the young fellows through prolonged inter-
course with unrefined comrades, was most effectively
and quickly corrected by means of the duels.

My three years at the military school passed
without any important events. Although I suffered much

EXAMINATIONS. VISIT TO MENZENDORF. 27

from attacks of intermittent fever, and once also was
obliged to lie several months in hospital on account of
injury to the shin, yet I contrived to pass successfully
the three examinations - - the ensign, the army -officer
and finally the artillery -officer examination, although
without special distinction. I had with inflexible industry
crammed the required matter into my head in order
afterwards to forget it as quickly again, but had de-
voted all my spare time to my favourite sciences,
Mathematics. Physics and Chemistry. The fondness
for these sciences has remained all through my life,
and has been at the bottom of my after successes.

Great was the joy when the school course com-
pleted. I received a four weeks furlough to visit my
home along with my friend Meyer. My brothers and
sisters, whose number had risen to ten. and even my
parents hardly recognized me.

The whole village rejoiced with them on the return
of the "Muschu", the traditional title of the sons
of "the Manor". There were really touching meetings
with the worthy people of our own and the neighbouring
villages, who for the rest had great respect for the
Prussian officers, in whom certainly they perceived no
signs of Prussia's starving condition.

My elder sister Matilda was just celebrating her
wedding with Professor Karl Himly from Gottingen, who
remained a dear friend of mine until his death. Hans
and Ferdinand had become farmers. My third younger
brother, William, was at the school at Liibeck and
was destined for commerce. The next two, Frederick

28 BROTHER WILLIAM.

and Charles, likewise attended the Liibeek School, where
they boarded with a younger brother of my mother,
Ferdinand Deichmann, merchant.

That William' was fo be a business -man didn't at
all please me. At that time I shared the aversion
of Prussian officers to the mercantile class, and also
William's somewhat reserved but intelligent nature
and his clear understanding particularly attracted me.
I accordingly begged my parents to let him accompany
me to my future garrison -town Magdeburg, that he
might attend the highly esteemed school of Trade and
Commerce of that place. The parents consented, and
so we took him with us to Magdeburg, where I installed
him in a small boarding-house, having myself according
to the regulations to reside the first year in barracks.

At the expiration of this year, which I had to
devote entirely to the strict military service, friend
Meyer and I took up our quarters in the town, and
I brought William, now sixteen years of age, to reside
with me. I had a parternal delight in watching his
rapid development, and helped him with his school tasks
in my leisure hours. I also induced him to give up
the unsatisfactory lessons in Mathematics at the school
and to learn English instead. This turned out very
important for his future career. I myself gave him
mathematical instruction every morning from 5 to 7.
and was rewarded by the particularly good exami-
nation he afterwards passed in that subject. To my-
self this tuition was of great utility, and it also made
it easier for me to resist the temptations of an officer's

DEATH OF THE PARENTS. 29

life, as well as stimulated me energetically to continue
my scientific studies.

Unhappily this fraternal intercourse was much
troubled by the increasingly ominous communications
of my father regarding the health of our beloved
mother. On the 8th of July 1839 she succumbed to
her malady, leaving my father, himself ailing, weighed
down with sorrow and serious material cares, together
with the numerous children still to be educated, in a
very doleful condition. I forego the description of the
poignant grief on the mother's loss. The love for her
was the strong tie that held the family together, and
the fear of distressing her always formed for us children
the most effective guarantee for our good behaviour.

I received a brief furlough to visit our home and
my mother's grave. Unhappily the enfeebled health
of my father inspired me with but little confidence in
the duration of a regular family life, favourable to the
prosperity and development of the younger members.
The correctness of my foreboding was only too soon
confirmed. In barely half a year, on the 16th January
1840. we also lost our father.

On the death of the parents, guardians were ap-
pointed by the court of ward for the younger children,
and the management of the domain of Menzendorf
was entrusted to my brothers Hans arid Ferdinand.
My youngest sister Sophia was adopted by Uncle
Deichmann in Ltibeck, whilst the youngest brothers
Walter and Otto remained for the present under the
grandmother's care in Menzendorf. -

30 DANGEROUS EXPERIMENTS.

The scientific -technical studies, to which I now
devoted myself with increased ardour, nearly had
very serious consequences in the following summer.
I had heard that my cousin, the Hanoverian artillery
officer A. Siemens, had made some successful experi-
ments with friction fuses, which were intended to be
used for the firing of canon in place of the hand fuses
then exclusively employed. The importance of this
discovery was evident to me. and I resolved myself
to make experiments in this direction. As the inflam-
matory materials employed did not act with sufficient
certainty, in the absence of better implements I stirred
up together an aqueous solution of phosphorus and
chlorate of potash in a pomatum bowl with very thick
bottom, and placed the bowl, as I had to go to the
drill ground, carefully covered, in a cool window corner.

When I returned and looked with some anxiety
for my dangerous preparation I found it to my satis-
faction still in the same corner. But on carefully
taking it up and barely touching the match standing
in the paste, which had served to stir up the mixture,
a violent explosion took place, which hurled the shako
from my head and shattered all the window-panes
together with their frames. The entire upper part of
the porcelain bowl was scattered about the room in
the form of fine powder, whilst its stout bottom was
wedged firmly into the window sill.

The cause of this altogether unexpected explosion
turned out to be this: that my man on cleaning the
room had placed the vessel in the oven, and let it

ORDERED TO WITTENBERG. 31

dry there a few hours before putting it back in its
place. Strange to say I was not visibly wounded, only
the violent pressure of the air had so contused the
skin of my left hand, that the forefinger and thumb
were covered by a large haematocystis. Unfortunately,
however, the drum of my right ear was fractured,
which I immediately perceived from the circumstance
that I was able to blow out the air through both
ears: the drum of the left ear had been burst the
year before during artillery practice. I was in con-
sequence for the moment quite deaf and had heard
no sound, when suddenly the door of my room opened
and I saw the whole anteroom full of horror-stricken
people. The report had immediately spread that one
of the two officers resident in the lodgings had shot
himself.

In consequence of this mishap I have long suffered
of difficulty of hearing and still suffer from time to
time, whenever the closed rents in the tympana chance
to open.

In the autumn of 1840 I was transferred to Witten-
berg, where I had to enjoy for a year the dubious
pleasures of life in a small garrison -town. All the
more eagerly did I continue my scientific studies. In
that year Jacobi's discovery was made known in Ger-
many of precipitating copper in a metallic form by
means of the galvanic current from a solution of the
sulphate. This process interested me in a high degree,
as it evidently was the key to a whole class of hitherto
unknown phenomena. As I succeeded well with the

32 CONSEQUENCES OF A DUEL.

copper precipitates I tried also to precipitate other
metals in the same way, but only with moderate success
owing to my limited means and apparatus.

My studies were interrupted by an event, which
in its consequences had an important influence on
my future career. The frequent squabbles in the
smaller garrison towns between the members of different

o

branches of the service had led to a duel between an
infantry officer and an artillery officer with whom I
was on friendly terms. I had to act as the latter" s
second. Although the duel terminated with only an

insignificant wound sustained by the infantry officer,

o «/ t/

it came for certain reasons to be taken notice of and
to be dealt with by a court-martial. The statutory
punishments for duelling in Prussia were at that time
Draconian in their severity, but precisely on that
account were almost always mitigated by an early
pardon. In fact by the court-martial held in Magde-
burg the principals were condemned to ten and the
seconds to five years imprisonment in the fortress.

I was condemned to confinement in the citadel
of Magdeburg and had to report myself there on the
confirmation of the sentence. The prospect of being
shut up for at least half a year without occupation was
not pleasant, but 1 consoled myself with the thought
that I should have a good deal of leisure time for
my studies. In order to make good use of this time
I searched out a chemist's shop on my way to the
citadel, and provided myself with the necessary means
for pursuing my experiments in electrolysis. A friendly

EXPERIMENTS IN THE CITADEL. 33

young fellow in the business promised not only to
smuggle these articles into the citadel, but also to
execute promptly future orders, and conscientiously
kept his promise.

Accordingly I set up a small laboratory in my
barred but roomy cell and was quite contented with
my situation. Fortune favoured me in my work.
I remembered that some time ago I had tried ex-
periments with my brother-in-law Himly in Gottingen
for the production of pictures according to the process
made known a little while before by Daguerre, and
that hyposulphite of soda employed in these experiments
had dissolved otherwise insoluble salts of gold and silver.
I determined therefore to proceed on these lines, and to
test the applicability of such solutions for electrolysis.
To my unspeakable joy the experiments succeeded in
a surprising manner. I believe it was one of the happiest
moments of my life \vhen a German silver tea-spoon,
which I had dipped into a beaker filled with a solution
of hyposulphite of gold and connected with the zinc
pole of a Daniell battery, whilst the copper pole was
connected with a louis d'or as anode, changed in a
few minutes into a golden spoon of the finest and
purest lustre.

Galvanic gilding and plating was then, at least

c5 c5 i c> 7

in Germany, still quite new and naturally caused a
sensation in the circle of my comrades and acquain-
tances. I almost immediately concluded a bargain with
a Magdeburg jeweller, who had heard of the marvel and
visited me in the citadel, wrhereby I sold him the right

34 RELEASE.

of making use of my process for forty louis (For. which
supplied me with the required means for making further
experiments.

In the meantime a month of my confinement had
elapsed, and I imagined I should have at least a few
more months quietly to continue my work. I improved
my apparatus and lodged a petition for a patent,
whereupon with surprising rapidity a Prussian patent
for five years was granted me. But the officer of
the guard unexpectedly appeared and to my great
terror. I must confess, handed me a royal order-in-
council announcing my pardon. It was really hard to
be so suddenly torn from my successful activity.
According to the regulations I was obliged to leave
the citadel the same day, and had neither an abode
into which I could put my effects and apparatus, nor
any idea whither I should be ordered.

I therefore drew up a petition to the commander
of the fortress, in which I begged to be allowed to
occupy my cell for a few more days, in order that I
might arrange my affairs and finish my experiments.
I came off badly by that however! Towards midnight
I was awakened by the entrance of the officer of the
guard, who communicated to me that he had received
orders to turn me at once out of the citadel. The
commander had regarded it as a sign of ingratitude
for the royal favour extended to me. that I desired a
prolongation of my imprisonment. Accordingly about
midnight I was conducted out of the citadel with my
effects and had to get a lodging in the town.

ORDERED TO THE FIREWORK LABORATORY. 35

Luckily I was not again sent to Wittenberg, but

«/ O-

received an order to go to the pyrotechnic factory
at Spandau. My discovery had in the eyes of my
superiors doubtless made me appear less qualified for
active service! The firework factory was a relic of
the old times when "gunnery*' (Coristablerthum) was
still an art. of which the manufacture of fireworks was
held to be the crown. My interest in the activity
assigned to me was great; in good spirits I repaired
to Spandau and took possession of the rooms in the
citadel allotted to the pyrotechnic manufacture.

My new occupation was in fact very interesting,
and I devoted myself to it with the greater eagerness
as a large order had arrived at the pyrotechnic
department for a quantity of fireworks, which it was
intended to let off on the birthday of the Russian
Empress in the park of Prince Charles at Glienicke
near Potsdam. Owing to the progress of chemistry
means were afforded at that time for the production
of very beautiful coloured flames unknown to the old
gunners. My fireworks on the Havel lake at Glienicke
brought me therefore much honour and recognition
especially by the splendour of their colours. I was
asked to the prince's table, and received an invitation
to engage the young Prince Frederick Charles in a

o o «/ o

sail ing -match, as the sailing boat in which I had

c o

come from Spandau to Glienicke had distinguished
itself by its excellent speed. I had the honour of
conquering the future victor of famous battles, who
even then impressed me in a high degree by his

36 ORDERED TO BERLIN. BROTHER WILLIAM.

resolute energetic character or his "smartness", as
one now expresses it.

With the letting off of these fireworks my com-
mand of the pyrotechnic factory came to an end. and
to inv delight I was ordered to Berlin for service in

t/ O

the ordnance department. Through this transference
my greatest wish was fulfilled, to obtain time and
opportunity for further scientific studies and for increa-
sing my technical knowledge.

But there were also other reasons which made
this change welcome to me. After my parents" death
the duty devolved upon me of providing for my
younger brothers and sisters, of whom my youngest
brother Otto was at our mother's death only in his
third year. The farming of the domains still remained
it is true for a term of years in the hands of the
family, but the times continued to be extremely bad
for agriculture, so that the slight profits, which were
made by my brothers Hans and Ferdinand by farming,
did not suffice for the education of the children. I was
therefore obliged to look out for some way of earning
money in order to fulfil my obligations as senior of
the family, and that appeared to me to be easier in
Berlin than elsewhere.

My brother William had meanwhile completed
his course at the Magdeburg School, and at my sug-
gestion had gone for a year to Gottingen. to sister
Matilda, in order to prosecute his scientific studies.
After that he entered as pupil the Count Stolberg
engineering works in Magdeburg. He there devoted

INTRODUCTION OF THE PROCESS OF GILDING & SILVERING. 37

himself with great energy to practical engineering,
which just then was undergoing rapid development
in Germany in consequence of the introduction of
railways.

I kept up a frequent correspondence with William,
and got him to communicate to me the problems
which exercised his constructive faculty. One such
problem was the precise regulation of steam engines,
which were assisted by wind or water mills. William's
plan did not satisfy me. and I proposed to employ
as regulative principle a heavy freely swinging circular
pendulum, which, connected with the engine to be
regulated by a differential mechanism, might effect
an absolutely uniform rotation, instead of diminishing
the irregularities by the only means then known, the
very imperfect regulator of Watt. To this suggestion
was due the construction of the differential governor,
to which I shall return in the sequel.

In Berlin my efforts to earn money by my in-
ventions were soon attended with success, although I

o

was very much hampered by being as military officer
considerably restricted in the choice of devices for
initiating business undertakings. I succeeded in con-
eluding an agreement with the German -silver manu-
facturer J. Henniger, by which I agreed to set up
an establishment for him for gilding and plating in
accordance with my patent in return for a share
in the profits. Thus arose the first establishment of
the kind in Germany. In England a Mr. Elkington
had already started a similar establishment, employing

38 WILLIAM'S FIRST SUCCESS IN ENGLAND.

another process, now in general use - - viz. depositing
from gold arid silver cyanides - - which soon obtained
great success.

In the negoeiations with regard to the Berlin

o J~

plan and the fitting up of the establishment I was
materially assisted by my brother William, who had
paid me a holiday Arisit, and who succeeded at the
same time in inducing a Berlin engineering firm to
adopt the differential governor. As he clearly showed
talent for such negociations and himself wanted to get
to know England, we agreed that he should try to
utilize my inventions in that country and for this
purpose obtain a longer leave of absence from his
factory. Considerable means I could certainly not afford
him for his journey, and I have often wondered how
in spite of this he attained his end. With excellent
judgment he went straight to our competitor Elkington.
who at first cut him short with the remark that
we had no right to use our process in England . as
his patent gave him the exclusive right to employ
electric currents, produced by electric batteries or
by induction, for depositing gold and silver. William
had sufficient presence of mind to reply that we
employed thermo-electric currents, therefore did not
infringe his patent. 1 did in fact at once succeed in
making a thermo-electric battery, consisting of pairs
of bars of iron arid German silver, with which we
could very well precipitate gold and silver from hypo-
sulphite solutions. As a consequence William succeeded
in selling our English patent to Elkington for £ 1 500.

FURTHER INVENTIONS. 39

This in our then circumstances was a colossal sum,
which put for some time an end to our financial
difficulties.

On his return from England William re-entered
his Magdeburg factory, but soon found he had lost
his relish for such small undertakings, after becoming
acquainted with the large scale of English industrial
operations and acquiring a taste for English life. He
accordingly proposed to settle in England, and as
I approved of the project, we took out a patent there
for the jointly elaborated differential-governor, in order
to facilitate its introduction into England.

I had meanwhile made two more discoveries
which William was likewise to try to turn to account
there. The prosecution of my experiments in electro-
lysis had led me to attempt to get also good deposits
of nickel from a solution of the double salt of sulphate
of nickel and sulphate of ammonia. This nickelizing
appeared of especial importance for engraved copper-
plate which, provided with a coating of nickel, allowed
of a far larger number of impressions, without the
fineness of the engraving being blunted by the
nickelizing. To derive benefit from this process I had
made a compact with a Berlin house, from which
I expected considerable profit. Unluckily, however,
soon afterwards the galvanic depositing of iron from
the corresponding iron solution was discovered, which
had the great advantage over the nickel coating, that

O O O'

it could be easily renewed, when worn out. in that
the iron could be again liberated by dilute sulphuric

40 JOURNEY TO ENGLAND.

acid arid the plate then coated afresh with iron. This
made my nickelizing worthless for this purpose. A few
years later it was again discovered and made known
by Professor Bottger. but has only in recent times
been much employed in industrial operations.

The second discovery consisted in the application
of the zinc printing to a rotating fly-press, which process
had just then come to be known. With the help of a
skilful mechanician, the watch-maker Leorihardt. I had
prepared a model of such a press, which very satis-
factorily executed the necessary operations for producing
lithographic impressions from a cylindrical zinc plate.
But it subsequently turned out on its employment on
the large scale by William in England that zinc printing
allowed of no rapid repetition of impressions. After
from 150 to 200 impressions the work had to be
interrupted for a pretty long time, or else an obliteration
of the reprint on the cylinder took place.

When my brother in England met with these
difficulties I obtained a six week's furlough and visited
him in London, wrhere he had rented a small place
for our experiments in a narrow lane of the City near
the Mansion House. Despite the most strenuous efforts
we could not however succeed in overcoming the diffi-
culties. We succeeded indeed in obtaining re-impressions
from even century old prints by a regenerating process
— by continuous heating, if I remember rightly, in a
solution of salts of barium — arid our process, to
which we had given the grand name "anastatic prin-
ting", accordingly excited in England much attention

RETURN VIA PARIS. 41

and contributed to making William known there; but
it soon became clear to us that speculative inventions
are a very uncertain affair and only in very rare cases
lead to good results, unless supported by thorough
knowledge and ample means.

To me personally the journey to England proved
very stimulating, and at the same time gave a more
earnest and critical direction to my further endeavours,
leading me to look rather at the solidity of my foun-
dations than at the hoped for result. This was still
more confirmed by my return journey through Paris,
where in the then flourishing time of the rule of Louis
Philippe the first great French Industrial Exhibition
was taking place.

Unfortunately my stay in Paris was disturbed by
an unpleasant incident. I had intended to decide in
Brussels whether I should return by way of Paris or
by direct route, had arranged therefore with William
that he should send to Paris the money requisite for
the strengthening of my travelling budget, if I should
write him to that effect from Brussels. When I deci-
ded therefore to take the journey to Paris. I sent
with the request for money my Paris address and
entrusted the letter to the landlord of my hotel.

Arriving in Paris . perched on the top of an
omnibus of the messageries generates after a two days
journey. I found the city in consequence of the Exhi-
bition filled to overflowing, and succeeded only with
difficulty in obtaining a small garret room on the
eighth floor of the hotel des messageries generates, in

42 TRIBULATIONS IN PARIS.

which it was only possible to stand upright if the
window which served also for roof were placed hori-
zontally. As my cash had in consequence of the extra
travelling been reduced to a minimum I could not
think of a change of residence until the expected
remittance had arrived. Almost a fortnight passed
however. A young Berliner who had come to Paris
for the Exhibition found himself in the same plight.
We had very thoroughly to study the art of living
in Paris without money, and being entirely without
acquaintances or other sources of assistance found
ourselves at last in a very uncomfortable position.
Finally we simultaneously resolved to employ our
remaining resources in despatching letters to London
and Berlin, as at that time only prepaid letters were
accepted. At the post-office it turned out. however,
that my ready money was not quite sufficient for the
purpose. The young Berliner - - Sehwarzlose was his
name - - magnanimously came to my assistance, but was
then obliged to forego the dispatch of his own missive.
his funds benw now exhausted.

o

This magnanimity found its reward, for on the
same evening the longed-for money-letter from my
brother arrived, instead of after the lapse of a week,
as I had feared. The postage of the Brussels letter
had been embezzled by the boots of the hotel, the
Post-Office authorities had therefore not despatched
the letter, had however written to the addressee that
if he desired to have it he must remit the postage.
Only after my brother had done this, and had received

NEW AIMS. 43

the letter containing my address, could he let me
have the truly "needful".

Our distress was accordingly relieved, but the
Parisian trip was rendered vain, for my furlough was
now at an end. As a compensation I got practically
to know what want of money really means. Of Paris
itself I saw little but the streets in which I tramped
away my hunger.

Returned to Berlin I very seriously reflected on
the aims I had lately been pursuing, and saw clearly
that the chase of discoveries, by which 1 had allowed
myself to be carried away through the facility of a
first success, would if continued probably be my own
and my brother's ruin. I accordingly got rid of all my >
inventions, sold even my share in the manufactory set
up in Berlin, and devoted myself again with heart
and soul to serious scientific study. 1 attended courses
at the Berlin University, soon however perceived to
my dismay from the lectures of the celebrated mathe-
matician Jacobi. that my previous training was in-
sufficient to enable me to follow him to the end.
This imperfect schooling in scientific study has always
to my great regret kept me back and crippled my
efforts. All the more grateful am 1 to some of my
earlier teachers, among whom I must specially mention
the physicists Magnus. Dove and Riess. for friendly
reception into their highly interesting circles. I also
owe many thanks to the younger Berlin physicists,
who allowed me to take part in founding the
Physical Society. That was a wonderfully stimulating

44 SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY.

association of talented young scientists, who subse-
quently almost without exception became celebrated
by their achievments. I need mention only the names
of clu Bois-Reymond. Briicke, Helmholtz. Clausius,
Wiedemann. Ludwig, Beetz and Knoblauch. Intercourse
and cooperation with these young men. distinguished
by talent and earnest endeavour, strengthened my
preference for scientific study and labours, and kindled
in me the determination to be in future the votary
of strict science alone.

But circumstances were stronger than my will,
and the native impulse never to let acquired know-
ledge lie idle, but as far as possible to make some
use of it, led me ever and again back to technology.
And so it has been my life long. My affection has
always been given to pure science as such, but my
labours and achievments have been for the most part
in the domain of applied science.

This technical turn was especially favoured and
supported by the Polytechnic Society, to which as a
young officer I zealously devoted myself. I took an
active part in its proceedings, and in the answering
of the questions which were deposited in the query-
box. The answering and discussing of these soon
formed a part of my regular activity and proved a
good school for me. My scientific study stood me in
good stead, and it became clear to me, that technical
progress is only to be attained by the diffusion of
scientific knowledge among technologists.

''At that time there still existed an unbridged

SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN PRUSSIA. 45

gulf between pure and applied science. The meri-
torious Beuth. who is unquestionably to be regarded
as the founder of the technical science of North Ger-
many, had indeed in the Berlin Industrial Institute
erected an institution, which was especially designed
for the diffusion of scientific knowledge among young
technologists. The existence of this institute, out of
which arose the Industrial Academy and finally the
Technical College in Charlottenburg, was howeyer too
short for raising the leyel of education of the craftsmen
of the period.

Prussia was at that time still a purely military
and bureaucratic state. In its official class alone was
culture to be found, and it is doubtless mainly owing
to this circumstance that even at the present day
the semblance of an official title is regarded and
striven for as an external mark of a cultured and
respected man. Of the industrial body only agricul- *
turists. from whom the military class as well as the
bureaucracy was almost without exception recruited,
had a respectable status in the eyes of the latter. In this
country, wasted and impoverished by a century of wars,
there existed no longer a well-to-do bourgeoisie to *
counterpoise in culture and property the military and
official class. It must however be added, that this state
of things was in part attributable to the fact, that the
representatives of science always highly respected in *
Prussia under the rule of the far-seeing Hohenzollern
did not consider it compatible with their dignity to
manifest a personal interest in technical progress. The

46 SCIENTIFIC-TECHNICAL STUDIES.

same may be said in respect of plastic art. whose
representatives regarded — and in part, I believe, still
regard — it beneath their dignity to employ a part of
their creative power for the elevation of industrial art.
Through my activity in the Polytechnic Society
I arrived at the conviction that scientific knowledge
and scientific methods of investigation are capable
of developing technology to a degree far beyond
anything that can be foreseen. It further had the
advantage of making me personally acquainted with
Berlin manufacturers, and of affording me personally
an insight into the achievments and defects of the

o

industry of the time. My advice was often sought
by manufacturers, and I thereby became acquainted
with the contrivances employed and the modes of
working. It became clear to me that the industrial
arts cannot advance by sudden leaps, as has often
been possible to science through the fruitful ideas of
a few remarkable men. A technical invention only
obtains value and importance if technology itself has
so far progressed, that the invention is a practical
one and supplies a need. Hence one so often sees
the most considerable inventions unutilized for decermia,
until all at once their great importance is recognised,
their hour having arrived. — -~7

Of the scientific-technical questions which at that
time especially occupied me, and at the same time
gave occasion to my first literary labours, the first
owed its origin to a communication in a letter of
my brother William with respect to an interesting

FIRST LITERARY LABOURS. 47

engine, which he had seen at work in Dundee. From
a rather brief account it appeared that this engine
was not driven by steam but by heated air. This
idea interested me exceedingly, since it appeared to
afford a foundation for an advantageous transformation
of the whole engine-constructing art. In a paper
entitled "On the use of heated air as mechanical
power", contributed in 1845 to Dingier' s Polytechnic
Journal, I described the theory of such air-eno-ines,

«/ ' C?

and gave also a sketch of the construction of such
a one as I conceived to be practicable.

My theory was based entirely on the principle of
the conservation of energy, which had been advanced
by Mayer arid mathematically worked out by Helmholtz
in his celebrated memoir "On the Conservation of
Energy"; originally read before the Physical Society.
Later on my brothers William and Frederick occupied
themselves a good deal with these engines, and con-
structed them in various forms. They too however
unfortunately had to undergo the common experience
of finding, that engineering had by no means advanced
far enough to allow of the discovery being utilised with
advantage. Only small engines could be constructed
on the basis of the above principle so as to work well
for a length of time; for large ones the right material
for the heating apparatus was and is still wanting.

In the same year I printed in Dingier* s Journal
ii description of the already mentioned differential
governor, to which in collaboration with my brother
\\ illiam I had tried to give the most varied forms.

48 FIRST LITERARY LABOURS.

Another question, which had already occupied
me for a long time, was that of an exact measurement
of the velocity of projectiles. The watchmaker Leon-
hardt. known as a skilled mechanician and in the
employ of the Artillery Commission, had constructed
a clock, which turned an indicator with great velocity,
when the latter was electro -magnetically connected
with the clock-work.

The coupling and uncoupling of the indicator by
the flying shot was attended however with great
difficulties, which in spite of our efforts could not be
quite overcome.

This led me to the idea of the employement of
the electric spark for the measurement of velocity.
In a paper, published in Poggendorffs Annalen "On
the application of the electric spark to the measure-
ment of velocity'7. I demonstrated the possibility of
accurately measuring the velocity of projectiles at
every stage of their progress by means of a rapidly
rotating polished steel cylinder, on which incident
electric sparks could leave a distinct mark. This
paper also contained the plan, only many years sub-
sequently executed by me. of ascertaining by the
same method the velocity of electricity itself in its
conductors.

My interest in electrical experiments was most
vividly stimulated by participating in the labours of
Leonhardt. who was at the same time occupied with
experiments, which the military staff had caused to
be instituted, with regard to the substitution of electric

TELEGRAPHIC SIGNALLING. 49

for optic telegraphy. In the house of Hofrath Solt-
manri. father of an intimate comrade of mine. I had
the opportunity of seeing the model of a Wheatstone
indicator-telegraph, and had taken part in the attempts
to bring it into operation between the dwelling house
and the establishment for artificial mineral waters at
the end of a large garden. This however never
succeeded, and I soon perceived the cause of these
failures. It was traceable to the principle on which
the apparatus was constructed, which required the
turning of a handle with such regularity that the
impulses of current produced had always sufficient
strength to keep the clock-work of the receiving
apparatus in motion. This was not attainable with
certainty even if the apparatus worked in the room,
and was altogether impossible where an important part
of the current was lost through the imperfect insulation
of the conductors.

Leonhardt. trying at the instance of the commission
to remedy this defect, caused the impulses to be
produced by clock-work, i. e. in quite regular intervals,
which was certainly an improvement, but still did
not suffice with the varying loss of current. This
made it apparent to me that the problem was most
completely to be solved by converting the indicator-
telegraphs into self-acting machines, each of which
would automatically break and make the circuit. If
two or more of such electrical machines were connected
to a single electrical circuit a fresh impulse could
only be given when all the inserted apparatus had

T^

OF THE ^ \

UNIVERSITY)

. y

50 DIAL TELEGRAPH.

completed their stroke, and this had again closed the
circuit. This proved in the sequel a very fruitful
principle for innumerable electro-technical applications.
All the self-acting alarums or bells employed at the
present time are based on the automatic interruption
after a completed stroke first introduced as above
stated.

The construction of these self- interrupting dial
telegraphs I entrusted to a young mechanician, named
Halske. with whom I had become acquainted through
the Physical Society, and who at that time managed
a small mechanical workshop, the business firm being
known as Bottcher & Halske. As Halske at first
entertained doubts whether my apparatus would act.
I myself set up a couple of automatic telegraphs,
composed of cigar boxes, tin-plate, a few pieces of
iron, and some insulated copper wrire, which worked
with perfect certainty. This unexpected result filled
Halske with so much enthusiasm for a design capable
of execution notwithstanding such defective materials,
that he gave himself up with the greatest eagerness
to the construction of the first apparatus, and even
declared himself ready to withdraw from his firm
and in conjunction with me to devote himself entirely
» to telegraphy.'

This success, as well as the growing care for
my younger brothers and sisters, matured my reso-
lution to quit the military service and through
telegraphy, whose great importance I clearly perceived,
create for myself a new vocation, which should also

NEW PLAN OF LIFE. 51

afford me the means of fulfilling the duties I had
undertaken towards my younger brothers. I was
therefore intent on the preparation of my new telegraph,
which was to form the bridge to the new career, when
an event occurred which threatened to throw all my
plans to the winds.

It was a time of great religious and political stir
in all Europe. This first found expression in Germany
in the free religious movement which ran counter both
to Catholicism and to the rigid Protestantism then in
the ascendant. Johannes Ronge had come to Berlin, and
held public lectures in the Tivoli Gardens, which were
attended by all the world and excited great enthusiasm.
The younger officers and officials in particular, then
almost without exception liberally inclined, raved for
Johannes Rorige.

Just as this Ronge -worship was at its height I
along with all the officers of the Artillery workshop -
nine in number - happened to take a stroll after
working-hours in the Thiergarten. "Under the Tents"
we found many people assembled, listening to vivacious
speeches, in which all the like-minded were called
upon to take part for Johannes Ronge and against the
obscurantists. The speeches were good, and were perhaps
the more persuasive and captivating as people were not
then accustomed in Prussia to public speaking.

When therefore on going away a sheet was
presented for my signature, which was already almost
filled with names partly known to me, I did not
hesitate to add mine. The other officers, some con-

4*

52 FATAL PROMENADE.

siclerably my seniors, followed my example without
exception. No one dreamt for a moment of doing
anything wrong. Each thought it only common honesty
openly to avow his conviction.

But great was my alarm when at breakfast on
the following morning I happened to glance at the
Vossische Zeitung, and found a leading article entitled
"Protest against Reaction and Religious Cant (Mucker-
thum)'\ and at the head of the subscribed names my
own followed by those of my comrades.

When soon after — half an hour before the com-
mencement of work — I appeared in the laboratory
yard I found my comrades all assembled in a state of
great excitement. We feared we had committed a
grave military offence. In this supposition we were
soon strengthened by the appearance of the com-
mander of the workshops, an excellent and extremely
amiable man. who declared to us in great excitement
that we had by this action all ruined ourselves and
him likewise.

Some anxious days passed. Then the announce-
ment arrived that the inspector of the workshops,
General von Jenichen. had to communicate to us an
order in council. The order in council reprehended
us indeed very severely, but was more gracious than
we had ventured to hope. The general addressed
us in a long speech, in which he set before us the
impropriety and blameworthiness of our conduct.
I was awaiting with some curiosity the conclusion
of this speech, as I had taken the waters at Kissingen

THREATENED REMOVAL FROM BERLIN. 53

for M month with the general, who was a highly
cultured and very humane man. and as I knew well
that his opinions were not altogether different from
those subscribed by us. "You know", said the general
in conclusion, directing a look towards me, "that I
am of the opinion, that every man. and particularly
every officer, should always express his opinion openly,
you have however not considered that openly and
publicly are world-wide different things!"

We soon learnt that as punishment we were all
to be sent back to our brigade - - or our regiment,
as it is now again called. For me this was an
almost insupportably hard blow, disturbing all my
life -plans, and making it impossible for me to go
on providing for my younger brothers. The problem
was to find a way to prevent this removal. That
was only to be attained by an important military dis-
covery, which should necessitate my presence in Berlin.
Telegraphy, in which I was specially interested, could not
perform this service, for only few then believed in its
great future, and my projects were still undeveloped.

By good luck gun-cotton occurred to me, which
a little while before had been discovered by Professor
Schonbein in Basle, but had not yet been brought
into use. It appeared to me indubitable that it could
be so improved as to be made available for military
purposes. I therefore went immediately to my old
teacher Erdmann, professor of chemistry at the Royal
Veterinary School, told him of my trouble, and begged
permission to institute experiments with gun-cotton in

54 GUN-COTTON.

his laboratory. He willingly granted it. and I went
eagerly to work.

I had the idea, that by employing stronger nitric
acid and by more careful washing and neutralizing a
better and less easily decomposable product could be
obtained. All the experiments however came to
nothing, though I used fuming nitric acid extremely
concentrated: a greasy easily destructible product was
always the result. My stock of extremely concentrated
nitric acid having run short I once tried the effect
of adding some concentrated sulphuric acid in order
to strengthen it, and to my astonishment got a gun-
cotton with altogether different properties. After
washing it became white and firm like the unchanged

o O

gun-cotton and exploded very energetically. I was
overjoyed, made till late in the night a considerable
quantity of such gun-cotton and placed it in the
drying-stove of the laboratory.

When after a brief sleep I went again early in
the morning to the laboratory I found the professor
standing mournfully among ruins in the middle of the
room. On heating the drying-stove the gun-cotton
had exploded and destroyed the stove. A glance
made this clear to me and showed the perfect success
of my experiments. The professor, with whom I in
my joy tried to waltz round the room, seemed at
first to think I had gone wrong in the head. It cost
me some trouble to set his mind at rest, and to induce
him to resume the experiments at once. About eleven
o'clock I had packed a goodly quantity of faultless

EXPERIMENTS IN THE SPANDAU POWDER-MILL. 55

gnu-cotton, and sent it with a formal explanatory
letter to the war-minister.

The result was glorious. The minister of war
instituted a shooting -trial in his large gardens, and
as it went off brilliantly immediately induced the
heads of the ministry to make a regular trial with
pistols. On the very same day I received an official
order direct from the minister to repair to the powder
manufactory at Spandau, which had already been in-
structed to place everything requisite at my disposal,
to institute experiments on a larger scale. It is seldom
I fancy that a memorial to the war office has been
so quickly acted upon! Of my returning to the brigade
there was no more talk. I was soon the only one
of my brothers in misfortune, who had not been
obliged to leave Berlin.

The experiments on the large scale, which were
made under my direction in the powder factory at
Spandau. did not lead to the result expected in the
first glowing moments, viz. that gun-cotton would
generally supersede gunpowder. It is true the trials
with small arms as well as with cannon yielded
excellent results; it appeared, however, that gun-
cotton was not a sufficiently fixed combination, since it
gradually decomposed in the dry state, and occasionally
also would go off of itself. Moreover its effectiveness
depended on the degree of compression of the gun-
cotton and on the mode of its ignition. My report
therefore ran. that the gun-cotton produced according
to my method by means of a mixture of nitric and

56 PRIORITY OF DISCOVERIES.

sulphuric acid possessed excellent properties as a
blasting material, and seemed well suited to take the
place of blasting powder for military purposes but that
it could not in general be substituted for gunpowder,
as it presented no sufficiently stable chemical com-
bination, and its action was not constant enough.

I had already sent in this report when Professor
Otto in Brunswick discovered anew and published my
method of preparation of serviceable gun-cotton. My
earlier action in the matter and my report to the
war-office remained of course secret, and Otto there-
fore must rightly be held the discoverer of serviceable
gun-cotton, since he was the first to make public the
method of its production. It has often been so with
me. It appears at first sight hard and unjust that
any one may by earlier publication appropriate the
honour of a discovery or invention, which another,
who has worked at it long with ardour and success,
would only make known after the most thorough
testing. On the other hand it must however be admit-
ted that some definite rule must be established in regard
to priority, since for science and the world it is not
the person, but the thing itself and its publication
that is of importance.

After the danger of removal from Berlin had
been in this manner successfully averted I was able
to devote myself with a tranquil mind to telegraphy.
I sent general Oetzel. the chief of the optical telegraph
department under the immediate direction of the
staff, a memoir on the condition of telegraphy and the

THE TELEGRAPH COMMISSION. 57

improvement to be expected therein. In consequence
of this I was ordered to place myself at the service of
the commission of the staff, which was deliberating on
the introduction of electrical instead of optical tele-
graphs. I succeeded in gaining the confidence of the
general and his son-in-law, professor Dove, in so high
a degree, that the commission almost always assented
to my proposals and entrusted me with their execution.
It was then regarded as altogether out of the
question that a telegraph wire easy of access, attached
to posts, could be really serviceable, since it was
imagined the public would destroy it. Accordingly,
wherever on the European continent it was desired
to introduce electric telegraphs, experiments were first
made with subterranean conductors. The best known
were those of Professor Jacobi in St. Petersburg: he
had tried resin, glass-tubes, and india-rubber as in-
sulators, but had obtained no permanently satisfactory

results. The Berlin commission likewise had begun

t?

such experiments, which however just as little yielded
a satisfactory durable insulation.

By chance my brother William in London had
sent me as curiosity a sample of a substance which
had recently appeared in the English market, gutta-
percha. The remarkable properties of this material
of becoming plastic 'in the heated state, and when
cooled of being a good insulator of electricity, aroused
my attention. I covered some pieces of wire with the
heated material, and found that they were thoroughly
insulated. At my suggestion the commission gave

58 GUTTA-PERCHA INSULATED WIRES.

orders for more considerable experiments with such
wires insulated by gutta-percha, which were begun
in the summer of 1846 and continued in 1847. la
samples placed on the track of the Anhalt Railway
in 1846 the gutta-percha was rolled round the wire.
It turned out however that the coil got loosened in
course of time. I accordingly constructed a screw-
press, by which the heated gutta-percha was cohesively
pressed round the copper wire under the application
of a high pressure. The conducting wires, coated by
the help of a sampler press constructed by Halske,
proved to be well insulated and permanently retained
their insulation.

In the summer of 1847 the first long subterranean

D

wire from Berlin to Grossbeeren was laid by me with
such insulated wires. As it stood the test perfectly
the question of the insulation of subterranean wires by
the employment of gutta-percha and my press appeared
to be now successfully solved. In fact since that time
not only the subterranean land-lines but also the sub-
marine cable lines almost without exception have been
insulated in this manner.

The commission had under consideration the em-
ployment, both of the wires coated with gutta-percha by
pressing and also my dial and printing telegraph, in the
telegraph -system about to be introduced into Prussia.

The resolution to devote myself entirely to the
development of telegraphy was now fixed. Accordingly,
in the autumn of 1847 I induced the mechanician
J. Gr. Halske, with whom our common labours had

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRM OF SIEMENS & HA.LSKE. 59

bound me closely, to hand over his business to his
partner and to start a telegraph factory, into which I j
reserved to myself the right of entry on my discharge.
As Halske just as little as I had available resources
we had recourse to my cousin, George Siemens, a
barrister residing in Berlin, who lent us 6000 thalers
for the erection of a small workshop on condition of
a share in the profit for six years. The workshop was
opened on the 12th of October 1847 in the back part
of a house in the Schoneberger Strasse — where Halske
and I also took rooms - and grew rapidly and
without the aid of outside capital into the world-
known establishment of Siemens and Halske in Berlin,
with branches in many of the chief cities of Europe.

The enticing prospect, in virtue of my dominating
position in the telegraph commission, of rising to be
the head of the future Prussian State telegraphs I
had put aside, as a position of dependence was not <
congenial to me, and I had the conviction I should
be of more service to myself and the world if I
obtained my full independence. But I resolved riot to
renounce the military service, and therewith my place
on the military commission, before the latter had com-
pletely accomplished its task, and a definite settlement
of the future telegraph-system had been arrived at.

I urged in the commission that the public should
also be allowed the use of the telegraph lines, which
met with considerable opposition in military circles.
The great celerity and certainty with which my new
patented dial and printing telegraphs worked on the

60 USE OF THE TELEGRAPHS BY THE PUBLIC.

overhead line between Berlin and Potsdam and on
the underground line between Berlin arid Grossbeeren
- performances with which those of the old semaphores
were not to be compared - contributed however in
no small degree to produce an opinion more favourable
to the public interest. The report of the astonishingly
favourable results of these experiments went the round
of the higher circles in Berlin, arid brought me a
command from the Princess of Prussia to give a lecture

o

in Potsdam on electric telegraphy to her son. after-
wards Crown Prince Frederick William and Emperor
Frederick. This lecture, accompanied by experiments
on the Berlin -Potsdam line, and a memoir connected
therewith, in which I enlarged upon the great future
in store for telegraphy, supposing it to be made the
common property of the people, no doubt considerably
assisted in gaining over the higher circles.

At my instigation the commission instituted a public
competition for March 1848, and settled the conditions
to be satisfied in regard to the telegraphic communi-
cations and apparatus. Prizes were assigned to the
conquerors, who were also to have the reversion of
consequent orders. I had a pretty safe expectation
of obtaining the victory with my own proposals at this
competition, which opened on the 15th of March 1848,
when on the 18th the competition as well as the
commission itself came to an abrupt end.

Plunged in my own interesting labours I had
found little time to give heed to the wild commotion,
which since the February revolution in Paris was

THE 18 TH OF MARCH 1848. 61

spreading over all Germany. With elemental force
the mighty stream of political excitement rushed onward,
tearing down all the feeble dikes which the existing
powers aimlessly and planlessly opposed to it. Dis-
content with the prevailing state of things, the hopeless
feeling that they could not be changed without violent
subversion, penetrated the whole German people and
extended to the upper strata of the civil and even
the military administration of Prussia. The political
and national claptrap, the emptiness of which was
only revealed by the subsequent events, exerted its
full effect upon the masses, and its diffusion was
powerfully helped by the unusually fine summer
weather, which prevailed throughout Germany at
this time.

The streets of Berlin were continually flooded by
excited crowds, discussing the most exaggerated reports
of the progress of the movement, and eagerly listening
to agitators who spread them further and called for
action. The police seemed to have disappeared
from the town, and the military, which did its duty
with thorough fidelity, hardly made itself noticeable.
Then came the overwhelming news of the victory of
the revolution in Dresden and Vienna, closely followed
by the shooting of the sentry at the Bank, and lastly
the misunderstanding at the Castle Square. This drove
even the quieter citizens, who had formed themselves
into a mediating national guard, to the revolutionary
side. I saw from my windows how a division of this
citizen-guard came in great excitement from the Castle

62 SCENE IN THE CASTLE SQUARE ON THE 19 TH OP MARCH.

Square and threw their scarves and staves on the
square before the Anhalt Gate with the cry "Treachery!
the military have fired upon us!"" In a few hours the
streets were covered with barricades, the sentries were
attacked and in part overpowered, and the struggle
with the garrison, which for the most part confined
itself to defence, and without exception remained true
to their flag, quickly extended over a large part of
the town.

I myself, owing to my being ordered to a special
commission, was out of connection with the active
army and awaited with beating heart the issue of the
unhappy struggle. Then appeared on the following day
the royal proclamation, which restored peace. On
the forenoon of the 1 9 th of March the citizens crowded
to the Castle Square to thank the King for his procla-
mation. I could stay no longer at home and accord-
ingly mingled with them in civil dress. I found the
whole square filled with a vast throng, which on all
sides gave lively expression to its joy at the peace
proclamation. But soon the scene changed. Long-
processions came, bringing the fallen to the Castle
Square, in order, as was said, that the King might see
for himself what havoc his soldiers had wrought. Then
followed the terrible scene on the balcony of the castle,
when the Queen fainted away as her eyes caught
sight of the blood-stained dead heaped at her feet.
There came fresh processions with corpses, and as
the King no longer responded to the shout for his
appearance, the excited throng prepared to burst

SCENE IN THE CASTLE SQUARE ON THE 19 TH OF MARCH. 63

open the castle gates, to make him see these dead
likewise.

It was a critical moment, for to a certainty the
struggle would have been renewed in the Castle Yard,
where a batallion had been stationed, a struggle
whose issue would have been exceedingly doubtful as
the rest of the military had quitted the town by the
royal order, had not a saviour appeared in the person
of young Prince Lichnowsky. From a table placed
in the middle of the Castle Square he addressed the
crowd in a loud audible voice. He said His Majesty
the King had in his great goodness and grace put an
end to the struggle, in that he had withdrawn all the
military and had entrusted himself entirely to the
protection of the citizens. All demands would be
granted, and they should now go quietly home. The
speech manifestly made an impression. To the question
from the people whether everything was really granted
he answered — "Yes, everything, gentlemen!" "Smoking
too?" sounded another voice. "Yes, smoking too"
was the answer. "In the Thiergarten also?" • was
further enquired. "Yes, you may smoke in the Thier-
o'arten also, o-eritlemen." That was decisive. "Well

O ' o

then we can go home" was the general exclamation,
and in a short time the cheered-up multitude left the
square. The presence of mind, with which the young
prince probably on his own responsibility

conceded the liberty of smoking in the public streets
and the Thiergarten, mayhap averted more serious,
mischief.

64 THE BERLIN REVOLUTION.

On me this scene in the Schlossplatz produced
an ineffaceable impression. It showed with such im-
mistakeable plainness the perilous fickleness of an
excited multitude and the impossibility of predicting its
actions. It taught me also that it is not usually the
large and weighty questions that agitate the masses but
petty grievances long felt by everybody as oppressive.
The prohibition of smoking in the streets and parti-
cularly in the Thiergarten. with the constant petty
warfare with gendarmes and watch -men connected with
it. formed in fact about the only hardship really com-
prehended by the great mass of the Berlin populace,
and for which it in truth contended.

With the victory of the Revolution all serious
activity was put a stop to for a time in Berlin. The
wrhole governmental machine seemed out of gear. The

o o

telegraph commission had simply ceased to do anything
without being abolished or even only suspended. I owe
it to the energy of my friend Halske. that our work-
shop quietly continued its activity during the hard
times ensuing and manufactured telegraphic apparatus,
although there was an entire lack of orders. Personally
I \vas in a difficult position, as my official activity
had ceased without anv other being assigned me. and

«/ o o

on the other hand it did not do to request my
discharge at a time when it was generally assumed
that a foreign war was imminent.

Then again, as so often in inv life, an event

C) v

occurred, which gave it a new and ultimately favourable

c? «/

direction.

UNEXPECTED TURN OF AFFAIRS. (35

Ju Schleswig-Holstein the rising against the Danes
had been accomplished with success. A powerful
impulse was thereby given to the desire for national
unity, and free corps wTere formed throughout Germany
tor ender aid to the brothers contending against foreign
oppressors in the extreme north. On the other side
the Danes made preparations for reconquering the land,
and the Copenhagen newspapers with one accord
called upon the government to punish the centre of
the revolutionary movement, the town of Kiel, by a
bombardment.

My brother-in-law Himly had in the previous
year been called to Kiel as professor of chemistry,
and resided close by the harbour. Sister Matilda
wrote me in great anxiety and almost saw in spirit
her house in ruins, it being especially exposed to the
bombs of the Danish men-of-war. The marine battery
Friedrichsort. as the small fortress at the entrance of
the Kiel harbour was then called, was still in Danish
hands: the entrance to the harbour stood therefore
perfectly open to the Danish fleet.

This led me to the then entirely novel idea of
defending the harbour by submarine mines fired by
electricity. My wires insulated writh gutta-percha
offered a means of exploding such mines at the
right moment in safety from the shore. I com-
municated this plan to my brother-in-law, who took
it up warmly and immediately submitted it to the
provisional government for the defence of the country.
The latter approved of it and despatched a special

OF THE

TTHIVERSITY

66 To KIEL.

emissary to the Prussian Government, with the request
to grant me permission to execute the plan. My author-
ized employment or even mere leave of absence for this
warlike purpose was howeA^er opposed on the ground that
peace still reigned between Prussia and Denmark. But
it was intimated to me that I should receive the desired
permission if circumstances changed, as was expected.

I employed this waiting -time in making prepar-
ations. Large and particularly strong canvas - bags
rendered watertight by caoutchouc were got ready, each
capable of holding about five hundred- weight of powder.
Further, wires insulated in all haste and exploding con-
trivances were prepared, and the necessary galvanic
batteries procured for firing. When the departmental
chief in the war-office. General von Reyher, in whose
ante-room I daily waited for the decision, at last made
the communication, that he had just been appointed
minister and. war having been resolved against Den-
mark, that he granted mfc the desired furlough as the
first act of hostilities against Denmark, my prepar-
ations were almost completed, and on the same even-
ing I left for Kiel.

In Altona. where great excitement prevailed, my
brother-in-law Himly already awaited me; a special
locomotive took us to Kiel. The news of the decla-
ration of war by Prussia had already become known,
but was still considerably doubted. My appearance
in Prussian uniform was rightly taken as evidence of
the longed-for fact and excited on the whole way to

o i/

Kiel and in the town itself unbounded joy.

SUBMARINE MINES. 67

My brother -in -law in Kiel had meanwhile made
all the preparations in order to proceed quickly with
the laying of the mines, as the appearance of the
Danish fleet was daily expected. A ship-load of powder
had already arrived from Rendsburg, and a number
of large casks stood ready well calked and pitched,
in order to be provisionally used instead of the still
unfinished caoutchouc-bags. These casks were as quickly
as possible filled with powder, provided with fuses,
and anchored in the rather narrow channel in front
of the bathing-establishment in such a way that they
were buoyed twenty feet under the surface of the
water. The firing-wires were carried to two covered

o

points on the shore, and the course of the current so
disposed that a mine must explode if at both points
simultaneously contact was made.

At both places of observation upright rods were
set up and the instruction given, that contact must
be made, if a hostile ship took up a position in the
direct line of the rods, and remain made until the
ship had again completely removed from the right
line. If contact of both right lines were at any
moment simultaneously made the ship would be exactly
over the mines. By experiments with small mines and
boats it was ascertained that this exploding arrange-
ment acted with perfect certainty.

In the meantime the battle of Bau had been
fought, in which the Schleswig-Holstein gymnasts and
the German free-lances had been vanquished by the
Danes and in part made prisoners. It is remarkable

68 THE FAIR FOE.

how quickly and potently the national hatred and the
bellicose passions of the otherwise peaceful Schleswig-
Holsteiners now flamed out. This was strikingly ex-
hibited in the temper of the women. A characteristic
instance came immediately under my own observation.
At a social gathering a beautiful and amiable young
girl made me explain to her the construction of the
mines laid down for the protection of the town and
the method of firing them. When she learnt that in
a succesful case the whole ship would be blown into the
air and the entire crew destroyed, she excitedly asked
me if I believed that there were people who could
perpetrate such an atrocity, and with the pressure of
a finder annihilate hundreds of human lives. When I

o

affirmed this and endeavoured to excuse it by the
necessity of war. she turned indignantly away and
obviously avoided me from that moment. When shortly
after I again met her in society the battle of Bau had
meanwhile been fought: Wrangel was on the point of
marching into Schleswig-Holstein with the Prussian
troops, and the war-fury had vehemently invaded the
public mind. To my surprise my fair foe came directly
up to me as soon as she caught sight of me. and asked
wrh ether my mines were still in order. I said "Yes"
and added I cherished the hope of soon being able
to show their effectiveness on an enemy's ship, for it
was said that a Danish fleet was on the way for the
bombardment of Kiel. I intended therewith to again
kindle her wrath, which had shown her to such ad-
vantage. But to my surprise she said with counte-

THE KIEL GUARD CALLED OUT. 69

nance charged with hatred: "Oh. it would give me
infinite pleasure if a couple of hundred of those monsters
were to be seen sprawling in the air!" Her intended
had been wounded at Ban and taken prisoner and was
according to rumour being badly treated by the Danes
along with the other captives on board the war-ship
"Droning Maria". Hence this sudden revolution in
her humane sentiments!

It was really said at the time that it had been
resolved in Copenhagen to bombard Kiel, even before
it was occupied by the German troops. I was indeed
somewhat anxious about the town, for the channel
proved on exact investigation to be broader for ships
of moderate size than was originally supposed. The
Danish fleet could also quietly drop anchor at Friedrichs-
ort and effect the bombardment at their leisure by
means of gun-boats. I considered it therefore of ex-
treme importance that the Fried richsort fort should
not remain in Danish hands. It was said to be occupied
by only a small number of disabled soldiers, its capture
accordingly did not appear difficult.

I expressed my opinion to the newly nominated
commander of Kiel, a Hanoverian major. He entirely
agreed with me. had also received news that a Danish
squadron was in fact on the way to occupy Friedrichs-
ort. lamented however that he was without men, and
therefore unable to do anything. When I mentioned
the Kiel civic guard, who certainly would be willing,
he doubted this indeed, but offered to have the drum
beat and the civic guard informed of my proposal.

70 CAPTURE OF FRIEDRICHSORT.

The latter turned out in respectable numbers, and I
tried to prove to them that it was absolutely necess-
ary for the protection of the life and property of the
citizens of Kiel to occupy Friedrichsort, which to-day
would be quite easy, but to-morrow perhaps no
longer so.

My speech took effect. After a brief consultation
the civic guard declared itself ready to take possession
of the fort in the coming night if I would undertake
the command, to which I of course willingly con-
sented. Accordingly with the help of the commander
of the town, who it is true had no men but a tolerably
well-filled magazine at his disposal, an expeditionary
corps of 150 men was hastily formed from the civic
guard, supplemented by a reserve of 50 men.

Towards midnight we were on the way to Holtenau,
whence the storming of the fort was to be attempted.
My troops marched noiselessly and bravely on to the
draw- bridge, which luckily had been let down, and
with loud hurrahs we took possession of the fort.
Resistance of any kind whatever unfortunately was not
perceptible. I set up my head-quarters in the Com-
mander's house, and soon the garrison, consisting of
six old gunners and sergeants, altogether forgotten by
the Danes as it seemed, was brought captive before
us. The fellows were placed temporarily under arrest
and on the following day as the first prisoners of war
transported to Kiel; they were born Schleswig-Hol-
steiners. who manifestly were glad enough to obtain
in this manner their discharge from the Danish army.

A SPY. THE NEW GARRISON. 71

At day -break I received the intelligence that a
Danish man-of-war was lying in the roads, and soon
after a spy was brought in, who had been signalling
to it from the ramparts. It was a trembling old man,
who was brought before me pinioned by powerful arms.
On hearing the case it appeared that it was the
garrison chaplain, who had found it too noisy in the
otherwise quiet old fort, and who had therefore been
giving the accustomed signal for a boat to the fisher-
men of Laboe, a village on the other side of the

o

harbour-entrance.

The Danish war-ship remained quietly at anchor,
sent a boat to Laboe and on its return went again to
sea. I had hoisted on the fort a huge black red and
gold flag and manned the walls, so that the ship might
carry the news to Copenhagen that the marine battery
Friedrichsort was occupied by German troops, as was
soon to be read in the Danish papers.

There now began a right cheery life in the fort.
My citizen-troops did their duty conscientiously. On
organising the service I found to my surprise among
the men members of well-known noble families of
Schleswig-Holstein and respected citizens of the town
of Kiel. They all however submitted implicitly to the
command of a young Prussian artillery officer of their
own selection. I had the ramparts cleared, the embras-
ures repaired, and the old cannons placed on such
platforms as remained. The powder magazine was
put in order and a stove erected by Kiel artisans for
making the balls red-hot. I was especially assisted in

72 LIFE IN THE FORT.

this work by my man Hemp, (who without orders had
followed me from Berlin.) an intelligent, able fellow,
who subsequently accompanied me in all my telegraphic
undertakings and finally became chief engineer of the
Indo-European telegraph line, which position he occu-
pied till last year. With his help the men serving
a gun were hastily trained, so that on the third day
after the occupation we could essay a first shot, which
announced far and wide the military occupation of
Friedrichsort.

On the following days we had many visits from
Kiel. Not only the commander of the town and even
a member of the provincial government paid us a visit,
but a Iso the wives and relations of the civic guard came

c1

in great numbers, in order to be personally assured of
the welfare of their friends. After the lapse of a week
however my forces began perceptibly to shrink, as
the wives in their visitings convincingly proved to their
husbands that they were indespensable at home. I
could not shut my eyes to the consideration that it
would be impossible to retain in Friedrichsort for any
length of time the citizens, who could only with diffi-
culty be absent from their private business. On the
other hand Holstein was still entirely without regular
troops, and the feeble remnants of the Schleswig-Hol-
stein force alone opposed the Danes who were again
advancing into North-Schleswig.

I had therefore the choice either of abandoning my
conquest or of procuring an equivalent for the civic
guard. The peasant youth of the Provostry - - the

RECRUITING IN THE PROVOSTRY. 73

district over against the fort forming the south shore
of the Kiel harbour - - appeared to me particularly
adapted for supplying this substitute. Accordingly,
accompanied by a small body of the guard. I went
with drum and flag first to Schonberg. the chief place
of the Provostry. called the elders of the village together,
arid represented to them that it was altogether essential
for their own safety that they should offer their grown-
up sons for the occupation of the fort. Then arose
a long and difficult negotiation with the farmers and
their wives, who placed themselves behind their lords
and took a leading part in the conversation.

The people were of opinion that if "the gentle-
men", viz. the government, considered it necessary
that their sons should march, they could give orders
to that effect: then one would know what one had
to do. If the Danes actually invaded their land, the
Provostry. then they would certainly defend it. even
without orders, but "in det Butenland up de annere
Sid det Waters", in the outland on the other side of
the water, they would not voluntarily go.

As the peasantry with loud approval of the
female chorus remained immovable I became angry.
I declared to them in the Low-German tongue, which
I had not forgotten since my boyhood, that they were
stupid asses and craven poltroons, and told them that
the women in Germany had more courage than the
men here. In proof thereof I read to them from a
newspaper the statement that a female company had
already been formed in Bavaria to protect the land

74 FORMATION OF A PEASANT VOLUNTEER-CORPS.

against the Danes, as its own men had not the courage
to do it. I would wait till they came, and defend
the fort with them!

That had the desired effect. As I was on the
point of departing with my little troop there came a
deputation of the elder peasants and begged me to
wait a little, they would think the matter over again,
for they did'nt like the idea that the women should
defend their country. I declared my willingness, but
required . that the village should furnish at least
50 men. otherwise it would be no good. We were
thereupon well fed. and an hour later there stood in
fact 50 young men ready to go with us, followed by
vehicles laden to the utmost with all sorts of provisions,
"that their youngsters might not have to starve in
the fort"\ as the mayor's wife explained to me. Thus
we proceeded from village to village with like result,
and late in the evening I marched back to the fort
with 150 stout peasant lads and a whole commissariat
caravan.

I thereupon discharged the civic guard with the
exception of a sprinkling of volunteers, who were
willing to assist me in the direction and drilling of
my peasant corps, and I had the pleasure of seeing
a thoroughly serviceable troop turned out in a short
space of time.

Arms, ammunition and military insignia I obtained
from the ever helpful commander of the town, whose
name unfortunately has escaped my memory. My
corps of volunteers was recognised by the provisional

ALARM. LAYING A MINE. 75

government, and also received the usual pay. In the
military training of the folk my before-mentioned man
Hemp, whom I named chief of the artillery, again
rendered me signal service. The cannons were cer-
tainly old and bad. but a short 24 pounder and a
howitzer were still serviceable: the Danish blockade
ship, which no longer left the harbour -roads, seemed
somewhat to respect the red-hot balls, which we
always sent her when she came within range.

One morning we were alarmed by the announce-
ment that three large Danish men-of-war were lying
in the roads. It seemed indeed as if an attack on
the fort were intended which, considering its bad con-
dition and equipment, would have had the chances in
its favour. The weakest point of the fort was the
entry-gate opening on the inner harbour. The draw-
bridge was out of repair, the moat was dry. and the
ravelin protecting the entry only remained in its out-
lines. As meanwhile my brother-in-law Hiinly had
partially replaced the casks temporarily employed for
the mines by the India-rubber bags that had arrived
from Berlin, I ordered one of these now superfluous
casks to be towed to Friedrichsort . in order to be
there used as fougade for the defence of the fort gate.
The day before the alarm I had had a deep pit dug
in the middle of the old ravelin and the cask lowered
therein. As night had come on before this work was
finished, the pit remained open and was guarded by
a sentry. When next morning the alarm occurred,
I commissioned my brother Frederick — who . as

76 PREMATURE EXPLOSION OF THE MINE.

subsequently my brothers William and Charles, had
followed me to Kiel and Friedrichsort — to prepare
the firing communication, to enable the mine to be
exploded in case of an attempted storming of the
ramparts.

The ships had no\v really approached within
range. My three serviceable cannons were manned
and the oven for heating the balls in full activity,
I prohibited firing, however, before the ships forced
the entrance. The rest of the men I had collected
in the fortress-yard to distribute them and exhort
them to bravery, when suddenly before the fort-gate
rose a vast fire -sheaf. I felt a violent compression
succeeded by a violent expansion of the chest: the
first sensation was accompanied by the clatter of
broken window-panes, and the second by the elevation
of the tiles of all the roofs to the height of a foot
and their subsequent fall with a dreadful din.

Of course it could only be the mine, whose ex-
plosion had produced the mischief. I thought at once
of my poor brother Fritz. I ran to the gate to look
after him, but before I reached it he met me uninjured.
He had prepared the mine, set up the battery on the
terre-plein. connected the one igniting wire with the
one pole of the battery and fastened the other to the
branch of a tree to have it ready to hand, and was
about to announce this when the explosion occurred,
and the atmospheric pressure hurled him down from
the rampart into the interior of the fort. The rather
violent wind had shaken the second firing-wire from

EFFECTS OF THE EXPLOSION. 77

the tree, causing it to fall just on the other pole of
the battery and so producing the explosion.

With the sentry, who was standing on the breast-
work of the ravelin when the explosion occurred, it
had fared worse. I found him on the other side of
the pit lying on the ground apparently dead, beside
him his gun buried half barrel length in the earth
bayonet forward. The powerful draught, caused by
the mine exploding in the open pit. had evidently
caught the man up and hurled him over the crater
of the mine. Fortunately however he had clutched his
gun convulsively, and thereby the blow in falling was
mitigated. The man came again to his senses after
the lapse of an hour: he bled indeed from mouth
nose and ears, and then became blue over the whole
body, but was otherwise uninjured and after a few
days again fit for service. The Kiel military doctor,
who had hurried to Friedrichsort on the announcement
of the appearance of the Danish squadron, and was
crossing the drawbridge at the moment of the explosion,
was more seriously injured. He was thrown with his
vehicle into the rampart -moat and had received a few
contusions. The cook too, who was just carrying
up the steps of the ground -floor a bowl of soup and
was thrown down by the explosion, was severely
scalded.

Extremely remarkable were the mechanical effects
which the explosion produced in a wide circuit. It
must be considered as a shot from an open earth-
formed tube with a charge of five hundred- weight of

78 EFFECTS OF THE EXPLOSION.

powder. In the entire fort no space of any extent
remained closed. Either the atmospheric pressure had
pushed in the doors or walls, or where they resisted
the ensuing vacuum had burst them asunder. The
window-panes even in the village of Laboe and in
Holtenau were broken. The differential pressure must
in the interior of the fort have amounted to at least
an atmosphere, otherwise it could not have produced
such effect at so great a distance.

When I returned to the place where I had left
my troop I found it deserted, and feared that the people
in their first terror had dispersed and crept away.
I soon however saw to my delight that they had all
betaken themselves to their assigned places. They had
imagined that a Danish bomb had struck and the
attack had begun.

The Danish ships had however determined to
proceed no further, returned to the outer roads, and
soon abandoned these also with the exception of the
blockade-ship. In the Copenhagen newspapers it was
shortly afterwards reported that one of the submarine
mines, with which the harbour of Kiel was paved,
had accidentally exploded and destroyed the fort.
Indeed the view from the ships must have been rather
astonishing. The red tiles of all the buildings of the
fort protruded over the low ramparts, and rendered
them particularly conspicuous. Immediately after the
explosion however all the tiles had fallen down, and
no houses were any longer visible.

That the Danes had acquired considerable respect

INVENTION AND EFFICIENCY OF SUBMARINE MINES. 79

for the mines is proved by the fact that in spite of
the notorious weakness of the artillery defence of the
Kiel harbour during both Schleswig-Holstein wars no
Danish ship ventured into it. Although these first
submarine mines never came into action they none
the less accordingly played a very important part.
I may therefore with justice complain that later
military writers have completely ignored this first
harbour defence by the help of submarine mines,
carried out in view of the whole world and at the
time much talked about. Even German military writers
have subsequently ascribed the invention to Professor
Jacobi in St. Petersburg, although his experiments at
Kronstadt were carried out many years later, and he
himself never dreamt of disputing my claim to the
invention and its first employment in war.

When after conclusion of peace the mines were
fished up and lifted, the powder in the caoutchouc
bags was found still dry as dust, despite the two years
soaking in sea -water. It is thus not doubtful that,
had occasion offered, the mines would have done
their duty.

Soon after the just described explosion in Fried-
richsort the main body of the Prussian army under
Wrangel entered Schleswig-Holstein. A little later I
received a direct despatch from headquarters, in which.
I was commended for the harbour defence by submarine
mines and for the occupation of the marine battery
Friedrichsort. I was therein further apprised that a
company of one of the recently formed Schleswig-

80 MARCH TO FLENSBURG.

Holstein battalions under lieutenant Krolm would under-
take the permanent occupation of the fort, and was
charged to march at a precisely appointed time with
my peasant corps to the mouth of the Schlei. to cross
it at a suitable place, and urge the population of the
province of Angeln to seize Danish fugitives, who
would there show themselves after an intended battle
near Schleswig.

After being relieved by the Schles wig-Hoi stein-
company I marched at the appointed time to Missunde.
crossed the Schlei at daybreak, and led my briskly
marching troop towards Flensburg. At that early
hour we already heard the roaring of the cannons
near Schleswig. The population comported itself very
calmly, and did not seem at all inclined to let itself
be disturbed from its repose. Xo Danes were to be
seen; we heard however in the evening from villagers
that the Danish army had been defeated and was
retreating by way of Flensburg pursued by the
Prussians. In the neighbourhood of Flensburg this
report was confirmed: the Prussian advance guard
had already occupied the town.

As I had no further orders for my free - corps,
and did not feel myself warranted in retaining the
people longer, after the fort, for whose defence they
had been recruited, was occupied by the military,
1 dismissed them to their homes , to which they
hurried with all speed, and went myself to Flensburg, to
deliver my report. That however proved extremely
difficult as the greatest confusion still prevailed in

TEMPORARY SERVICE. 81

Flensburg. The streets were completely barricaded
with all soils of vehicles, and no military or civil
authority was discoverable. At last I stumbled in the
throng upon Captain von Zastrow. well-known to me
in Berlin, to whom I imparted my difficulty. He told
me that he had received the command of a newly-
formed Schleswig-Holstein corps, and had orders to
march with it to Tondern on the following day. He
was very much in want of officers however, and pro-
posed that I should join him. and undertake the
command of the battery. He would set everything
formally right with the commander-in- chief and also
take in charge my report to the same. This proposal
particularly pleased me. as it would have been anything
but agreeable to me to have been removed just then
from the seat of war to peace -quarters in Berlin. I
therefore wrote my report detailing the execution of niy
orders, and announced that I had discharged the volun-
teer peasantry and in the absence of further instructions
was about provisionally to undertake the command that
had been offered me of a Schleswig-Holstein battery.
Accordingly I rode on the following day at the
head of the battery assigned me over the sterile ridges
of the "sea-girt"' land towards Tondern. The joy
however was not to last long. Arrived in marching-
quarters, the commander handed me a despatch from
head-quarters brought by estafet, according to which
I was at once to report myself to the commander-
in- chief. In consequence of this I requisitioned a

vehicle, arrived towards midnight again in Flensburg.

6

82 AT HEAD-QUARTERS.

and reported myself at once at head -quarters. I was
shown into a large room of the first hotel in Flensburg
and there found seated at a long table a number of
officers of all ranks and of every arm of the service.
On the sofa at the narrow end of the table sat two
young princes, whilst General Wrangel occupied the
first place next the sofa at the end of one of the long
sides. When I had delivered my report the General
rose and with him the whole assemblage, as it was
contrary to etiquette to be seated while the commander-
in-chief stood.

The General expressed astonishment at my being
there, as it was only a few hours since he had
made out the order for my attendance. When I ex-
plained that I had turned back immediately at the
conclusion of the march, he thought I must be very
tired and should drink a cup of tea. At his express
order I had to seat myself at his place and take a
cup of tea. whilst the rest of the company to my great
embarrassment remained standing. It gave me the
impression that the commander-in-chief wished to use
the opportunity, to show that he honoured merit
without respect of rank, and to give at the same time
a little exercise in etiquette. In the ensuing conver-
sation the General expressed his acknowledgments for
the protection of the Kiel harbour by submarine mines,
as well as for the occupation of the fort of Friedrichs-
ort. Further he said, it would now be necessary, to
make the protection of Kiel harbour as strong as
possible, and also to secure the harbour of Eckernforde

THE ECKERNFORDE BATTERIES. 83

by submarine mines, as he had the intention of entering

•f o

Jutland with his whole army. When I replied that
the Eckernforde harbour was too open and its channel
too broad for resting its defence on mines, and that
a few well-placed batteries could do this with greater
certainty, a long discussion arose in the company with
regard to the supposed superiority of marine artillery
to land-batteries, in which I took leave to observe,
that a battery of eight 24 pounders well -placed and
protected by an earth-wall, using red-hot balls, might
engage the largest man-of-war. I added, the assertion
that a land -battery might be razed by a few broad-
sides from a man-of-war had not been proved, and
no wooden ship could long withstand a fire with
red-hot balls.

The final result of this audience was that the
defence of the harbours of Kiel and Eckernforde was
formally entrusted to me. I was nominated commander
of Friedrichsort and received an open order to the
commander of the fortress of Rendsburg, in which the
latter was directed to comply with my requisitions of
guns, ammunition, and men for Friedrichsort and the
batteries to be set up at the harbour of Eckernforde.
This order was duly complied with in Rendsburg -
it is true with some reluctance, as the fortress itself
was very inadequately equipped for defence. Friedrichs-
ort was now provided with serviceable cannon, and put
as far as possible into a state of defence. In Eckern-
forde I erected a large battery for heavy 12 and short

24 pounders on the level shore, somewhat eastward

6*

84 FORT LIFE.

of the town, and a howitzer-battery on the hilly laud
on the northern shore of the harbour.

Neither Friedrichsort nor Eckernforde came into
serious action in this campaign, but in the following
year the batteries set up by me at Eckernforde acquired
renown by their victorious struggle with a Danish
squadron, in which the line-of-battle ship Christian VIII.
was set on fire and the frigate Gefion placed hors
de combat and captured.

After the completion of the fortification of Fried-
richsort and the batteries at Eckernforde my activity
began to be somewhat monotonous. It was mainly
confined to the watching of the enemy's blockade-ship
lying before Friedrichsort. and the control of the
shipping passing the harbour -entrance. The military
commander of Kiel had forbidden the departure of
trading- vessels without special permission, and had
given the marine battery Friedrichsort orders in case
of need to prevent it by force. This led to a small
military engagement, which brought a little variety
into our monotonous life.

One evening I crossed in the commander's boat
the entrance of the harbour, to visit the Laboe battery
which I had erected on the opposite shore, when a
Dutch bark in full sail came towards me. with the
manifest intention of leaving the harbour without giving
the prescribed notification. I called to the captain to
lie to and report himself, otherwise he would be fired on
by the fort. The Dutchman and his wife, who appeared
to compose the whole crew, did not however take my

UNDER FIRE. 85

warning in earnest, on the contrary declared they were
not going to trouble themselves about the prohibition.
Whilst this negotiation was taking place there was a
flash, however, from the fort-rampart, and a warning
shot fell into the water close in front of the ship, as
prescribed by the regulations. Nevertheless, the ship
continued its course with full sails. Xow followed
from the fort, as well as from the Laboe battery shot
on shot, to which was soon added a sharp fire from a
military sentry, stationed on the shore. But the doughty
Dutchman was not to be diverted from his object, and
successfully clearing the harbour-mouth disappeared in
the darkness of the night, that had meanwhile come on.

Fishermen who had been sent out found the ship
on the following morning anchored outside the harbour
entrance, and the crew busily engaged in making good
the harm caused in particular by the musket -balls.
The bravery of the Dutchman was very simply explained
by the fact, that he had lashed the helm when he
actually heard the balls whistling, and had prudently
retired with his wife below the water-line, where both
were completely protected. I myself with my boat's
crew wras entirely at the mercy of the balls, and could
afterwards at any rate boast that I had once without
flinching stood an artillery fire! For the rest I must
confess that the hissing of the balls whizzing past did
riot excite in me precisely pleasurable sensations.

The Danish blockade-ship too brought us finally
in the latter part of summer another interesting inter-
ruption of the monotonous fort-life.

86 COUP-DE-MAIN OF VON DER TANN?S VOLUNTEERS.

I received from head-quarters the communication
that the free-corps under the command of the Bavarian
Major von der Tann would attempt a night-attack on
the blockade-ship, and also the order to support this
undertaking with all the resources of the fort. Soon
after von der Tann. with his adjutant, a Count Bern-
storff, presented himself to me. and took Tip his quarters
in Friedrichsort. The free-corps collected at Holtenau,
where also the boat -squadron was organized, which
was to undertake the night -attack. The day before
a parade of the free-company took place in the fort-
yard, which did not inspire me with much confidence
in the success of the venturesome enterprise. The
men were not. perhaps, wanting in courage, but in
discipline and calm resolution. Von der Tann and his
adjutant endeavoured in vain to convert the wild con-
fusion into military order.

The plan of the surprise proceeded from a man
who had formerly held some subordinate post in the
Danish marine. He was a Hercules, who had got his
huge limbs into a gold -embroidered admiral's uniform
of his own fancy, and incited the men with loud-
sounding voice to courageous deeds. Thus he asked
the fellows standing in rank and file, what they would
do when they had got on board and were confronted
by the Danes. One declared he would stab the nearest
man, another found it more fitting to knock him down,
and so on. The "Admiral" listened quietly, then
stretched himself to his full height and asked with
flashing eyes arid gestures appertaining thereto: "Do

COUP-DE-MAIN OF VON DER TANN'S VOLUNTEERS. 87

you know what I shall do? I shall take the two

nearest Danes and grind them on one another to
powder!" That sort of thing did not exactly excite
confidence in future heroic deeds.

The boat - squadron was to pass the fort about
half past eleven at night in the utmost stillness and
without lights, and then proceed to the blockade-ship
for the attack, when a signal given from the fort testi-
fied that the hostile ship was maintaining its wonted
quiet. The signal was duly given: it was. however,
about 1 o'clock before the first boats had reached the
fort. Then passed nearly two hours without anything
happening, and at last the whole party returned without
any order and with loud din. The "Admiral" had
at first not been able to find the blockade-ship, then
he declared he had observed that the ship was alarmed,
and was provided with boarding -nettings, so that
clearly the planned attack had been betrayed. With
cries of treachery the expedition returned to Holtenau,
arid soon afterwards disbanded itself. On the follow-
ing morning the ship lay in its accustomed place, and
with the strongest telescopes no special armature
against the threatened attack was to be observed.

As von der Tann confided to me, the undertaking
had collapsed through want of discipline and too free
stimulating potations, and he himself had lost the
desire to make a further attempt. I was heartily sorry
for the able and amiable Bavarian officers in this
fiasco. Yon der Tann remained for several days my
guest in the fort, and I have in after years often

88 RETURN TO BERLIN.

remembered that agreeable time with pleasure, when
the fame of the deeds of "General von der Tann1" has
reached me.

With my official appointment as commander of
Friedrichsort, arid the charge to provide for the defence
of the harbour of Eckernforde by erection of batteries,
my position had lost the somewhat adventurous
character that had thus far clung to it. It had how-
ever also lost by that a great part of the charm which
it had hitherto possessed for me. Particularly when
I had fulfilled my tasks, and the commencement of the
peace negotiations rendered further war-like activity
very improbable, the longing took possession of me
with ever growing strength for the resumption of my

O o o 1 <J

scientific-technical activity in Berlin.

In the meantime great changes had taken place
there. The military commission for the introduction
of electric telegraphs had been formally dissolved and
telegraphy placed under the newly created Ministry
of Commerce. As head of this department assessor
Nottebohm had been appointed . who had already
occupied an administrative post in the telegraph com-
mission. The resolution was taken to follow the course
adopted by the late commission, and first to construct
in all haste a subterranean line from Berlin to Frank-
fort-on-the-Main. where the German National Assembly
was holding its sittings. In consequence of this, an
inquiry was addressed to me whether I was disposed
to direct the construction of this line according to the
proposals made by me to the commission. In the event

BERLIN-FRANKFORT TELEGRAPH LINE. 89

of my acceptance my command from the war-office •
would be transferred to the Ministry of Commerce.
Although a position under assessor Nottebohm was not
particularly agreeable to me. I nevertheless accepted the
call, since it set me free from the present monotonous
military life in the little fort, and gave me an oppor-
tunity of bringing my proposals into practical execution
on a large scale.

In Berlin I found Halske already busily engaged
in work for the line about to be constructed. It had
been determined to lay the line altogether underground,
as it was feared that above-ground wires would be
destroyed in that time of great political excitement.
The wires, insulated by a coating of gutta-percha, were
to be laid without external protection in a trench a
foot and a half deep in the railway embankment.
My proposed protection of the communications by
means of envelopes of iron wires, iron tubes, or clay
channels was not approved on account of the great
expense. A contract had already been signed with
the Berlin india-rubber factory of Fonrobert & Pruckner
for the further construction of subterranean wires.
This was the same factory to which I had transferred
my model for the covering of copper wires with gutta-
percha, and which had already manufactured the ex-
perimental line from Berlin to Grossbeeren with a
press made according to that model. I had to confine
myself to providing for the best possible insulation
of the wires. Considerable difficulties stood in the
way however inasmuch as. owing to the sudden great

90 MANUFACTURE OF GUTTA-PERCHA INSULATORS.

demand for gutta-percha, the best insulating sort was
soon out of the market.

To cope with this impediment to the rapid pro-
gress required of the work it was resolved to make
use of the recent English invention of vulcanizing the
gutta-percha, i. e. intimately mixing it with sulphur,
whereby even with inferior kinds of gutta-percha the
insulation of the condiictors as well as their power
of resisting external injuries was increased. Unfortuna-
tely the vulcanization turned out afterwards a mistake,
as the sulphur combined with the copper of the con-
ductor and thereby also the adjacent layers of gutta-
percha became gradually coppery and capable of con-
duction. To this circumstance it was mainly ascribable
that the wires, though perfectly insulated at the time
of their being laid down, had after a few months
already lost a part of their insulation.

Particular care was taken in testing the wires in
the factory. Halske manufactured for this purpose
galvanometers which far excelled in sensitiveness all
known up to that time. In testings with these sensitive
galvanometers I observed for the first time in the
year 1847 the surprising phenomenon that, even in a
perfectly insulated wire lying in water, on interposing
a battery a short current occurred, which was suc-
ceeded on removal of the battery by an equally strong
current in the opposite direction. This was the first
observation of the electrostatic charge by galvanic

o «/ o

chains. I wras at first inclined to see in this a phe-
nomenon of polarisation, since at that time the galvano-

VOLTAIC INDUCTOR. 91

meter was not considered capable of indicating the
passage of static electricity. The phenomena on longer
well insulated lines soon however rendered it quite
indubitable to me that it was a case of electrostatic
charge and not of polarisation.

The first difficulty, the finding defective insulat-
ing points in a long piece of the conducting wire. I
was able to overcome in the following manner. The
dry wire coated with gutta-percha was drawn through
a vessel filled with water and insulated in respect to
the earth, whilst the second coil of thin covered
wire, which surrounded the electro -magnet of a Neef
hammer, was interposed between the insulated copper
wire and the earth. If now a workman standing in
communication with the earth dipped a finger into the
water of the insulated vessel, he felt electrical shocks
at the moment at which a defective piece of the wire
enveloped by gutta - percha was immersed. In this
wav I succeeded in detecting all the small defects of

V

insulation discoverable in no other way, and in obtain-
ing after their removal conductors with extremely
good insulation.

With regard to the modification just described of
the Xeef hammer the following observation may here
find a place. I had already made this modification in
the year 1844 and given it the name of the voltaic
inductor. It even then afforded me the opportunity of
observing the therapeutic [effect of the variable currents
induced in the second coil of such a voltaic inductor.
My brother Frederick at that time was suffering a

92 THERAPEUTIC EXPERIMENTS.

good deal of rheumatic tooth-ache, which had affected
his otherwise perfectly sound teeth and refused to yield
to any prescribed remedy. The experiments with my
new voltaic inductor led me to hit upon the idea of
trying, whether the variable currents produced by it
could not remove the intolerable pain or at least dimi-
nish it. if conducted through the roots of the teeth. This
was actually the case with a particularly painful front
tooth. The pain was at the first moment intense, but
then suddenly quite ceased.

With the great force of will which at all times
characterized my brother Frederick he at once pro-
ceeded to send alternating currents through all the
roots, and thereby obtained entire exemption from
pain, which he had not experienced for Aveeks. Un-
fortunately however on the second day the pains
returned. By repeated application of electricity their
cessation was again effected, but the ensiling painless

o o 1

period became shorter, and at last the remedial agency
altogether failed. This first attempt within my know-
ledge to employ galvanism for therapeutic purposes
inspired me with a certain distrust of this particular
application of the electric current. It appeared as if
its action were only temporarily, not permanently,
curative.

The ensuing autumn of 1848 was to me an ex-
ceedingly interesting and exciting one. The line to
Frankfort on the Main, where the German Parliament
held its sittings and the vicar-general of the empire had
his residence, was to be completed for political reasons

THE LINE TO FRANKFORT. DIFFICULTIES. 93

as quickly as possible. This was however rendered
difficult on the one hand by the disturbed political
condition of affairs, on the other by altogether unex-
pected phenomena, which manifested themselves in the
underground conductors. My friend Halske. to whom
had been consigned the fitting of the finished parts
of the line with signalling apparatus, was the first to
encounter these phenomena whilst I was engaged upon
the line between Eisenach and Frankfort . which it
had been resolved to carry above-ground, as the rail-
way was still in course of construction - the land
even having been only in part acquired.

Halske found first of all that with shorter lines
our self -interrupting indicator telegraphs acted with
much greater speed than corresponded to the resistance
of the line. When communication between Berlin and
Cothen had been established, a distance of about 95
English miles, the giving apparatus ran with double
velocity whilst the receiving apparatus stopped alto-
gether. This at the time inexplicable phenomenon
occurred the earlier the better the lines were insulated,
which induced Halske purposely to impair the insulation
of the line by the addition of artificial watery by-
passes.

The above-ground construction likewise encountered
unexpected difficulties. Where the land for the future
railroad had not yet been purchased, the owners would
not permit the erection of the posts. This opposition
was encountered especially in the non-Prussian parts,
Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-Darmstadt, when the antagonism

94 OVERHEAD EISENACH-FRANKFORT LINE.

between the government of Prussia and the adminis-
tration of the empire after the restoration of order
in Berlin had become considerably acuter in conse-
quence of the entrance of the army returning from
Schleswig-Holstein. I only succeeded in executing my
task by obtaining an open order from the vicar-general
of the empire Archduke John. Technical difficulties
also made their appearance. The line was constructed
of copper wire, as suitable iron wires were not then to
be had in Germany, and moreover were still regarded
with a certain mistrust. The unfortunate experiences
which we had had the foregoing year in the case of
the Berlin-Potsdam line, which despite the application
of all sorts of insulating media proved so badly insu-
lated in rainy weather that the proper service of the
apparatus was constantly disturbed, had led me to
make use of bell-shaped insulators of porcelain. These
possessed the great advantage that the inner surface
of the bell always remained dry even in rainy weather,
whereby the insulation was secured under all circum-
stances. In fact I succeeded in this way in producing
an almost perfect insulation. Unfortunately I did not
then think it necessary to solder the copper wire,
close coiling seeming to me sufficient. This afterwards
turned out to be an error. In calm weather the
apparatus acted very well, but with a strong wind the
resistance of the conductor was so remarkably variable
that the apparatus refused to work. Only subsequent
soldering of all the joints put an end to this trouble.
The atmospheric electricity proved also very

LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. EARTH CURRENTS. 95

disturbing. In passing from level to high land currents
of varying direction often traversed the communications
and impeded the working of the apparatus. A late
autumn storm caused widespread destruction, which
led me to construct lightning-conductors for the pro-
tection of the lines and apparatus. In order to ascertain
the most efficient form of lightning-conductors 1 set
up between two parallel wires spikes, balls, and plates
at equal intervals from one another, and observed the
sparks, caused by the discharge of a large battery of
Leyderi jars, which passed between these three adjacent
lightning - conductors. It appeared that very weak
discharges took their course solely through the spikes,
whilst stronger ones passed mainly between the balls,
and very strong ones were carried off in a large
number of sparks almost entirely through the plates.
For actual lightning therefore roughened metallic plates
placed nearly opposite one another proved particularly
effective. The influence of the Northern lights also
made itself frequently perceptible, and at times in a very
disturbing degree, especially in the underground line
running mainly from east to west. Thus during the
great aurora in the autumn of 1848 communication
was interrupted for days between Berlin and Cothen
on account of violent rapidly changing currents. This
was the first observation of the connection between
earth currents, magnetic disturbance, and the aurora
borealis.

When the underground line had been extended
to Erfurt, Halske's watery by-passes were no longer

96 ELECTROSTATIC CHARGE OF UNDERGROUND WIRES.

sufficient. But meanwhile I had become convinced
that the peculiar behaviour of the underground wires
could only be ascribed to the electrostatic charge
already observed at the testings in the factory, the wire
namely forming the inner, the damp soil the outer
coating of a Leyden jar. Conclusive was the circum-
stance, that the quantity of electricity contained in a
perfectly insulated conductor, measured by the deflec-
tion of a freely oscillating magnetic needle, was defini-
tely related both to the electro -motive force of the
interposed galvanic battery and to the length of the
wire; further that the electric tension of the charge in
a closed conductor corresponded to the electric tension
occuring at every point of the circuit according to the
law of Ohm. Having perceived this, the impediments
to signalling on long underground lines, could, if not
be removed entirely, yet be rendered innocuous Im-
practical purposes by suitable contrivances. These were
the application of by -passes in the form of metallic
resistances without self-induction, and automatic trans-
lation by which several closed pieces of line were
united into a single large line.

My theory of the electrostatic charge of closed
as well as of open circuits found however even in
scientific circles at first but little acceptance, since it
was opposed to the ideas prevailing at the time.
Altogether it is not easy at the present day. when
one can hardly conceive how a civilized man can live
without railroads arid telegraphs, to carry oneself back
in imagination to that time, with the view of under-

LINE TO COLOGNE. 97

standing the difficulties which we then encountered in
things now regarded as a matter of course. Concep-
tions and helps, which are to-day familiar to every
schoolboy, could at that time often only be obtained
by effort and hard work.

I had the satisfaction of seeing this first long
telegraph line not merely of Germany but of

Europe already at work in the winter of 1849,

so that the election of an Emperor, which took place
in Frankfort, was by its help known the same hour
in Berlin. This favourable result led to the determina-
tion of the Prussian Government to construct at once
a line from Berlin to Cologne and the Prussian frontier
at Verviers. and after that others to Hamburg and
Breslau. All these lines were for safety's sake to be
underground, according to the system of the Berlin-
Eisenach line, although in this unmistakable defects
had already made themselves manifest. As these
defects were mainly owing to the facility with which
the wires wrere injured by workmen, and here and
there also by rats mice and moles, through being-
deposited only one and a half to two feet below the
surface in the mostly loose sand of the railway
embankments, it was determined to bury the wires
21J2 to 3 feet deep; but even then there was to be
no external protection on account of the cost.

I had declared myself ready to undertake also
the superintendence of the construction of the line to
Cologne and Verviers, provided I received further mili-
tary fourlough and provided my friend William Meyer.

•••

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

a*

98 CABLE ACROSS THE RHINE.

who had always faithfully aided me in my work in
his free time, and was therefore thoroughly competent,
was ordered to assist me. Both were granted, and
accordingly in the spring of 1849 we began the con-
struction of the line simultaneously at several points.
Meyer had considerable organizing talent, and was par-
ticularly adapted for managing works in which many
forces had to co-operate harmoniously.

Difficulties arose at the rivers Elbe and Rhine,
where the active navigation caused me to fear injuries
to the wires through dragging anchors. This danger
was particularly great in crossing the Rhine, as the
conducting wires were for almost the whole breadth of

D

the river threatened by the anchors and fishing-tackle.

t/ ~

An envelope of iron wire, which was employed in
the case of the Elbe and in crossing smaller livers,
appeared insufficient for the Rhine, as the tackle of
the sailors and fishermen provided with sharp points
could penetrate through the wire covering and injure
the insulated conductors within, and as a cable could
not be made strong enough to resist the dragging
anchors of large ships. I had therefore made specially
for the Rhine a chain of wrought -iron tubes, in the
cavities of which the insulated wires were placed,
whilst a strong chain- cable, supported by a series of
heavy ships' anchors, was destined to protect the
tube-chain from the dragging anchors of ships passing
down the river. This first large subaqueous line with
its external protection has stood the test very well.
When many years later, after the building of the

COLOGNE -VERVIERS LINE. 99

fixed railway bridge, it was taken up again, a number
of ships' anchors were found suspended to the pro-
tecting chain, which the sailors had had to cut in
order to free their ships. The chain had thus done
its duty.

An extremely difficult and instructive piece of
work was the construction of the line from Cologne

o

via Aix-la-Chapelle to Venders in Belgium, where the
junction with the overhead line from Brussels to Venders,
which had meanwhile been taken in hand, was to be
made. Here were several tunnels to be passed through,
in which the conducting wires had to be protected by
iron tubes attached to the tunnel walls. In large por-
tions of the railway embankment the trench for bedding
the wire had to be made by blasting with powder.

During the construction of the line I got to know
the entrepreneur of the pigeon post between Cologne
and Brussels, a Mr. Reuter, whose useful and profitable
business appeared to be hopelessly destroyed by the
laying of the electric telegraph. When Mrs. Reuter,
who accompanied her husband on his journeys, was
lamenting over this destruction of their business, I gave
the couple the advice to go to London, and there set up
a despatch-forwarding bureau, such as had just been
etablished in Berlin by a Mr. Wolff, with the co-ope-
ration of my cousin the before-mentioned law-counsellor
Siemens. The Reuters followed my advice with re-
markable success. Renter's telegraph agency in London
and its founder, the rich Baron Reuter, have to-day
a world- wide reputation.

100 RESOLUTION TO LEAVE THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

When the junction of the meanwhile completed
Belgian telegraph-line with the Prussian had been ef-
fected in Verviers, I received an invitation to Brussels,
to give a lecture before King Leopold on electric tele-
graphy. I found the whole royal family assembled in
the Brussels palace, and delivered a long lecture ac-
companied by experiments, which they followed with
close attention and quick understanding, as was evid-
enced by the discussion which followed.

The final decision of the question what turn I
should give to my future life had now to be made. The
military authorities had only with reluctance accorded
the prolongation of my order for service with the
ministry of commerce, and had emphatically declared
that an extension of the same would not be granted.
I had the choice either of stepping back into active
military service, or of going over to government-
telegraphy, in which my position as managing engineer
was assured, or lastly of renouncing every position of
public service, and devoting myself entirely to private
scientific and technical activity.

I decided for the last. To return to the military
garrison service, after the exciting and successfully
active life which I had behind me, I should have found
altogether impossible. The civil service did not at
all content me. There was wanting in it the feeling
of comradeship, which mitigates arid renders endurable
the oppressive differences of rank and power, there
was wanting in it also the plain-spoken candour, which
reconciles one even with the bluntness, which is tra-

REASONS FOR LEAVING THE PUBLIC SERVICE. 101

clitional in the army. My brief experience of the
civil service gave me sufficient grounds for the form-
ation of this opinion. As long as my superiors under-
stood nothing of telegraphy, they let me work entirely
unchecked, and limited their intervention and instruct-
ions to questions of financial importance. That soon
changed in the degree in which my immediate superior
in office, assessor, afterwards counsellor Nottebohm,
acquired knowledge of the subject during the progress
of the work. People were assigned to me of whom I could
make no use. technical arrangements ordered which I
knew to be bad. in short frictions and differences
occurred, which marred the pleasure in my work.

Again, the weakness of the insulated conducting
wires, lying unprotected in the loose soil of the rail-
way embankments, already began to show itself with
increasing distinctness. Faults in the insulation made
their appearance, which were only discovered and re-
moved with difficulty: breaches of continuity in the
wire without loss of insulation occurred, which often
only lasted a few hours, and whose position therefore
it was difficult to determine. The search for and re-
pairing of these defects were commonly entrusted to
inexperienced people, who cut the line in numberless
places to confine the fault within limits, and by unskilful
diggings and joinings paved the way for new defects,
which were then again attributed to me and the system.
Notwithstanding, with an almost blind confidence, new
undertakings of the same description were entered upon.
It may perhaps have been the political circumstances

102 REASONS FOR LEAVING THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

of the time, which called for the rapid construction of
a telegraphic network to embrace the whole country,
even at the risk of its not being of long duration.
The external protection of the conductors by iron
tubes proposed by me. as in crossing the Rhine, or
by sheathing with iron wires, for the manufacture of
which a Cologne firm had at my instigation already
made preparations, was declared to be too dear and
not readily producible; the provisional character of
the first attempts was maintained.

On the other hand the factory for telegraphic
apparatus, which I had founded along with my friend
Halske. and into which I had reserved the rio*ht of

D

entry, had already under his excellent management
obtained considerable recognition by reason of its re-
markable achievements. The great importance of
electric telegraphy for practical life was perceived,
and the managers of railways in particular began to
increase the efficiency of the lines and the security of
their working by laying down telegraph - wires for
intelligence and signals. In connection with this an
abundance of interesting scientific and technical problems
cropped up, which I felt a vocation to solve. My
choice could therefore not be a matter of doubt. In
June 1849 I requested my discharge from the military
service, and soon afterwards also resigned my office
as technical manager of the Prussian state-telegraphs.
The latter post was offered at my suggestion to my
friend William Meyer, who threw up his commission
at the same time as myself.

RETIREMENT FROM THE ARMY. 103

I had in the fourteen years of my military service
with the then bad arrangements for promotion become
the senior of rather more than half of the second
lieutenants, and received therefore according to custom
my discharge as first lieutenant "with the permission
to wear officer's uniform with the regulation insignia

o D

for those placed on the retired list". I declined the
pension due to me for my more than twelve years,
service as officer, as I felt in good health and would
not hand in the required invalid certificate.

To the acceptance of my request for dismissal
was attached a remark of reprehension on a formal
error in my petition. The political reaction had then
become so strong that the German sentiments shown
by me in the Danish war had become a reproach in
governing circles.

In spite of the small final result of my military
service I look back with a certain satisfaction to my
military period. My most agreeable youthful recollections
are connected with it, it paved my way through life,
and gave me through the success I had achieved self-
confidence for aiming at higher goals.

O o O

Although my activity and aims were not materially
changed by withdrawal from all official duties, yet my
life acquired in consequence a more settled direction,
henceforth dependent entirely on my own exertions. It
lay with me now to raise to the utmost by good work

104 ACTIVITY ON ENTERING BUSINESS.

the business which already bore my name, and to obtain
personal regard in the world as a man of science as well
as technologist. Although my inclinations drew me alto-
gether to purely scientific investigation, yet I perceived
that I must first of all turn my whole energies to
technical work, as its results could alone procure me
the means and opportunity for scientific work - - and
did in fact procure them.

My scientific and inventive activity was prescribed
to me in this laborious period almost without exception
by technical needs. Thus the then very surprising
and disturbing phenomena of electrical charges in the
underground conductors required thorough study.
Further it was necessary to establish a system for the
determination of the situation of faults in the conduction
and insulation of underground wires by measuring
currents at the ends of the wires. The uncertainty
of the measurements of currents led to the necessity
of replacing them by resistance measurements, and
thereby to the setting up of fixed reproducible stan-
dards of resistance and scales of resistance. For this
purpose the methods and instruments for current and
resistance measurements had also to be improved and
adapted for technical use - - in short a whole series
of scientific problems had cropped up. the solution of
which was called for by technical needs.

I devoted myself to these problems, so far as my
responsibility for the technical undertakings of the
business allowed, with special predilection, and was
therein very effectively supported by the constructive

LITTLE PUBLISHED AND PATENTED. 105

art and mechanical talent of my partner Halske. This
is especially true of the numerous improvements of the
telegraphic contrivances and accessories which date
from that time, and which, thanks to their solid and
accurate elaboration in our workshop under Halske's
guidance, were rapidly adopted in technical telegraphy.
The great influence, which the firm of Siemens and
Halske has exercised in the development of telegraphy,
is mainly to be ascribed to the circumstance, that in
their work the executing hand has been that of the
accurate mechanician and no longer as formerly of
the clock-maker.

For publication in scientific and technical journals
there was then no time: even patents were taken out
only in rare cases. There was then no German
patent, right, and in Prussia patents, given almost arbi-
trarily for from three to five years, were therefore
without practical value. The inventions and improve-
ments proceeding from us at that time therefore in the
majority of cases lack the attestation of their origin by
publication or patent.

A conspicious illustration of this occurred a few
years ago. There turned up somebody in the United
States, who asserted that he was the inventor of under-
ground conductors, especially of those insulated by
gutta-percha, and who tried after the lapse of more
than a quarter of a century to obtain a patent for
the same, which threatened considerable loss to the
large American telegraph company. The company
sent a special commission headed by their director,

106 CONSEQUENCES.

""General" Eckert, to Berlin, to search for verification
by printed publications that in 1846 I had already
introduced wires with gutta-percha insulation. To
their written enquiry I was obliged to reply that
nothing was to be found in print on the subject,
but that the official records of the Staff Commission
and of the subsequent Telegraph Board contained proof
complete.

This however did not suffice for the law - suit.
The Americans chose another very practical way to
procure printed information on the matter. They
advertised in several German papers that they would
pay a considerable sum for a description, printed in
1847. of the underground telegraph-lines laid on the
track of the Anhalt Railway. That succeeded. After
a few days there arrived from different places in Ger-
many newspaper-cuttings with the desired description.
The commission congratulated me as the undoubted
inventor of the gutta-percha conductors and travelled
home.

The proposed publication of the results however
never came off, because, it is said, in the meantime
a compromise with the reputed inventor had brought
greater profit to the company.

In Germany, after the construction of the lines to
Frankfort -on -the -Main and Cologne, the system of
underground communications had become the fashion.
Not only were the government telegraph lines from Berlin
to Hamburg, Breslau. Konigsberg and Dresden con-
structed underground with unprotected wires, buried at

LEAD LINES. 107

a depth of two feet, but even the railways preferred
to lay such underground lines, although the indications
of the speedy destruction of these lines increased
daily. In particular the destructive action of rats
and mice became more evident - - especially on the
first lines , which were laid in the sandy railway
embankments one and a half to two feet deep. The
wires laid over two feet deep were indeed at first
exposed to no such destruction, but subsequently it
occurred even in them.

I then believed that a coating of lead would
completely cope with this evil. To coat the wires
with lead I proceeded at first in the following manner.
Leaden tubes were straightened out, then a hempen
band was blown through them by means of a bellows,
and with its help the conducting wire insulated by
gutta-percha was drawn into the tube. Thereupon
the tube was passed through a draw-plate, in order
to effect a firm attachment to the insulated layer of
the conductor. We afterwards succeeded in pressing
the leaden tube directly round the insulated wire,
when the lead had exactly acquired a certain tempe-
rature and permanently retained it. The difficulty of
continually controlling this temperature I overcame by
a thermo-electric arrangement.

o

Such conductors, surrounded by lead casing, were
frequently furnished by Halske and me in the beginning
of the fifties. So among others in the telegraphic
system, which we set up for the police service and
the fire-brigade of Berlin. These lead lines acted quite

108 MORSE TELEGRAPH.

satisfactorily for a long series of years. They were
then gradually replaced by cable conductors, yet lead
conductors have remained in excellent condition to the
present day. after the lapse of 40 years. Only where
the lead has come in contact with decaying matter
in the soil, whereby the formation of acetate and
carbonate of lead is facilitated, is it liable to rapid
destruction.

The just mentioned police and fire-brigade tele-
graph was intended to unite fifty stations in different
parts of Berlin with the central office of the police
department and the central office of the fire-brigade,
so that the report of fire might be simultaneously
communicated to all stations, whilst the police reports
were only to be received and comprehended at the
central police bureau. Our arrangement solved this
interesting problem very satisfactorily and worked for
over twenty years well and accurately, but then suc-
cumbed to the simpler Morse system.

Morse's writing telegraph first became known in
Germany through a Mr. Robinson who, in the year
1850, gave exhibitions with it in Hamburg. The
simplicity of Morse's apparatus, the relative facility of
acquiring the alphabet, and the pride which fills
every one, who has learnt to use it, and causes him
to become an apostle of the system, have in a
short time ousted all dial and older letter -print ing
apparatus.

Halske and I at once perceived this superiority
of the Morse telegraph, resting on manual dexterity.

TRANSLATION. 109

and made it therefore our task to improve and perfect
the system mechanically as far as possible.

We gave the apparatus good wheel -works with
automatic regulation of the velocity, a reliable magnetic
system, sure contacts and commutators, improved the
relays, and introduced a complete system of translation.
This consisted in an arrangement, whereby all the
currents circulating in a telegraphic circuit were auto-
matically transferred to a neighbouring circuit pro-
vided with its own battery, so that the whole line
was divided into several separate closed circuits, but
yet without the assistance of the telegraph clerks of the
intermediate stations communication could be directly
held between the terminal stations.

Such a system of translation I had elaborated
as early as 1847 for my dial and printing tele-
graphs, and had laid before the Staff Commission an
apparatus constructed by myself for this purpose,
the so-called go-between (relay). Translation however
only attained its full importance through the application
to the Morse apparatus; it came into use for the first
time on the Berlin- Vienna line, which was provided
in Breslau and Oderberg with translation stations. It
may be here mentioned that the contrivance was sub-
sequently very considerably improved by Professor Dr.
Steinheil. the then Director of the Austrian telegraphs,
by fitting an automatic contact to the wheel-work.

The railway companies remained longest faithful
to the dial telegraphs with automatic interruption.
In this system we had however ourselves brought

110 KRAMER'S DIAL TELEGRAPH.

a competitor into the field, who subsequently got a
good deal in our way. Dr. Kramer, school-master
in Nordhausen, had on his part submitted to the
Telegraph Commission a small Wheatstorie dial tele-
graph, which he had had made by a clock-
maker. The Kramer apparatus did not by a long
way accomplish as much as my self- interrupting
dial telegraph, and was therefore rejected by the
commission.

The good-hearted General von Oetzel and I my-
self felt compassion for the poor man, since he had
employed all his savings on the construction of the
apparatus: and as there were no means at the dis-
posal of the commission for the indulgence of such
feelings I consented to buy his apparatus for five
hundred thalers. Half a year later however Kramer
reappeared with a new apparatus, in which he had
made use of my system, with the modification that
he employed a clockwork to keep the pointer in motion
mechanically. The patent office of that time saw no
objection in the appropriation of automatic interruption
to granting him likewise a patent. These Kramer
dial telegraphs, running automatically like our own,
despite their light clockmaker-construction worked just
as well and reliably as ours, and did us therefore
great harm. -

My time on entering the business was entirely
claimed by constructive work for the factory, and by
the laying down of numerous railway telegraph lines
undertaken by my firm. Still in the winter of 1849 — 50

MEMOIRE SUR LA TELEGRAPHIE ELECTRIQUE. HI

I found a period of leisure, which I employed in
putting together for publication my experiences on
telegraphic communication and apparatus. In April 1850
I laid my work, with the title "Memoire sur la tele-
graphie electriqzie" , before the Paris Academy of Sciences.
This had been rendered possible to me through a
lucky accident, which enabled me to meet in Paris my
friend du Bois-Reymond. who intended to present a
work of his own to the Academy, and gave me his
friendly assistance for the French remodelling of my
essay. I still remember with great satisfaction the
stimulating, and to me extremely interesting and in-
structive, time of this four weeks sojourn in Paris, the
living together with friend du Bois, and the intercourse
with the most celebrated Paris savants. To the members
of the committee appointed by the Academy for con-
sidering my work belonged Pouillet and Regnault.
The report on my memoir was read by Regnault at
a sitting of the Academy, to which du Bois and I had
received formal invitations. Leverrier appeared as
opposer. and defended the electro-chemical telegraph
of Bain, which had likewise been presented to the
Academy. The presiding secretaire perpetttel Arago
however cut short Leverrier1 s opposition by moving
the thanks of the Academy for the memoir and its
reception in the "savants etr anger s" .

This public testing of my literary firstling in the
telegraphic domain by famous members of the first
scientific tribunal in the world produced a deep and
very stimulating impression upon me. Many reasons

112 LITERARY JUSTICE.

can be offered against such an official trial of scientific

O

and technical performances, which supplies a kind of
hall mark and may easily be very injurious to the free
unfolding of science: it is indeed only admissible under
full control by the publicity of the seances, can then
however be very useful and stimulative.

Through the admission of my memoir into the
"savants Strangers", and another essay published the
same year in PoggendorfFs Annalen "On electrical lines
and apparatus", which reproduced entire the contents
of the memoir so far as they had reference to under-
ground electrical lines, my priority in respect of various
scientific and technical achievements has been placed
beyond dispute. Nevertheless unwarranted claims to
certain of them were subsequently raised in divers
quarters. This leads me to make here a few remarks
on the need of an international literary tribunal,
which has in recent times come to be felt with in-
creasing acuteness. It must first of all be granted
that in the course of the last decennia it has become
ever more difficult, nay almost impossible, completely
to survey the vast mass of material contained in scienti-
fic and technological publications, in many different
languages moreover. It is also natural that those who-
are entirely absorbed in their own special work,
but especially those who actively co-operate in further-
ing the development of the technical application of
physical science, find but little leisure to make a
thorough study of the doings of others working on the
same or on related lines, even if masters of the several

LITERARY JUSTICE. 113

languages, and that they in general have also little
inclination to turn their attention to the past. As
an example of this I might point to the most highly
gifted and copiously inventive physicist of any age,
Faraday. He got to know the insulation with pressed
gutta-percha only many years after its invention.
when it began to be employed in England for sub-
marine cables, the external protection of the insulated
conductor being secured by surrounding the latter
with iron wires. The surprising phenomena of electri-
cal charges, which Faraday observed in these cables,
induced him to publish an essay on the subject. When
du Bois-Reymond. however, sent him without further
comment a copy of my memoir presented to the French
academy. Faraday did not lose any time in following
up his first work with another, in which he cited the
relevant sections of my treatise, and made the decla-
ration that the priority both of the observation and
also of the explanation of the phenomena belonged to
me. Other English writers, as Wheatstone, Jerikin
and many others, have certainly not troubled them-
selves about either this declaration of Faraday's or
any of my other publications.

In Germany the good custom formerly prevailed
of always prefacing the description of one's own
scientific or technical discoveries and inventions by
a description of the achievements of predecessors in
the same department, thereby giving the progress about
to be described its place in the historic evolution -
a custom, which unfortunately has never been observed

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

114 LITERARY JUSTICE.

in other countries with like conscientiousness. Hence
it has hitherto been the peculiar glory of the Germans
to recognise more than other nations the services of
foreigners, and always to connect their own achieve-
ments with those of their precursors. This has been
essentially facilitated by the knowledge, more diffused
in Germany than in other countries, of foreign lan-
guages; but even apart from that German science has
always regarded it as a point of honour to practise
literary justice equally towards natives and foreigners,
and let us hope that this will be so also in future,
and that we shall thereby be spared the literary piracy
which unhappily threatens to become prevalent even
among ourselves.

As however the practice has recently come into
vogue of leaving each individual to settle and defend
his own real or supposed claims . this being too
laborious for others. I intend to follow it in these
pages. At the end of .each period I shall accordingly
give a summary of technical developments, important
in my judgment, where the priority of discovery, in-
vention, or first application demonstrably appertains
to me. That in so doing I may here and there re-
peat what has been already adduced in another con-
nection will certainly be unavoidable. Should I now
and then make mistakes and pay insufficient regard
to the claims of others. I must hope for the indulgence
of the reader.

I shall be able to review with great brevity the
period terminating with the publication of my "Memoire

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1850. 115

sur la telegraphic electriqtie" and the corresponding
paper in PoggendoriFs Annalen, as the most important
particulars have been interwoven in the general nar-
rative, and have thus already received detailed con-
sideration.

When in the year 1842 I applied for my first
Prussian patent no process of galvanic gilding or silver-
ing was known in Germany.

I had experimented with all the gold and silver
salts known to me, and besides the hyposulphites had
also found the cyanides suitable. The patent however
was only granted me for the former, as in the mean-
time Elkington's English patent for the employment
of the cyanide salts had become known. Notwith-
standing the beautiful gold and silver precipitates ob-
tainable from hyposulphite salts, the cyanide salts have
in the long run kept the field, their solutions being
more constant.

The problem proposed to my brother William to
construct a regulator, which should so exactly regulate
a steam-engine connected with a water-wheel, that the
water-wheel should always perform its full work, but
the steam-engine yield the required excess of working
power, led me to the idea of the so-called differential
regulation. It consisted in employing a freely- oscil-
lating circular pendulum for the production of a per-
fectly uniform rotation, thereby causing the turning of
a screw, whilst the engine to be regulated turned a

8*

116 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1850.

moveable nut on the screw in the same direction.
The nut must then move right or left on the screw
as long as it turns quicker or slower than the screw.
and can thus perfectly regulate the pace of the engine,
immediately ceasing to move, when the velocity of the
engine is precisely equal to that of the circular pen-
dulum. The differential regulator (or chronometric
governor, as brother William, who practically elabo-
rated and mainly perfected it. afterwards called it in
England), constructed on this principle, has certainly
not been largely introduced into practical engineering.
It is neither so simple nor so cheap as the Watt-
regulator, which in later years has been considerably
improved, but the differential movement, which we
carried out in the most varied forms, has proved an
exceedingly fertile element of construction.

My occupation with the problem of the exact
measurement of the velocity of projectiles, imperfectly
solved by Leonhardt's ingenious clock, caused me to
perceive that only a method, in which no masses
had to be set in motion and brought to rest, could

o

lead to the goal. Thus I came to employ the electric
spark for the solution of the problem. My proposal
consisted in causing electric sparks to pass on to a
rapidly and uniformly rotating polished steel-cylinder
from a fine point approximated as far as possible to
its periphery, and in calculating, from the interval
between the marks produced by these sparks and the
known number of revolutions of the cylinder, the
velocity of the ball, which at particular stages of its

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1850. 117

career produced the sparks. This method of measuring
velocity by the help of marks, which an electric spark
brands on polished steel or sprinkles on sooty steel
surfaces, has maintained its ground, and is still to-day
employed especially for measuring the velocity of pro-
jectiles in large and small gun-barrels.

The suggestion of storing up the unemployed
heat of one operation for use in the succeeding
operation, derived from my brother William's descrip-
tion of the Stirling hot-air engine, which I received
in the year 1845. interested me in a very high
degree. It appeared to me to open the way into a
yet unknown vast domain of technical science. It
occurred at a time when the idea, pervading and
governing the physical science of this age , of the
causal connection of all natural forces unconsciously
swayed men's minds, until it soon after became through
Mayer and Helmholtz common scientific property. The
principle of the circulation of heat in working engines
arid of the heat - equivalent of work already found
clear expression in my paper "On the application of
heated air as motive power", whose publication was
occasioned by Stirling's engine. I consider the chief
value of this essay however to have been, that
it incited my brothers William and Frederick to
their later pioneer efforts in the province of thermal
economy.

In my first- dial telegraph of 1846 I consequen-
tially carried out the principle of the automatic inter-
ruption of the electric current both for the apparatus

118 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1850.

itself and also for the alarum. The principle essen-
tially consisted in increasing, according to require-
ment, the stroke of the well-known Neef hammer by
the insertion of a moveable contact, the so - called
slide. My dial and type -printing telegraphs, depend-
ing on this principle, were distinguished from the
then well-known Wheatstone telegraphs by being auto-
matic machines, running isochronally with one another,
until one apparatus was mechanically stopped by the
depression of a key on the particular letter, where-
upon all the others likewise stopped at the same letter,
and this letter was printed off by the type - printer.
The description of these instruments, as of most of
my further inventions and improvements of telegraphic
conductors and apparatus down to the year 1850. is
contained in my "Memoire sur la tele grap hie electrique"
communicated to the Paris Academy. I content my-
self here with a concise summary of the most important
scientific and technical improvements, the priority of
which is secured to me by that publication:

Introduction of the automatic break. of the electric
current at the end of every moArement of the armature
through a predetermined distance. Or one may put it
thus: increase of the movement of the Neef hammer
by a mechanism answering to the slide of the steam-
engine. All automatic electric alarums without clock
work and many other constructions rest on this
principle.

Production of the synchronous action of two or
more electric machines by allowing a fresh impulse to

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1850. 119

take place only when all the automatic contact-breakers
are again closed, i. e. the armature -movement of all
the apparatus inserted in the circuit is completed.

Manufacture of insulated conductors for subter-
ranean or submarine telegraphs by coating wires with
gutta-percha.

Construction of machines, which press the gutta-
percha without seam round the wires to be insulated.

Discovery of the phenomena of the charge in in-
sulated subterranean or submarine conductors, and
establishment of the law of the charge for open and
closed circuits.

Establishment of the methods, measurements, and
formulae for determining the place of faulty conduction
and insulation in subterranean circuits.

The underground wires, both those without external
protection and those with an armature of lead, had
meanwhile continued to come into use even beyond
the confines of Germany; among other states Russia
had adopted the system and connected St. Petersburg
and Moscow by a subterranean wire. In Prussia how-
ever the deterioration, which had occurred in the first
lines soon after their construction, continued to make
uninterrupted progress. The causes, which contributed
to this and finally led to the complete destruction of
the lines, have been already mentioned. The almost
morbid endeavour, called forth by political exigencies,

120 DESTRUCTION OF THE UNDERGROUND WIRES IN PRUSSIA.

to set up as quickly as possible and at the least cost
a subterranean system of communication embracing the
whole country, had prevented the provision of the wires
with an armature and a sufficiently deep imbedding,
to secure them from injury at the hands of workmen
and from the attacks of rodents. The attempt to re-
place the wires, thus rendered useless, by others coated
with lead proved fruitless, as the rodents gnawed to
pieces even the protecting lead-covering. Further there
was lacking a properly trained staff to keep the ex-
tended network of wire in good order, and to remedy
defects without deranging the whole system. In con-
sequence of unskilful searches and tinkering of faults
numerous soldered joints came into existence, which
were insulated in a very primitive fashion by patching
with heated gutta-percha, and thus gave rise to new
faults. It was therefore to be feared that the sub-
terranean lines would, in a short time, become quite
unserviceable.

This sad state of things moved me to write a

O

pamphlet entitled <;A short account of experiences in
connection with the Prussian subterranean telegraph
lines" ?, in which I pointed out the existing risks and
made proposals for improvements in dealing with the
lines, but at the same time also energetically dis-
claimed responsibility, which was then on all sides
sought to be fastened upon me, for the collapse of
the system which I had suggested. It was only to be
expected that the publication of this pamphlet would
» lead to differences with the directorate of the Prussian

FOREIGN UNDERTAKINGS. 121

state telegraphs. In fact for several years communi-
cation of any kind whatsoever with myself and with my
firm entirely ceased. All orders were withdrawn from
us, and our special constructions handed over to other
manufacturers as models. This constituted a severe
crisis for our young establishment, which had rapidly
risen to be a factory with some hundred workmen.
Luckily railway telegraphy, which as the railways
themselves was not then state property, furnished an
independent market for our manufactures. The breach
with the government telegraph management however
had a trood deal to do with turning our attention

o o

more abroad, and leading us to seek there a market
for our products, as well as opportunities for larger
undertakings.

As in the foreign undertakings of my firm, which
I shall now have to report, my younger brothers
played a very important part, it will be as well to
cast a retrospective glance at the doings of my
family and especially of my brothers during the
period of my life just described.

The life of my brother William has been narrated
at considerable length, and with the conscientious use
of all the sources accessible to him. by a well-known
English writer. Dr. William Pole. In what follows I
need therefore only touch upon such events of his life
as had immediate relation to my own. First I will
here remark, that I stood during the whole of his life

o

122 BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

in active correspondence and lively personal intercourse
with William, to our great mutual gain. We com-
municated to each other all the more important events
of our lives, as well as new plans and aims: discussed
our diverging views, and almost always, if not in our
letters, yet at our next meeting, which usually happened
twice a year, came to a friendly understanding. The
circumstance, that I had paid more attention to pure
science, and William to technology and practical engi-
neering, led to each allowing to the other a certain
authority in his own subjects, whereby our collaboration
was considerably facilitated. That we were not jealous
of one another, but rather rejoiced, when the one could
further the recognition of the other in his respective
country, strengthened and assured our good under-
standing.

After the dissolution of our commercial partner-
ship for carrying out our inventions in the year 1846
William had entered an English machine factory of
repute as engineer, with the object in the first place
of securing a maintenance. But "the cat can't give up
mousing'', as a German proverb says: it was not long
before he too was again buried in his inventions. The
difference between us however was that I confined
myself to the solution of the numerous problems, which
telegraphy and in general the application of electrical
theory to practical life brought me, William on the
other hand tried by preference to solve difficult problems
of thermo- dynamics. In particular he had set himself
the task of overcoming the difficulties, which Stirling

BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 123

had encountered at Dundee in elaborating his hot-air
engine . by introducing the heat - regenerator for the

O i/ O

steam-engine. The experiments with these regenerating
steam-engines, regenerating evaporators, and condensers
claimed for years his time and means, without pro-
curing for his constructions general introduction into
technical practice. On the other hand he succeeded
in practically solving a problem on which I had also
long worked in Berlin with incomplete success, namely
the water-meter question. The patented Siemens-
A damson reaction water-meters for many years com-
manded the market and brought William good profits.
Then they were superseded by the Berlin construction
of the stroke or whirlpool meter, which was at once
adopted by William himself.

The excellent progress which the manufacture of
telegraphic and other electrical apparatus made in our
Berlin factory, and the great recognition which our
-constructions on all sides enjoyed, suggested the open-
ing of a business connection between William and the
firm of Siemens & Halske. He undertook at first to
act as an agent for obtaining orders in England, and
very cleverly contrived to turn the attention of English
technologists to the achievements of the Berlin firm.
This was especially furthered by the first Great Exhi-
bition, which took place in London in the summer of
1851. Siemens & Halske sent specimens in abundance;
their exhibits found universal approval and procured for
the firm the highest distinction - - the Council medal.

My brothers Hans and Ferdinand had remained

124 BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

faithful to their agricultural calling. After giving up
the farming of the Menzendorf demesne they had come
to Berlin, whither all the brothers with the exception
of William had betaken themselves, and the two soon
succeeded in obtaining suitable positions on East
Prussian estates.

Frederick had at a very early age gone from Ltibeck
to sea. and had for some years made a number of
long voyages in Liibeck sailing-ships. This had indeed
somewhat cooled his originally invincible inclination for
seafaring, and he wrote me one day that he would
like to learn something. I bade him therefore come
to Berlin, to prepare him by private instruction for
attending a naval school. He devoted himself to his
studies with great eagerness and success, and soon

O o

showed great interest in my own aims and experiments.
The new mental life finally interested him in such a
degree that the inclination for a sailor's life, whose
seamy side he had got well to know, was incapable of
withstanding the new impressions. Add to this, that the
total change in dress, living, and climate, had brought
on rheumatic sufferings, which he only slowly got the
better of. Henceforth he assisted me in my technical
work, and was strenuously bent on filling the great gaps
which the seaman's life had made in his knowledge.
The next in order, brother Charles, had, like
Frederick, spent the first years after the death of the
parents with uncle Deichmann in Liibeck, and had then
completed his schooling in Berlin. There he early
took part in my work, and became my faithful ever

BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 125

reliable assistant in my first technical undertakings, in
particular helping me in laying down the first under-
ground wires.

p

I have already related that my brothers William,
Frederick, and Charles, followed me in 1848 to Kiel
and Friedrichsort. The powerful national feeling, that
had everywhere been aroused in Germany, left them
no peace at home. To William I entrusted the con-
struction and command of the battery, which I had
caused to be erected in Laboe opposite the Friedrichs-
ort fort, whilst Frederick and Charles entered the
service of the newly formed Schleswig-Holstein army
as volunteers, and remained in the service till the con-
clusion of the armistice. On this occasion we arranged
that Frederick should continue his technical education
in England under William's guidance. Charles entered
a chemical factory in Berlin, which he however soon
quitted in order to assist me in laying down and re-
pairing the telegraph lines. In the year 1851 he was
together with Frederick the representative of the Berlin
factory at the London Universal Exhibition, and carried
on with ability the business negotiations which resulted

«/ o

therefrom. A branch in Paris, which we next founded
under his management, did not bring indeed the hoped-
for fruits, but contributed much to his social arid
business training.

o

Of the two youngest brothers Walter had come
at the same time as Charles from Ltibeck to Berlin
and attended school there. Otto I placed in a
grammar-school at Halle, as my time was too much

126 BROTHERS AXD SISTERS.

taken up to allow of my personally superintending his
education.

Of our two sisters the elder Matilda, married
to Professor Himly in Kiel, was already the happy
mother of a troop of pretty children. She has always
honestly shared with me the care of the younger
brothers and sister, and sought as far as possible to
compensate them for the maternal love so early with-
drawn from them. My youngest sister Sophia had
been, as already mentioned, adopted on the death of
our parents by uncle Deichmann in Lubeck. At the
beginning of the fifties Deichmann took the resolution
of emigrating with his family to North America. They
were chiefly political reasons, which had occasioned this
resolution. After the suppression of the revolution in
Germany and Austria, after the surrender of Schleswig-
Holstein and the deep humiliation of Prussia a feeling
of despair rapidly spread in Germany.

The power of Russia appeared then so gigantic,
that the prophecy of Napoleon at St. Helena, in fifty
years Europe would become either republican or Cos-
sack, seemed already practically fulfilled. Although
I myself was also deeply depressed by the turn things
were taking in the political world, I could not sub-
scribe to so pessimistic a view. I not only therefore
rejected the pressing invitation of the uncle to accom-
pany him to America, but also tried to prevent any
of my brothers and sisters from participating in the
emigration. In particular I refused my consent to the
departure of my sister Sophia, in which I was strongly

BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 127

supported by her legal guardian Herr Ekengreen. Un-
fortunately however we had no power to detain Sophia,
as she had been formally adopted by the uncle.

In these straits Cupid came to our help. A young
lawyer in Llibeck. Dr. jur. Crome, had observed with
pleasure the young girl growing up near him, and was
only awaiting the dawn of womanhood to present him-
self as a suitor. The dire news of the intended emi-
gration prematurely ripened his resolution. He begged
the hand of the maiden of sixteen, and shortly before
the departure of the adoptive parents the wedding was
celebrated. We older members of the family have
not repented having favoured this step. The young
husband is said indeed, in his first married days, to
have been terribly tormented by jealousy, because the
young wife kept carefully locked certain drawers of her
cabinet, even eagerly endeavouring on his unlooked-
for entrance to conceal certain articles on which her
attention was engaged. But then, on his impetuous
demand, she tearfully confessed to him, it was the
new dress of her favourite doll, for the completion of
which the hasty wedding had left her no time!

It deserves to be remarked that the native charac-
teristics of my brothers, as revealed in their earliest
youth, have been faithfully preserved to an advanced
age, and have given a well-defined direction to their
career. This holds good especially of my three brothers,
with whom a common life and aims have most united
me, of William, Frederick, and Charles.

William had even as a child an abstracted, perhaps-

128 CHARACTER OF WILLIAM.

somewhat reserved nature. He clung with great affection
to his relatives, but would never let them see it. From
earliest youth he was ambitious and a little inclined
to jealousy. When the tenderness of mother, grand-
mother, brothers and sisters was disputed by his next
brother Frederick, a deep resentment against the little
rival manifested itself - - a feeling which I fancy was
never wholly extinguished in him. in spite of all the
fraternal affection and help bestowed so abundantly in
later years. He possessed an extremely clear under-
standing and a quick power of apprehension, could
always follow with great ease the train of thought of
others, as well as grasp and give life to the spirit of
what he had acquired. The good pupil developed with
perfect consistency into the logical, methodical thinker,
the able engineer and man of business. His great
success in England he owes chiefly to his peculiar power
of appropriating easily and quickly from the store-
house of German science what was of practical value
for the moment, as well as to the further gift of
having this scientific knowledge ever ready, and of
always immediately discovering in the technical ques-
tions he met with the fulcrum, where the scientific lever
should be applied for their furtherance or solution. No
doubt he was essentially assisted by the circumstance
that he came to England at a time when scientific
culture was only represented there sporadically,
although then in a remarkable degree, and when
active co-operation between science and practice was
as rare as in Germany. So he succeeded, not only

CHARACTER OF FREDERICK. 129

in accomplishing good work himself, but also, by taking
an active and energetic part in the highly developed life
of scientific and technical institutions in England, in
deserving well of the world of science, and at the same
time in rendering a lasting service to English industry.
Almost diametrically opposite were the mental
qualities of his successor in the series of surviving
members of the family. Frederick was not a good
learner. It has always been difficult for him to follow
another's train of thought to the end. On the other
hand he was from childhood a remarkably good ob-
server, and had the gift of stringing his observations
well together, and of making himself intelligible. Really
to understand arid appropriate the thoughts of others,
he had to discover them or think them out for himself
afterwards. This characteristic of steady, spontaneous,
uninfluenced thinking and self- training gave him a
peculiarly meditative air and his performances a pro-
nounced originality. Frederick is the born inventor,
to whose brooding mind the novel conception first
presents itself in obscure nebulous form, and who
thereupon with restless energy and untiring industry
tests the foundation of the conception, filling up at
the same time any gaps in his knowledge, and finally
either rejects his idea as false or impracticable, or
elaborates it into a serviceable and then almost always
original invention. At the same time Frederick was
never a diplomatist, arid just as little a man of business
carefully weighing his words and actions. He went and
is still going everywhere his straight road, biased only

f OFTHE x.

(UNIVERSITT)

\ OF /

130 CHARACTER OF CHARLES. SELF-CHARACTERIZATION.

by his innate friendly and benevolent disposition, a road
which usually leads him to the desired goal, since he
always well considers it and follows it with the greatest
energy to the end.

I should call the next brother Charles the most
normally constituted of us all. He was always to be
depended upon, faithful and conscientious, a good pupil,
an affectionate, attached brother. His clear eye and
generally cultivated understanding made him an excellent
man of business and, with his large technical knowledge
and excellent tact, an admirable conductor of business
undertakings. Charles was the true connecting link bet-
ween us four brothers, who differed indeed radically
from one another, but were bound together for life-long
common work by all-subduing fraternal love.

Not to leave myself out in this family characteri-
zation I will only remark that I possessed a fair share
of the good and bad qualities just described of my
three brothers, but that these qualities were much
repressed in outward manifestation through my parti-
cular line of life. To perform my duty and do good
work has always been my strenuous endeavour. To
find recognition has been indeed grateful to me. but
it has always been repulsive to me to push myself in
any way, or be made the subject of an ovation.
Perhaps my constant endeavour "to be. rather than
to seem'', and to have my merits first discovered by
others, was only a peculiar form of vanity. I shall
try as far as possible to avoid it in these pages.

BEGINNING OF THE RUSSIAN UNDERTAKINGS. 131

The year 1852 formed a decided turning -point
in my personal as well as in my business life.

At the beginning of that year I made my first
journey to Russia. The business connection of my
firm with the Russian government had been opened
as early as 1849 through the medium of Captain
von Ltklers. who was making a circular tour through
Europe, having been entrusted by his government with
the task of ascertaining the best system of electric
telegraphs. He then proposed our system for the line
to be constructed from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
Orders were given to Siemens £ Halske only for
apparatus dial telegraphs and measuring instru-

ments - - as the Russian Government took upon itself
the construction of the underground wires. Negotiations
having reference to further orders now required my
presence in St. Petersburg.

My journey lay by way of Konigsberg. which
I had long ardently desired to visit, without having
been able to make up my mind to undertake the
journey. It was there that Drumann, the well-known
historian, resided, who had married a daughter of my
uncle Mehlis in Clausthal, and was accordingly my
kinsman by marriage. In the year 1844 Frau Dru-
mann had, on a journey to Clausthal, looked me up
in Berlin, and spent a few days there with her youngest
daughter Matilda. I made myself useful to the ladies
during the time as cicerone, and passed some very
.agreeable and exhilarating days in their company.
The return journey was to have been also by way of

132 THE DRUMANN FAMILY.

Berlin . and I was looking forward to the renewed
meeting with my amiable cousin and her handsome and
clever daughter. The pleasure was unfortunately
destined to be marred by a very sad event.

Frau Drumann arrived ill in Berlin, and died in
the hotel a few days after, of inflammation of the
lungs. I was the only relative, even the only acquain-
tance of the family in Berlin, and had therefore to
fulfil all the duties of the family head. My compassion
was put to a hard test by the intense grief of the
poor lonely girl. The speedy arrival of the deceased's
brother, councillor Mehlis of Hanover, and of his wife
made indeed easier for me the difficult and alto-
gether unwonted task which had fallen to my lot,
yet the image of the sorrow-laden girl, helplessly
clinging to me. would not leave my mind. Eight
years had since passed, in which our correspondence
lively at first had gradually ceased. My brother Fer-
dinand had meanwhile become engaged to Matilda's
elder sister, and with the assistance of Professor Dru-
mann had purchased the manor of Piontken in East
Prussia. But when he was on the point of bringing
home his bride, she fell ill of a chronic lung disease,
to which, notwithstanding the excellent nursing of her
only sister, she succumbed after several years of severe
suffering. The time had now come for me to fulfil
a long cherished wish, without departing from an early-
formed resolution , to -marry only when my own
resources permitted it. Halske had managed well.
We had bought in Berlin extensive premises, 94 Mark-

BETROTHAL TO MATILDA DRUMANN. 133

grafenstrasse . at the back of which a fine room}7
workshop had been erected, whilst the front part,
recently enlarged, yielded us excellent dwelling accom-
modation. For the wedding then there was only lacking
the bride, and I was able soon after my arrival in
Konigsberg. on my mother's birthday - - the llth of
January 1852 - - to put the long deferred question
to Matilda Drumann. whose reply made me an accepted
and happy lover.

My business affairs did not allow of a long stay

J O J

in Konigsberg, as I was expected on the 20th of
January in Riga, where we had to establish telegraphic
communication with the port-town Boldera. which was
to be effected by means of a steel -wire cable spanning
the broad Duna.

At that time posting was the only mode of
travelling in Russia. This was very well organized
on the main roads, that is to say considering the

•/ o

circumstances. At a distance on an average of from
twenty to thirty versts --a verst is a little more than
a kilometer - - substantial houses with stabling were
erected on the post-roads, in which shelter and horses
were to be had. if not already engaged, and the tra-
veller was in possession of a government order to the
post-masters, directing them to furnish horses for a
prescribed journey on payment of the regulation fare.
If possessed of such an order -- called Podaroshna -
the traveller, supposing he had no private carriage,
obtained a small four-wheeled peasant's cart, without
springs covering or other luxury, drawn by three

134 JOURNEY BY POST TO RIGA.

usually not bad horses, of which the middle one was
harnessed in shafts, and the two outside ones yoked
so as to face respectively right or left. In a proper
i;troika" the stronger middle horse has to trot, whilst
the side - horses keep pace with a galop to right or
left. The traveller has usually for seat his travelling
trunk or a bundle of straw - - and then, good speed,
and away at a galop, which only ceases at the next
station, if flying report has vaunted the traveller's
liberality in the matter of tips.

Such a post journey requires experience. It is
necessary to sit on the trunk quite loosely and bent
well forward, so that one's own spine may form a spring
to protect the brain from the violent jolts of the wrheels
on the usually indifferent roads. If this precaution
be omitted, violent headaches are the infallible result.
However one pretty quickly accustoms oneself to this
mode of travelling, which also has its charms, even
soon learns to sleep quite soundly in the rocking po-
sition, coping instinctively with all the unevenness of
the road by judicious counter-movements. When two
travellers make use of such a "telega" they usually
lash themselves together by a girdle, in order that their
oscillations may be so regulated as to prevent their
knocking their heads together. For the rest I have
found that "telega" travelling can be very well borne,
if it is not overdone. Certainly it is said that these
journeys have often been fatal to couriers, who have
had to sit day and night for weeks together in their
"telegas'1.

SLEDGE-DRIVE TO ST. PETERSBURG. 135

The telega journey was agreeable and interesting
e noil o-h as far as Riga. But there regular winter

O o O

weather had set in, and the further journey could
only be made in sledges. The Russian "kibitkas' are
low and rather short sledges, which for longer journeys
are completely closed with matting. The inner space
is separated from the driver's box by a wall of mat-
ting, in which two small windows are fixed, which
admit light sparingly to the interior. A mat -flap at
each side of the sledge renders possible the rather
difficult getting out and in.

As I travelled for the first time into Russia proper,
knowing no Russian, I had to look about in Riga for
a travelling companion. In a newspaper advertisement
such a person turned up, who possessed a kibitka and
spoke German and Russian perfectly. As appeared
when we were already on the road, this was an elderly
merchant's wife of Riga, who sought in this way to
cheapen her annual business trip to St. Petersburg.
She had packed the sledge so full of straw and bed-
ding that one could only lie down in it, and then had
the mat-covering close over one's face. It had become
bitterly cold, and the nearer we got to our goal the
stronger became the dry keen north-east wind, which
with 18° below zero Reaumur mocked at the warmest
wrapping. Then I learnt in Russian fashion to drink hot
tea in great quantities, as soon as a station was reached,
for only in that way could any warmth be obtained.

When on the third morning we had reached the
Narva station we fell victims to a little stratagem, which

136 SLEDGE-DRIVE TO ST. PETERSBURG.

was often and in the most varied forms practised by
the post-masters. The post-master declared with the.
greatest assurance that it was of no use to travel
further, as at the stations before St. Petersburg all the
horses had been appropriated for a great imperial bear
hunt. Apparently touched by the loud lamentations
of my Russian companion he finally offered to give us a
pair of particularly powerful horses, which would bring

us the same evening to St. Petersburg. The bargain was
struck, and the crafty Russian imagined that he had
by the fiction of the bear hunt secured the whole fare
to St. Petersburg. Our subsequent adventures however
foiled his scheme.

Our driver was a young fellow without fur and
warm foot -rug. That he often stopped seemed to us
intelligible, as he evidently needed a warm drink to
avoid being frozen. At last however he never returned
at all. I had to struggle out of the kibitka which,
owing to my double furs, that yet did not prevent a
rather severe numbness, was attended with difficulty.
I then found our "Iswoshtchik" in a hut hard by,
brandy glass in hand, which the rather suspicious-
looking Jewish proprietor of the hut kept eagerly
filling. When I drove the man back to the sledge
with the necessary sensible admonitions. I observed
unmistakable signs of a deeper understanding between
him and the tavern-keeper who accompanied us. It
came to me therefore by no means as a surprise
when, soon after resuming the journey, my travelling
companion suddenly uttered a loud cry. and called to

TRAVELLING ADVENTURES. 137

me that her travelling trunk had just fallen from the
sledge. She had immediately noticed the loss, as the
trunk was fastened beside the driver on the box in
such a way as to block the one small window. It
was very difficult in our confined position to make the
driver stop. At last I achieved this by breaking the
second small window, laid hold of him and threw him
down from his seat. The trunk was luckily found
again: the rope, which served to fasten it. had undoub-
tedly been cut.

It soon became pretty clear that the driver was
dead-drunk, as he repeatedly drove us into the road-
side ditches. At last there remained nothing else for
me to do but to mount the box. and take the reins
from the driver's hands. He very soon after fell soundly
asleep, and neither scolding nor cuffing availed to
revive him. I for my part soon felt my feet becoming
benumbed, and when I tried to change the reins found
that both my hands had become quite frozen and
immovable. It was still possible for me to drive the
sledge again into the ditch, and to pull off my gloves
with my teeth. With the sudden stoppage the driver
had fallen from the box, and lay like a corpse at my
feet. I could therefore quite easily perform two useful
actions, viz. wash his head with snow and thereby also
thaw my own hands. It lasted a good while before
I felt the life return into them. Soon after the driver
also began to show signs of life, in that he made
grimaces and presently began to wail and implore for-
giveness. So in the darkness of the night we were

138 ARRIVAL IN ST. PETERSBURG.

able to continue our way by walking beside the sledge,
and finally reached Krasnoye-Selo, where we took up
our quarters with the post- master. Our complaint
against the post-keeper in Narva and in respect of the
Iswoshtchik he settled next morning in a very curt
fashion. He required from us the stipulated fare to
St. Petersburg, then gave the Iswoshtchik a sound
thrashing with his own hands until his strength was

O " t?

exhausted, and sent him back with this in lieu of
any payment to his master, whilst he drove us him-
self with his own horses on to St. Petersburg.

In St. Petersburg I was received in a very friendly
manner by the merchant Heyse. an uncle of the poet
Paul Heyse. I had first made the acquaintance of the
Heyse family in Magdeburg, where, during my period
of service as recruit. I had received much maternal
sympathy and kindliness in the house of the widow of
school-director Heyse, distinguished as pedagogue and
as author of a German grammar. The Petersburg Heyse,
a son of the school-director, had in his younger years
gone to Russia, and had there raised himself to be a
partner in one of the most respected commercial houses.
The intercourse with the amiable, and still thoroughly
German, family was made easy by Heyse's procuring
a lodging for me in a hotel near his own residence on
the island Wasili-Ostrow.

St. Petersburg with its grand site, its broad streets
and large squares, and especially with its mighty river,
the many -armed Xeva, made a powerful impression
on me. This was strengthened by the strangeness of

IMPRESSION OF ST. PETERSBURG. 139

the life of the people and the peculiar mixture of
large palaces with small houses, for the most part
entirely built of wood, in the broad interminable
streets. Also the active sleighing, which in winter
takes up the streets and almost entirely excludes the
carriage traffic, produces a peculiar effect on the
foreigner seeing St. Petersburg for the first time. The
inability to understand the language, and to decipher
a single inscription on street corners and shops, gives
one also a feeling of forlornness and dependence,
which it is difficult to shake off. All the more
cheering on the other hand is the intercourse with
one's compatriots, the extremely developed hospitable
family life in the large foreign colony of St. Peters-
burg, especially the German, to which it is no mean
advantage that the Baltic provinces of Russia have
completely preserved their German nationality in the
cultivated classes. The higher government posts were
at that time for the most part filled by Germans
from the Baltic provinces. This extremely facilitated
the getting on both socially and commercially of a
German coming to St. Petersburg. It was much in
my favour that owing to Berlin introductions the
scientific circles were thrown open to me. I received
a cordial welcome from the most celebrated represen-
tatives of Russo- German science, of whom I will only
mention the academicians Kupffer, Lenz, Jacobi and
von Baer.

Unfortunately the agreeable, and for my business
undertakings advantageous, intercourse was seriously

140 ILLNESS. THE KRONSTADT LINE. AGAIN TO ST. PETERSBURG.

interrupted. One day I felt extremely unwell. In vain
I sought recovery by Russian baths and similar self-
prescribed remedies, and finally by an emetic which I
wras able to procure. After the unspeakably painful
night which ensued I fortunately received a visit from
friend Heyse. who perceived the seriousness of my ill-
ness and sent his doctor to me. I had caught the
measles, which w^ere then raging in St. Petersburg.
Severe inflammation of the kidneys followed, which
chained me for some months to a sick bed. and from
the consequences of which I had long to suffer.

Apart from this personal mishap the results of
my journey were very favourable for the development
of our business relations. We obtained the commission
to lay an underground line from St. Petersburg to
Oranienbaum with a cable junction to Kronstadt.

The construction of the Kronstadt line, and the
necessity of organizing another representation of our
firm in Russia, led me again to St. Petersburg in the
summer of 1852. I found there in a German merchant
of the first guild. Mr. Kapherr. a very suitable re-
presentative, who has contributed much by his activity
and adroitness to the favourable results of our Russian
undertakings: and I was able to come into closer

• c?

connection with the department of public ways and
communications, to which the construction and manage-
ment of telegraph lines appertained.

My marriage with Matilda Drumann wras celebrated
on the first of October 1852 in Konigsberg. After a
short stav in Berlin we travelled to the Rhine and then

MARRIAGE. 141

to Paris, where my brothers William and Charles also
just then happened to be. After the years passed in
anxiety and severe work I there enjoyed in full measure
my young married happiness, enhanced by the familiar
intercourse with the brothers. The sorrowful years
by the sick couch of her beloved sister had much
tried my wife. All the more delightful was it to me
to perceive how the new happiness from day to day
restored her earlier youthful freshness. That made me
also young again, and obliterated the traces of ex-
cessive labour and prolonged sickness.

Alas this sunshine in my life did not last Ion

Soon after her second confinement Matilda began to

o

ail. The germs of the terrible disease of which her
sister had died, and which she had probably received
during the long self-sacrificing period of nursing, now
began to mature. A year and a half's residence in
Ixeichenhall, Me ran, and other spas appeared to have
restored her, but it was not for long. After a union
of thirteen years, in which she bore me two sons
and two daughters, she died after long and painful
suffering. •

When in the spring of 1853 the construction of
a railway telegraph from Warsaw to the Prussian
frontier was entrusted to us, we made my brother
Charles, who had returned to London at the beginning
of that year after the shipwreck of our Paris plans,
the offer to undertake the direction both of this con-
struction and also of the further expected works in
Russia. Charles declared himself ready, and subse-

142 CHARLES CALLED TO KUSSIA.

quently executed these in part very difficult tasks so
satisfactorily, that we considered our resolution to
entrust him. despite his youth, with such important
works as a very happy one. We owe it mainly to
his energy and ability that the Russian business now
grew so rapidly and to such proportions.

The emperor Nicolas was then on the throne, and
under him the most powerful man in the empire was
Count Kleinmichel, chief of the ministry of public ways
and communications. I had up till then come into no
personal contact with this man so feared throughout
Russia, as the negotiations had been carried on through
the above mentioned Colonel von Luders. with whom I
was on personally friendly terms. When however the
latter was taken ill and obliged to try the restorative
efficacy of German watering-places in the spring of
1853, I was summoned by Count Kleinmichel to St.
Petersburg for a conference on telegraph matters, just
when I was expecting my brother Charles, to accom-
pany him to Warsaw. I accordingly applied as usual
at the Russian embassy for the visa of my passport.
To my astonishment, in spite of repeated reminders.
I failed to obtain the visa. When I complained of
this to the ambassador himself, he told me that by
order of the St. Petersburg secret police the visa
could not be given. As no reason was given for the
refusal, nothing was left to me but to write to Count
Kleinmichel that I could not comply with his request,
the visa of my passport having been refused. It then
lasted no longer than the exchange of couriers bet-

THIRD JOURNEY. 143

ween Berlin and St. Petersburg . before an official
from the Embassy handed me the vise passport with
many excuses, and the explanation that a misunder-
standing had occurred.

o

When however a few days later on the journey
to Warsaw I had reached the Russian frontier station.
I soon found that despite the alleged misunderstanding
I still belonged to the class of suspects. My effects
were searched, after all the other travellers had been
passed, with a minuteness which far exceeded all ex-
pectation. Every written and unwritten piece of paper
was retained, and it was finally declared to me that,
in consideration of the excellent result of the search
so far. I should be spared an equally thorough per-
sonal visitation if I handed up all my letters and gave
my word of honour, that I carried nothing else about
me printed or written. On my declaring that I should
return, as such a treatment did not suit me. it was
signified to me. that I must now go on with my luggage
to Warsaw and there await a further decision. I was
in fact a Russian state prisoner!

Arrived at Warsaw I complained bitterly of the
treatment to which I had been subjected to General
Aureggio . who as director of the Warsaw- Vienna
Railway had concluded the contract for the construction
of the railway telegraphs with my firm. The General
promised to lay my case before the then Governor of
Poland. Prince Paskewich. To his question whether I
had done, written, or said anything, which could have
rendered me politically suspected. I could only answer

144 PASSPORT DIFFICULTIES.

that I had once replied to a Russian state-counsellor,
on his repeated offer to procure me a decoration for
my services to Russia, that this would afford me less
satisfaction than an order to construct further telegraph
lines for Russia. The Governor had laughed heartily,
when the General communicated to him the confession
of my sin, and bade him tell me. he would in my
place have thought just the same. I at once received
all my things back and a passport to St. Petersburg.
After being a short time with my brother Charles,
who had meanwhile followed me to Warsaw. I accor-
dingly continued my journey.

Arrived in St. Petersburg after a six days" journey
in an extremely uncomfortable stage-coach, I immedi-
ately repaired to Count Kleinmichel, who, as I had
already heard in Warsaw, had himself issued the order
on his own responsibility to give me the passport. The
Count listened to my report in a quite friendly manner,
and took a look at the testimonials in regard to the
works hitherto executed by us which I laid before him.
At the treatment which I had suffered he was manifestly
very indignant. When, in a very favourable testimonial
of the president of the Berlin police Hinkeldey in regard
to the police telegraphs laid down by us. he found the
concluding remark, that politically I was altogether
free from suspicion, he bade me go with this testimonial
to the chief of the secret police, General Dubbelt.
"Tell the General" were his words, "I command him
to read the testimonial, and then bring it back to
me immediately, I shall show it to the Emperor!"

REASON FOR REFUSING THE PASSPORT. 145

This injunction placed me in rather an awkward
predicament. Fortunately a Warsaw business - friend
had given me an introduction to one of the higher
officials of the dreaded department of the St. Petersburg
secret police. I therefore went first to this gentleman,
and requested to be advised how I should proceed,
in order to do the count's bidding, and yet not give
offence. From him I learnt . that a report from
Copenhagen, in which I was described as a dangerous
character, on terms of intimacy with the democratic
professors of Kiel, had occasioned the refusal of the
passport. Evidently it was Danish gratitude for the
torpedoes in the Kiel harbour and the construction
of the Eckernforde batteries, which had certainly ren-
dered the Danes rather uncomfortable. Both the chief
of the police, who in solemn audience received my
testimonial and thereupon assured me of his special
satisfaction and his constant readiness to help me in
my undertakings, and also Count Kleinmichel himself
were perfectly satisfied by these explanations.

I have related this interesting episode of my life
in Russia at such length, because it gives a good
picture of the state of things and official relations in
the realm of the Czar at that time , and because it
has been of great service to our business transactions.
Count Kleinmichel's power was then so great, that, as
long as the Emperor Nicholas lived, no one ventured
to resist it. The count had acquired confidence in me,
and afterwards bestowed the same in a very marked
degree on my brother Charles. To his powerful

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

146 CHARLES'S INTRODUCTION TO COUNT KLEINMICHEL.

protection alone did we owe it, that we were enabled
successfully to execute the great works, which he
entrusted to us.

Count Kleinmichel did not conceal from me, that
he would have liked to have retained me altogether
in Russia for the execution of his further plans. As
I could not accede to that. I announced to him, when
at the end of July I took my leave, the approaching
arrival of my brother, who had great experience in
the construction of lines and would be able to execute
his orders better than I could myself. A few days
after my departure Charles arrived in St. Petersburg.
When he presented himself to the count, the latter
was surprised at his youthful appearance. He evinced
in consequence much annoyance, gave him however
the order to propose an arrangement, whereby the
wire of the telegraph in course of construction between
Oranienbaum and Kronstadt might be conducted into
the turret-room of the imperial winter palace, hitherto
the terminal station of the optical telegraph to War-
saw, without disturbing the Emperor's dwelling house.

When brother Charles looked attentively at the
proud palace with the turreted projection, wherein the
bureau of the optical telegraph was placed, it struck
him that in one of the corners of the tower no
gutter ran down, as was the case in the others. On
perceiving this he immediately returned to the count,
who, annoyed at his supposed fussiness, inquired rather
roughly what else he wanted. Charles at once commu-
nicated the plan of placing in the vacant corner of the

KRONSTADT LINE. 147

tower a similar tube to that which existed in the others,
and of carrying up therein the insulated telegraph wires.
That made an impression on the count. He inveighed
against his officers, who could suggest nothing better
than knocking out grooves in the masonry, "and now",
so he expressed himself, "there comes a beardless young
man, and sees at the first glance how easily the thing-
is to be done." Thus Charles succeeded on his
very first appearance in gaining the favour of the
count, who from this moment onwards accorded
him an authority, in which he placed as implicit
a confidence as in my own. In this he was not dis-
appointed.

In the autumn of 1853 Charles completed the
Kronstadt cable-line to Count KleinmicheFs perfect
satisfaction. This was the first submarine telegraph
line in the world which has remained permanently
serviceable. The gutta-percha conductors, protected
by iron wires, employed for it have stood the test
admirably. At the same time as the laying down of
the line its maintenance, the so-called remount, was
also contracted for by us for a period of six years.
During the whole of this time the wire was only once
seriously injured by ships' anchors, and after the lapse
of the six years was handed over to the government
in a faultless condition. It has remained in active use
to the present time, and affords therefore a good proof
of the durability of well-constructed submarine cables.

In the spring of 1854 the Crimean war broke

out. We received in consequence the commission, to

10*

148 WARSAW- ST. PETERSBURG LINE.

construct as quickly as possible an overhead telegraph
line along the high road from Warsaw to St. Peters-
burg or rather to Gatshina. which was already connected
with St. Petersburg by an underground wire. Accor-
dingly in April 1854 I travelled to Warsaw and there
organised a working column , which began the con-
struction of the line from Warsaw under the command
of captain Beelitz, a former comrade of mine, who
had entered the service of our firm. I then went to
St. Petersburg and there together with Charles organised

O o c1

a second column, which under his command worked
towards that of Beelitz from Gatshina. Thus the line
about 1,100 versts long was completed in a few months,
to the great astonishment of the Russians, who were
unaccustomed to quick and well-organised work. When
the two columns met half way at Dunaburg, and the
translation-station of that place correctly performed
its functions after the surmounting of a few difficulties,
Charles was able to announce to Count Kleinmichel
the completion of the line at the promised time. The
count was much astonished at this intelligence . and
would not quite believe in its correctness. He at
once repaired to the station in the telegraph -tower of
the Winter Palace, and himself addressed a question
to the chief of the Warsaw station. His doubts were
only removed when he had received an instantaneous
reply, and astonished in the highest degree he an-
nounced the happy event to the Emperor.

The success of the Warsaw - Petersburg line
strengthened the Russian Government in its resolve to

LlNE -CONSTRUCTIONS DURING THE CRIMEAN WAR. 149

cover the whole Empire with a network of electric
telegraphs. The speedy construction of a line from
Moscow to Kiev, between the former of which towns
and St. Petersburg an underground line was already in
operation as mentioned before, was entrusted to us.
Then in quick succession lines from Kiev to Odessa,
from St. Petersburg to Reval, from Kowno to the
Prussian frontier, from St. Petersburg to Helsingfors,
were ordered; which were all completed after over-
coming infinite difficulties in the years 1854 and 1855,
and were of great utility to the Russian empire in the
Crimean war raging at the time.

o o

By means of the telegraphs Russia was put in
speedy communication with Berlin and the west of
Europe; in the interior of the empire the movement
of troops and material could be regulated with their
help, and the central government could everywhere
promptly make and improve its arrangements.

Of the difficulties which beset the construction of
these lines one may form an idea, when it is borne
in mind that all the materials, with the sole excep-
tion of the wooden telegraph poles which were pro-
curable in Russia, had to be obtained from Berlin
and western Germany, that there were then no other
railways in Russia than those from the Prussian fron-
tier to Warsaw and from St. Petersburg to Moscow,
and that all the roads and means of transport were
occupied in an unusual degree by the war transports.
In addition to this the marine transport of heavy
materials from German to Russian ports was impeded

150 LINE TO THE SEAT OF WAR.

by the blockade of the latter. With great difficulty
two ships from Ltibeck , loaded with iron wire for
Russian ports, escaped capture through English cruisers,
by taking refuge in Memel, whence their cargo was
forwarded overland.

The Berlin firm had enough to do with procuring
the materials, preparing the apparatus, and organising
the transports, and was therefore only in a slight
degree enabled directly to assist my brother Charles,
on whose shoulders the whole burden of the con-
struction of the line rested. Charles's chief assistants
in the execution of these works were my former
serving-man Hemp, who had rendered such effective
aid in Schleswig-Holstein, and the half- pay captain
Beelitz alluded to above. I myself was indespensable
in Berlin, where meanwhile the construction of rail-
way lines uninterruptedly continued, and was obliged
to content myself with repeatedly journeying to
St. Petersburg, to superintend organizing work and
maintain the connection between the centres of our
activity.

In the spring of 1855 I repaired to St. Petersburg
for a somewhat longer stay in company with my friend
William Meyer -- who meanwhile had resigned his post
in the Prussian government telegraph department, and
had become chief engineer and confidential clerk of
the firm of Siemens & Halske - - in order to introduce
in our office there an organization answering the ra-
pidly growing requirements. We had already nearly
finished our work and were thinking seriously of our

LlNE TO THE SEAT OF WAR. 151

return, when I was suddenly called up at midnight
and taken almost by force to Count Kleinmichers
assistant, General von Guerhardt. The latter imparted
to me, that the Emperor had ordered the immediate
construction of a telegraph line to the Crimea up to
the fortress of Sebastopol, and the Count wished to
have an estimate and the date of completion by 7
o'clock the next morning. My doubts in regard to the
difficulty of procuring and transporting the materials on
the only open road from Berlin to Perekop and Sebasto-
pol, as well as to the impossibility of constructing
a line to the seat of war itself, when all the ways
and means of transport were required by the military,
were overborne by that all -conquering word in Russia
4 'The Emperor wills it!" And in fact the magic word
held good also in this case. The line was made.

When after working the whole night I came to
the General punctually at 7 o'clock, I learnt that the
latter had been already summoned to the count two
hours before, and had not yet returned. Soon after
8 o'clock he came and communicated to me, that
Count Kleinmichel had told the Emperor, who had
ordered the report by 6 o'clock, that I would execute
the construction from Nikolaiev to Perekop in six
weeks, that from Perekop to Sebastopol in ten weeks,
and at the same price as the line from Kiev to Odessa.
I declared both to be impossible. The transport of
the wire and apparatus alone from Berlin to Nikolaiev
on roads destroyed by the military transport would
take at least two months. The expenses would also

152 LINE TO THE SEAT OF WAR.

as a matter of course be much higher, and at the
seat of war the work would be almost impossible for
civilians and especially for foreigners. All that how-
ever was of no avail and was hardly listened to. The
Emperor had spoken! In the course of the day
I received an official letter, communicating that the

' O

Emperor desired to express his thanks to us for the
services hitherto performed for Russia in its difficult
situation, and for the offer of a rapid construction
of the required line to the seat of war, but that he
trusted we should, in consideration of the hard war
times, construct the new line more cheaply than the
previous ones.

That was an extremely difficult situation for us.
The summer was already half gone, and before the
end of it new material was in no manner of way to
be got to the spot. Moreover without a heavy river-
cable it was impossible to cross the broad and swampy
Dnieper. And yet the imperial order had to be com-
plied with, so far as in any way possible. The only
possibility of effecting a telegraphic communication at
least to Perekop, situated on the isthmus uniting the
Crimea with the continent, consisted in collecting all the
materials remaining over from the construction of the
hitherto completed lines, sending them to Nikolaiev, and
carrying the line in a circuit of about thirty versts by
way of Bereslaw, where a bridge crossed the Dnieper,
and made the passage practicable without a river-
cable. The same night, in which the communication
was made to me, we had accordingly corresponded

TO THE SEAT OF WAR. 153

by telegraph with all the Russian stations and had
summoned to the station captain Beelitz, who luckily
was just then in Nikolaiev, to settle the possibility
of obtaining telegraph posts. Beelitz answered that
he must first consult the Jewish timber - merchants,
and had sent out messengers to summon them imme-
diately to the station. Then arose a peculiar telegraphic
negotiation. Beelitz announces a Jew would undertake
the delivery of the poles, but must have fifteen roubles
per pole. Answer: "Out with him!*' Reply: "Done!''
Another offers to do it for ten roubles. Answer:
"Out with him too!" Reply: "Done!'' A set of
others ask six roubles; with these, negotiations are
carried on and finally an acceptable offer is obtained,
securing timely delivery of the poles.

Further it turned out that there was a reserve
of materials in almost sufficient quantity for the line
as far as Perekop, and that there was a prospect of
obtaining in Odessa thin iron wires for a provisional
line. There seemed therefore a possibility of satisfying
the imperial will at any rate in essential points. With
the request, to lower the price fiin consideration of
the present distressed state of Russia", we so far
complied, that we offered to execute the necessary
circuit by way of Bereslaw at our own expense. In
short the omnipotence of the imperial command again
prevailed. The line to Perekop was finished by the
required time, and the line to Sebastopol was at least
completed early enough for a message to St. Peters-
burg announcing the probable fall of the fortress.

154 INTERNED.

This construction of a line of about a hundred and
forty miles on a road occupied and rendered impassable
by marching troops and transports of war - material
and into a beleaguered fortress was a difficult work,
which did great credit to my brother Charles, who
conducted it, and to his assistants. Financially it
certainly ran away with a considerable part of the
profits obtained through the construction of the other
Russian telegraph lines.

I myself, after I had as far as possible made all
the preparations for the construction of the line to the
seat of war as ordered by the Emperor, and had become
convinced that it was practicable, desired in July to
return to Berlin, where my wife was expecting her
second confinement. To my great astonishment I could
however not get back my passport from the police,
despite repeated applications. When I complained of
this to Count Kleinmichel, he declared that I could
not be allowed to depart before the lines in course
of construction, and particularly that to Sebastopol,
were completed. All my remonstrances were in vain.
The count would not withdraw the order once given,
to withhold the visa of my passport, and I was thus
for an indefinite time "interned" - as it is called -
in St. Petersburg.

Then, luckily for me, the prince of Prussia came
to St. Petersburg to negotiate, as it was said, con-
cerning the neutrality of Prussia in the Crimean war.
I determined to use this fortunate circumstance to slip
from the semi-imprisonment into which I had fallen.

AUDIENCE WITH THE PRINCE OP PRUSSIA. 155

I called at Peterhof, where the prince had taken up
his residence, on his first adjutant Count Goltz, ex-
plained to him my difficult situation, and begged that
the prince would when convenient give me an audience,
so that the Eussian officials might see that I enjoyed
his protection. In his great goodness of heart and
affability the prince acceded to my request, and on
the very next day I received the official summons of
the Prussian embassy to repair to an audience at the
Winter Palace.

I was awaited by the ambassador, and conducted
through a series of ante-rooms, filled with generals and
officials of high standing, to the prince, who was sur-
rounded by several Grand Dukes and highest digni-
taries. The prince addressed a few very friendly words
to ine^ mainly to the effect that the posts of the tele-
graph line we had constructed along the whole way
from the Prussian frontier to St. Petersburg had given
him the joyful assurance of remaining in constant con-
nection with home, and that he desired to express to
me his thanks in person. The result of this audience
was more brilliant than I had expected. On the very
same day a police official came and handed me my
passport with excuses for the over- sight that had
been committed. -

The Russian Government had simultaneously with
the contracts for the construction of the lines also
concluded remount - agreements with us for six to
twelve years , which required a large administrative
apparatus. We therefore converted our St. Petersburg

156 THE ST. PETERSBURG BUSINESS BECOMES INDEPENDENT.

office into an independent branch-establishment under
the direction of my brother Charles, whom we at the
same time took as a partner into the head firm.

We obtained a large building on the island of
Wasili-Ostrow, in which the large offices of the ad-
ministration of the remount were established, and at
the same time a work- shop was erected for the speedy
execution of all repairs.

Charles took up his residence there towards the
end of 1855 after his marriage with the clever and
charming daughter of our previous representative in
St. Petersburg, the above-mentioned Mr. Kapherr.

Like his father-in-law, Charles now became a
Finnish subject, in order to be able to become a
merchant of the first guild, and as such to have the
right of carrying on any kind of business in Russia.

I must mention one other circumstance, which was
very important for our new St. Petersburg business
and rendered it particularly remunerative. Count Kleiri-
michel had in the beginning entrusted the watching of

~ o o

the telegraph lines to the contractors of the turnpike
roads, in consideration of a large payment reckoned
by the verst. The result however was that no, or
only a very lax, watch was kept. Accidental or in-
tentional injuries to the lines were generally discovered
only after the lapse of several days, and the repairing
usually took place only after a long time and often
so defectively, that a reliable service of the telegraphs
was never to be reckoned upon. At last the count
requested us to undertake also the watching of the

SURVEILLANCE OF THE LINES. SYSTEM OF CONTROL. 157

lines, he would pay us for the service the hundred
roubles per verst. which he had hitherto given to the
road contractors. In reality a successful watch could
not be carried out by us, it could only be done by
natives, who would certainly not have kept a better
look out on our behalf than for the Government,
Nevertheless we accepted the count's offer on the
condition, that we might carry out the surveillance and
the necessary repairs entirely in our own fashion.

As this was accorded, we gave up altogether
keeping a guard properly so called, contrived instead
a mechanical system of control, which was relatively
cheap and yet fully answered the purpose. At every
fifty versts we erected a guard -hut. into which the
wires were conducted. In the hut was placed an
alarum and a galvanometer, which were intercalated
into the course of the current in such a way, that the
watcher of the movement of the galvanometer-needle
could always see if an electric current was traversing
the wire. If the needle stood still for half an hour,
he had with the help of a simple mechanism to tele-
graph the number of his hut by repeatedly connecting
to earth. The telegraph stations, between which the
connection was interrupted, had orders to insert their
battery between the conductor and the earth, and
received accordingly the reports of all the guard-huts
on the hither side of the place of interruption, thus
learning its situation. To every telegraph station was
assigned a mechanician, whose duty it was, immediately
on the report of an interruption, to take post-horses

OP THE

tTNlVERSITT
OP

158 GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE ST. PETERSBURG BUSINESS.

and travel to the fault. As the order was given to
supply our mechanicians with post-horses at once and
before all other travellers, the fault was nearly always
removed in the course of a few hours.

In consequence of this arrangement the Russian
telegraph lines acted with great accuracy during the
period of our management, and interruptions of the
service rarely occurred for more than a day. in spite
of the enormous length of the lines, and in spite of
the desert steppes through which they mostly passed.
xThe contract, almost forced upon us, for the watching
of the telegraph lines soon proved very profitable, and
amply compensated us for the losses which we had
suffered in the construction of many of the lines.

Through the management of the remounts en-
trusted to us and the continued further constructions
of lines our St. Petersburg business obtained great im-
portance and a unique position in the Russian Empire.
We received the official title " Contractors for the con-
struction and remount of the Imperial Russian telegraph
lines", and obtained for our superior servants the right
to wear uniforms with badges of rank. The latter was
absolutely necessary for the thorough performance of
our tasks, for the Russian public only respects the
wearers of uniforms. To obtain this right I had a
number of handsome uniforms designed in Berlin. In-
stead of the epaulets, which in Russia were reserved for
officers, golden chenille of varying thickness, increasing
with the rank, was attached to the shoulders. Excellent
artists then painted various groups arrayed in such

NO BRIBES. 159

uniforms. The pictures, enclosed in a handsome port-
folio, made the heart of every admirer and connoisseur
of uniforms beat quicker. Armed with this portfolio,
brother Charles repaired to Count Kleinmichel, explained
to him our difficulty, and begged permission for the
wearing of a uniform by our officials. The sight of
the fine pictures conquered the resistance offered at
first by the count; he retained the portfolio to show
it to the Emperor, who immediately granted the per-
mission for the proposed uniform.

I consider it my duty to meet in this place the
often expressed opinion, that we could only have con-
cluded these great and generally speaking profitable
undertakings in Russia by the help of bribes. I can
asseverate that this was never the case. The expla-
nation may perhaps be that the negotiations were
always conducted and concluded directly with the
supreme government authorities, and that the state
of political affairs urgently demanded the speedy con-
struction of the needed telegraphic communications.
This however does not imply that we have never
recompensed the lower officials in the customary
fashion of the country for services rendered during
the construction the lines.

Harzburg, June 1890.

J_he successful use of copper wires coated with
gutta-percha as underground conductors suggested their
employment also for submarine telegraphic communi-
cation. That sea -water was not in any way injurious
to the gutta-percha had been proved in the case of
the insulated wires connected with the torpedoes in
Kiel harbour, which were quite unchanged after the
lapse of two years.

The first attempt to connect two sea -coasts by
means of gutta-percha conductors had been made as
early as 1850 by Mr. Brett, who had obtained a con-
cession for a submarine telegraphic communication
between Dover and Calais. The unprotected wire
laid by him retained its efficiency, as was to be ex-
pected, not much longer than the time of the actual
laying, if indeed it was ever really serviceable. It-
was replaced in the following year through Messrs.
Newall & Gordon by a conductor armed with iron
wires, which acted well for some time. This was
the commencement of submarine telegraphy, destined
speedily to become one of the most important media
of communication.

FIRST SUBMARINE WIRES. 161

With the perseverance characteristic of the English
in prosecuting their undertakings, the laying of a large
number of other cables was, after this first success, at
once planned and attempted, before the problem was
ripe for a scientific and technical solution. Failures ac-
cordingly could not but occur. The laying itself present-
ed no difficulty in the shallow water of the North Sea.
The preparation of insulated conductors was undertaken
in England by a gutta-percha company, which could not
be prevented from employing my coating process, since
I had not protected my inventions by a patent. As this
company could always make use of the best quality of
gutta-percha, owing to its command of the English
market, it would have been in a position to turn out
remarkably well -insulated conductors, if the electrical
testing and control of the workmanship had been carried
out with as much care as we had taken. Scientific know-
ledge and methods were however at that time as little
appreciated in English industry as in our own. It was
thought enough to make sure that a current traversed
the wire, and that the instruments worked satisfactorily.
Even much later my methods for a systematic testing
of the conducting wires were characterizedby English
engineers as "scientific humbug!" Nevertheless the firm
of Newall & Co. succeeded in the year 1854 during
the Crimean war in laying an unarmed conducting
wire, insulated only by a coating of gutta-percha, from
Varna to Balaclava in the Crimea, and with the good
fortune that it remained serviceable till the capture of

Sebastopol in September 1855, i. e. for about a year.

11

162 SARDINIA-BONA DEEP-SEA CABLE.

In this long line of about 400 miles difficulties in
the matter of signalling occurred through the electrical
capacity of the line, which in spite of my publications
in 1850 remained entirely unknown to the English.
When the needle telegraphs employed in England re-
fused to do their duty on the line, Newall & Co.
ordered signalling apparatus from my firm, with which
operations could very well be carried on. It was a
singular coincidence that in the two hostile camps of
Sebastopol and Balaclava Berlin apparatus with con-
secutive numbers of manufactur weere at work.

Meanwhile in September 1855 Mr. Brett, com-
missioned by the Mediterranean Extension Telegraph
Company, had made the attempt to lay a heavy cable
with four conductors between the island of Sardinia
and the town of Bona in Algeria. He employed for
the purpose the same contrivances as in the North Sea,
but unfortunately his brake apparatus did not suffice
on reaching deep water, and in consequence the whole
cable rolled to the bottom without the possibility of
detaining it. When a second attempt in 1856 also
miscarried, he retired from the undertaking, which was
then taken up by Newall & Co. The latter contracted
with my firm for the delivery of the electric apparatus,
and requested me to undertake the electrical testing
on and after the laying.

This first laying of a deep sea cable was both
interesting and instructive to me. At the beginning
of September 1857 I went at Genoa with an assistant
and the necessary electrical apparatus on board a

SARDINIA -BoNA DEEP-SEA CABLE. 163

Sardinian corvette, which was to accompany the expe-
dition and take us to Bona , where the steam - ship
laden with the cable awaited us. It was an interesting

o

company which met on board the war-ship. Besides
the English contractors and cable manufacturers. Mr.
Newall and Mr. Liddell, there were on board several
Italian savants, telegraph officials, and naval officers,
among them the learned admiral Lamarmora, a very
amiable and well - instructed officer, brother of the
well-known General Lamarmora: further several French
telegraph officials, who were commissioned by their
government to be present at the laying of the cable,
in particular the well-known engineer Delamarche.

Already on the passage to the island of Sardinia,
which was favoured by gloriously calm weather, the
party discussed the methods which should be adopted
in laying the cable, in order to avoid the failure of
previous attempts. Messrs. Newall and Liddell declared
that in laying their wire to the Crimea they had
found it best to proceed quickly, and let the cable
run out without check, when it would sink slowly to
the bottom without any strain. They had indeed for
precaution's sake provided a powerful brake-wheel, to
regulate the speed of the cable, but that would hardly
be necessary if the ship was going fast. This theory
of Mr. Liddell was strongly opposed by M. Delamarche,
who had been present at the unfortunate attempts of
Mr. Brett, and had now adopted the theory, that the
cable must perforce assume the form of a catenary curve

in deep water, and under any circumstances break.

n*

164 THEORY OF CABLE -LAYING.

I had originally intended to abstain from interfering
in the mechanical part of the proceedings, but it
appeared to me so utterly impossible to lay a heavy
cable, having a weight in water of at least 4 Ibs. per
yard, at a depth of more than 1500 fathoms (as was
the case between Sardinia and Bona), in the manner
intended by Messrs. Newall & Liddell, that I spoke
very earnestly against the proposal. On the other
hand I could not share the fears of M. Delamarche,
and there ensued a warm discussion between Mr. Lid-
dell, M. Delamarche, and myself, in which I expounded
the theory, which was subsequently universally adopted.
It consists in holding back the cable by brake-apparatus
with a force which corresponds to the weight of a
piece of cable in water reaching perpendicularly to
the bottom. With a uniform motion of the ship the
cable then sinks in a straight line, the inclination of

o

which depends on the ship's speed and the velocity
of subsidence of a horizontal piece of cable in the
water. If the sinking portion of the cable is not per-
fectly balanced by the force of the brake, a sliding
down of the cable takes place at the same time on
the inclined plane which it itself forms ; it is therefore
possible to regulate by the brake the extra amount
of cable that is required to lay the cable without strain
over the unevenness of the bottom.

This simple theory met with the universal approval
of the company. Mr. Newall too came over at last
to my view, and requested me to assist him in the
preparations for laying the cable in accordance with

LAYING CARRIED OUT ACCORDING TO THE THEORY. 165

my theory. It was however difficult to do this on
the spur of the moment. The brake, which we found
on arriving at Bona on the cable -ship that already
awaited us, proved much too weak for balancing the
weight of the cable at great depths. Moreover the
steam-power of the ship was too small to overcome
the great force with which the cable would endeavour
to slide down the inclined plane. Finally there was
no contrivance for measuring this force, and for deter-
mining accordingly the amount of the brake action
required. I first had a simple dynamometer constructed
by the carpenter, which rendered it possible to ascertain
the extent of the actual strain on the cable while it is
paid out by the amount of flexion of .a length of the
cable stretched over two rollers, between which a third
weighted roller rides on the cable. Furthermore I had
the brake -wheel strengthened as far as possible, and
furnished with strong water- boxes. Lastly I caused
the captain of the war- ship to pass a tow-rope from
his vessel to the bows of the cable -ship, in order to
obtain the requisite force for overcoming the back-
ward drag exerted by the cable.

Thus barely provided, we began in the evening
the laying of the cable from Bona. As long as the
water was shallow all went well, and my precautions
were soon deemed superfluous. After a few hours, when
we got into much deeper water, it appeared however
that the attainable brake force was not sufficient. We
paid out too much cable and, when morning dawned,
had already used more than a third of the cable.

166 SUCCESSFUL RESULT AFTER SEVERE EXERTIONS.

although a fifth of the distance had not been traversed.
It was still just possible to reach with the cable -end
a shallow spot near the island of Sardinia, if the cable
could from now be paid out without any excess what-
ever. At the request of Mr. Newall I undertook to
try this, on condition that the management was entirely
.left to me. I now loaded the brake with all the
weights which were to be found on the ship. Even
filled water tubs from the galley were requisitioned.
At last the load sufficed, without the brake giving way.
We now laid according to the statement of the measure-
ments without "slack", i. e. without using more cable
than exactly answered to the length of the sea-bottom.
The cable was always pretty near the breaking point,
as was proved by the fact that frequently one of the
thick sheathing wires snapped, whereby the cable ran
considerable risk. But by the adoption of prompt
measures a fracture of the cable was averted , and
when the sun set, and the cable -end in the ship was
almost reached, my dynamometer luckily indicated
shallow water, and w^e were at the goal. 9

The joy was general and intense, and even Mr.
Liddell congratulated me on the success achieved.

This was the first cable which was successfully
laid in deep water, i. e. at a depth of more than 1000
fathoms. The laying of such heavy cables with many
conductors has since been abandoned for long cable

o

lines in deep water, because the difficulty of laying
is too great, and because adjacent conducting wires
interfere with one another by induction. This cable-

DIFFICULTY AND MENTAL STRAIN OF CABLE -LAYING. 167

laying was for me therefore all the more instructive,
and certainly also the more exciting and straining.

The cable must pass out of the ship's hold, in
which it is carefully coiled round a cone, over the
brake-wheel and under the roller of the dynamometer,
day and night without any stoppage, which is always
dangerous in deep water. Every stoppage is a source
of great danger, since the progress of the ship cannot
be checked with sufficient celerity. At the same time
the brake-force must be carefully regulated in proportion
to the depth of water, and to the velocity with which
the ship is moving, otherwise the cable is either
needlessly wasted, or it is strained at the bottom.
Furthermore the electrical quality of the insulated
core must be unceasingly tested, in order that the
occurrence of a fault in the freshly immerged parts of
the cable may be immediately detected. In such a
case the laying must be at once suspended, and the
last laid portion of the cable taken back again to repair
the defect.

The continuous mental strain, and the conscious-
ness that any error committed may occasion the loss of
the whole cable, makes the laying of a deep-sea cable
a very anxious, and for a length of time thoroughly
exhausting affair for all concerned, and especially for
the leader of the undertaking. Towards the end of
the foregoing work, in which I would not allow myself
a moment's rest and refreshment, I could only keep
myself up by frequently taking strong black coffee,
and required several days for recovering my strength.

168 IMPRESSION OF THE SOUTH.

This cable-laying took me for the first time into
southern regions. During the whole time we had
splendid weather , and I enjoyed to the utmost the
charms of the Mediterranean, with its deep blue water,
its dazzling white wave- crests, and its refreshing air,
of which we could never inhale enough, on the beautiful
voyage from Genoa to Cagliari , and from there to
Bona in Algeria. A surprising sight was afforded by
the loftily situated solid castle of Cagliari, which was
entirely engirdled by high -grown aloe bushes in full
bloom. On the advice of the friendly captain of
the corvette we did not remain in the harbour on
account of the fever, but passed the night in the
court of the castle ruins. This glorious night under
the starry sky of Italy, high above the sea breaking
upon the rocky coast in the moonshine, has never
faded from my memory.

The electrical testings carried on during the
laying showed that the insulation of all the conductors
of the cable was imperfect, but on the completion of
the line in the following year it satisfied in the case
of three of them the conditions of the contract, which
only required that the loss of current should not
exceed a certain percentage. The fourth conductor
contained a more serious fault, and the taking over
of the cable was therefore refused. However it was
possible by a suitable electrical manipulation - - con-
tinuous treatment with an exclusively positive current
- so far to lessen the defect, that the cable had to
be taken over.

LETTFR TO GORDON. 169

The theory of cable -laying expounded on the
above occasion I only made public in the year 1874
through the medium of a paper entitled "Contributions
to the theory of laying and testing submarine telegraph
cables" submitted to the Berlin Academy of Sciences.
I have preserved among my papers the copy of a letter,
in which on my return I explained my theory to the
before -mentioned Mr. Gordon, partner in the firm of
Newall & Co. I shall insert this letter here, as it
forms the first detailed communication on my theory
of cable -lay ing.

Berlin, 26th September 1857.
Dear Gordon,

Returning yesterday from my journey I found your letter
of the 17th.

First I will give you some particulars from the report made
by engineer Viechelmann, who has to-day returned from Bona.

There is no doubt that wire No. 1 is injured, and that
the injury lies in the neighbourhood of the African coast, and
consists in the wire being in conducting connection with the
water. It is not improbable that the defect exists where the
shore-end is joined to the thinner cable. It has not been
possible to determine the precise place, as it is uncertain how
much resistance the connection has between the conductor and
the water. The place can however lie no farther than four
German miles (19 English) from the land, but is probably much
nearer.

Through the amount of the charge and by determinations
of the resistance in the metallic circuit according to the
accompanying sketch (Figure 1) the situation of the fault may
be more precisely determined, if you will make the attempt
to take up the wire again from Bona. m and n are the two
coils of a differential galvanometer, and w a rheostat. By its
means resistance is interposed, until the currents through the

170

LETTER TO GORDON.

two coils m and n are of equal strength and the needle stands
at zero. Then the fault / lies midway, and the distance from
the coast can be calculated.

cable

vmearth

VMX earth

Fig. 1.

With well -insulated wires this can be done with perfect
exactitude, with badly insulated ones, such as the Bona cable,
at any rate approximately correctly. - - Mr. Viechelniann has
left the apparatus in the custom-house of Marseilles at your
disposal. In the telegraph office there lies a letter from Viechel-
mann to Newall, in which the authority for its delivery is
contained.

As regards the cable theory the following is my view.

If A B (Figure 2) represents a flexible piece of cable,
which is attached to the sky by a weightless wire B C, the
cable will fall to the ground, without being able to deviate
from the straight line in the suspended part, as at every point
it falls with equal velocity, m n, op are of equal length.

Fig. 2.

Every point falls with equal velocity, and the new connecting
line n p must again be a straight one. The active force
pulling upon the wire B C during the fall is K = Q . sin a,

LETTER TO GORDON. 171

if Q is the weight of the suspended cable in the water, or the
weight of a piece of cable B D, hanging vertically downwards,
since A B . sin a = B D.

If the force K is less than is necessary for equilibrium,
the cable slides back towards A, and the terminal velocity is
reached, when the friction in the water is equal to the lacking-
force. If on the contrary K is greater than necessary, the cable
acquires a velocity towards B, consequently the loss, i. e. the
difference of the lengths A B and A D is picked up again, and
the cable places itself in a straight line, thus without loss, on
the ground. The angle a is accordingly quite independent of
the amount of the force K. It simply indicates the proportion
of the velocity of sinking to the progressive motion of the ship.
For if the cable end B instead of being attached to the
weightless wire B C is carried over a pulley, and the pulley
moves with the ship from B to E, whilst the cable falls the
distance m T?, and finally if the cable is kept back with the
force K, there is no change at all in the conditions of equili-
brium. If the brake, which detains the cable, is so applied that
equilibrium is just attained, thus K=Q . sin «, the cable has
no axial velocity whatever; it falls perpendicularly, and there
is the loss corresponding to the angle. If K is greater, the
cable is laid with little or no loss, if K is smaller, the loss may
be very great. The quicker in the latter case the motion of
the ship, the longer does A B become, the greater conse-
quently the friction in the water and the smaller the loss. If
on the other hand the force A' becomes greater than is ne-
cessary for equilibrium, the loss can easily be made up, and
the cable then forms a catenary curve. If the transitions are
rapid, the whole velocity, which the cable has acquired after
applying the brake on disturbance of the equilibrium, acts in
the direction A B, and tends to strain the cable. When one con-
siders the great mass of the suspended cable, it is clear that
these axial velocities of the cable may easily cause a fracture.
The only safe guide is the proportion of the ship's velocity to
the velocity of the cable. — Moreover the ocean currents must
be taken into account, especially if they flow in various direc-
tions. If the current is everywhere equable, and extends to

172 LETTER TO GORDON.

the bed of the sea, it only produces an additional expenditure
of cable. With equilibrium of the force K the cable settles
down in the diagonal of the parellelopiped, instead of in the
diagonal of the parallelogram, and the cable -length bears the
same proportion to the distance traversed as the -diagonal of
the parallelepiped, whose sides are the ship's motion, the depth
of water, and the simultaneous velocity of current, bears to the
ship's motion. Very violent action on a tightly laid cable may
however be exerted by variable currents, as the cable has
then to resist the pressure of the water in the form of the
catenary curve. Lastly the rising and falling, as well as the
lateral movements of the ship, form forces of importance,
threatening the fracture of the cable, unless the uncoiling
apparatus is very light, or a compensation can be effected,
whereby the cable may be lengthened or shortened behind
the brake, so that no acceleration of the mass takes place.
The mechanism which I propose for determining and regulating
the tractive force exerted on the cable is easily calculated
as under. (Figure 3.)

Ar-sin«= — ; K=^— -. —
? sm «

k

sin « = — ;
ah

Fig. 3.

I have asked Loffler to calculate a table in accordance
with this formula, of which however I am not yet in possession,
as L. is still in Cologne, e was, as you state, 25 feet, i. e.
842 metres. The weight Q was 160 kilograms, according to
the statement of Newall's people, who weighed it. You seem
in your approximative formula to have taken pounds instead,
your values are therefore only about half those I have in my
memory. The apparatus was constructed of wood the evening
before the laying. Previously Mr. Liddel seemed not to be in
favour of it, and I did not wish to obtrude myself after having

LETTER TO GORDON. 173

made my proposal. In the first night the frame had become
warped through the wet, and the place where the height was
measured was about 2 feet lower than the other. A trustworthy
measurement with an apparatus so crudely and hurriedly made
and calculated is therefore out of the question.

That soon after the commencement of the laying much
cable was wasted was clear. I therefore at once proposed a
stronger loading of the brake, but could not have my way.
Undoubtedly there were moments when the cable -line was
almost straight, although in the ordinary course there was a
depression of from 4 to 5 inches, and one such moment might
have sufficed to break the cable. The brake was also too
weak, and I was always in mortal terror lest, with the load
of at least 5 hundredweight, which subsequently, when Newall
left the matter in my hands, was applied, it should give
way. As the cable would have been irrecoverably lost if
the brake had given way, it certainly required a prodigious
resolution to justify loading it in this manner. It is certain
that we strained the cable too severely on the following day.
We certainly laid it without any loss whatever, and perhaps
already had some catenary curve force in the cable. This was
owing to the circumstance that nobody knew how fast the
vessel was going. Newall and Liddell thought we were not
making 5 knots an hour, whereas in fact we had made 7 l/.2.
As the cable ran off with the velocity of 7 ya knots, I could
only conclude that the waste was still too great for reaching
shallow water, was obliged therefore to continue the loading.
Thus there were moments, when the loading reached quite 6
tons, and the fluctuations were even greater.

That there was no regular log in the ship was a serious
misfortune, and might easily have had for its consequence the
loss of the cable. The greatest danger in cable-laying always
consists in the snapping of single wires. That under the
circumstances we came off as we did is a real marvel. I
should not advise attempting a cable-laying in deep water
without having previously subjected the wire in its whole
length to a maximum strain, never to be exceeded in the actual
laying.

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

174 LETTER TO GORDOX.

I have communicated a plan to Newall how this is very
easily to be done. Then faulty weldings will be disclosed by
rupture, and one may feel pretty safe afterwards. Furthermore
a dynamometer of solid iron must be constructed with an
accurate scale, and in such a way that with the maximum
loading there still remains a deflection of at least one foot. It
is better to make use of a well-made spring than a weight, so
that the fluctuations of the apparatus may be as small as pos-
sible. It would also be very advisable to carry the wire behind
the brake over two fixed and one moveable pulley, the latter
being pulled doAvii by a weight or still better by a very
strong spiral spring. The up and down movements of the
ship are thereby rendered innocuous.

28th.

As Loffler has not yet returned, I can communicate to
you nothing definite in regard to the calculated forces. You
are quite right that the assumed forces are not justified by the
depths alone. I believe we may go to half the depth for which
a cable can support itself, with tolerable safety and to a third
with great safety. Up to a fifth of the depth 5 to 10%, to a third
10 to 15% slack may give sufficient safety, if the weather is
favourable. At greater depths the loss must be considerably
more. Newall's plan of retarding the sinking of the cable
by shields is wrong in principle. The cable must sink as
quickly as possible on account of the currents. With moderate
depths it is more advantageous to take back the slack by
somewhat greater loading of the brake. If the depth is greater
than y3 to l/2 of the minimum strength of the cable, the sliding
back of the cable must be slackened as far as possible by
disks attached at right angles to the cable. I believe these
are best made of sheet-iron. A few large ones are far more
effective than many small ones. The attachment can be effect-
ed in many ways. One must then proceed as quickly as
possible, in order to keep the angle acute. — For the measure-
ment of velocity I am now having made an electrical apparatus,
which turns a large indicator by the side of the brake. The
brake-wheel must indicate in the same way, so that at any
moment the proportion of the velocity and of the exerted force

LETTER TO GORDON. 175

may be known. The vessel must be well lighted, and the
breaking of the wires must especially be kept in view. That
the two wire - fractures did not entail the loss of the cable
was a piece of luck such as seldom occurs. -- Altogether I
think you have all reason to be satisfied with the result. I
do not consider it difficult to recover the cable-end. I like-
wise consider the repairing of the fourth injured wire feasible,
if it is of importance to you. This granted, you have bought
the experience and a right theory of laying cheap enough. If
you choose to avail yourself of my proposals, you will in future
be able to undertake a laying in perfect peace of mind and
soon recoup yourself for past losses. With your new brake
you should however make the experiment of severing the cable
with a maximum strain. Mr. Newall told me before the arrival
of the Elba that he could fracture the cable with his brake,
but although on the day of laying we had lengthened the
lever of the brake by a half, and had suspended at least twice
as many weights as the lever and iron band could reasonably
be supposed to stand, yet we had not reached such a force
by a long way, apart from the great forces which were exerted
during fluctuations and in the first mishap. With my own
experiments I have unfortunately not succeeded much better
than in England. I see however that one can certainly signal
better in a metallic than in a semi-metallic circuit, and that
it is impossible with long lines to signal through more than a
single wire. The future belongs therefore to the metallic
circuit, and the patent will be remunerative. I see further
that our present construction of the induction telegraph acts
remarkably well and accurately, and that several submarine
translation stations may at pleasure be set up with absolute
certainty, that thus e. g. there may be direct communication
between England and India. Your apparatus for Malta- Corfu
are despatched to-day. I am quite sure that they will do their
work well. According to my present experience the inductors
might have been smaller and therefore cheaper, but it is better
to err on the safe side. Such fine and solid apparatus have
never before been turned out in our workshops. The contacts
have given the greatest trouble. Platinum burns too quickly

176 NECESSITY OF A SYSTEMATIC CABLE -TESTING.

with strong primary currents, we were therefore obliged to
use everywhere an alloy of gold and platinum, which with
thick pieces has its difficulties. Perhaps you will get along
with half the inductors on the Malta line (one coil). You will
thereby effect a considerable saving, as the great quantity of
silk -covered wire is expensive.

I beg you to let me know in good time when and where
you wish to have the mechanician, and whether you think
one enough. I think you should have plenty of intelligent
assistants at your disposal, for any error may be very dangerous
even with the best preparation.

I send this letter direct to Birkenhead, where I imagine
you still to be, and where William intended to visit you; may
I ask you to let William have a look at it?

Would it not be better do defer your Malta line to the
winter, when you can more certainly reckon on calm weather?
— October is said to be a very dangerous month there, and
the atmosphere does not become quieter before December.

With sincere regards

W. Siemens.

The experience I acquired in the laying of the
cable between Cagliari and Bona really convinced me,
as expressed in the foregoing letter, that submarine
cables of the right construction and carefully made
€ould be laid at any depth of water, and then also
promised long and certain service. I therefore took
especial pains to overcome the existing difficulties.
For that purpose it was necessary to establish a
systematic supervision of the manufacture of the cable,
in order to obtain the certainty that no defect existed
in the whole cable stored in the ship's hold. This
.could only be effected by making the testing instruments

STUDY OF JAR WIRES. 177

sufficiently sensitive for measuring the insulating quality
of the gutta-percha itself employed and indicating the
same in figures.

When the insulation -resistance of the conducting
wires coated with this gutta-percha had then in a
similar manner been determined numerically they were
faultlessly insulated, provided the measured result
agreed with the calculated. If the resistance of the
conductor of the complete cable was not greater, and
the resistance of the insulator of the same not less,
than that ascertained by calculation, the cable might
be regarded as faultless.

It was not to be expected that such exact testings
could be carried out by measuring currents. For deter-
mining the position of faults, for which I had as early
as 1850 found and published the necessary formulae,
the inexact current-measurements were also insufficient.

It was necessary therefore to have recourse to
measurements of resistance, but for that there were
still wanting good practical methods of measurement,
and especially a fixed standard of resistance. Finally
the knowledge of the physical properties of the jar
wires, as I had termed the underground conductors
on account of their property of acting as large Leyden
jars, was still too undeveloped for planning long sub-
marine lines without risk of failure.

I had been intently occupied with the study of
these questions since 1850. My labours belonged to
the time when the great investigator Faraday astonished

the scientific world with his fundamental discoveries.

12

178 INDUCTION WRITING TELEGRAPH.

In Germany however many of the views of Faraday,
particularly those of electrical distribution by molecular
induction, being incompatible with prevailing theories,
obtained but little credence. This induced me to study,
without regard to existing theories, the question of
electro-static induction, which was of extreme impor-
tance for telegraphy according to my earlier experience.
I finally obtained a complete confirmation of the views
of Faraday, for the correctness of which I was fortunate
enough to find new proofs. Unhappily being oftentimes
interrupted in my labours by my strenuous technical
activity I could not conclude my experiments before the
spring of 1857, when I summarised their results in a
paper published in Poggendorff's Annalen >k'0n electro-
static induction and the retardation of the current in
jar wires".

It became clear to me from these experiments,
that only by employing short intermittent currents was
there any prospect of corresponding quickly on longer
cable-lines. In a paper "The induction writing-telegraph
of Siemens and Halske'' published in 1857 I described
the mechanical expedients for accomplishing this task.
They consisted essentially of a magnetically polarized
relay, which was so constructed that its armature, when
moved by a short impulse of current to the contact,
remained attached to this, until a short current in the
opposite direction carried it back to the insulated stop.
The short intermittent currents were generated in the
secondary coil of an inductor by the telegraphic cur-
rents being sent through the primary coils of the same.

RED SEA LINE. 179

When in the same year -- 1857 - - Messrs. Newall
& Co. laid a cable -line from Cagliari to Malta and
Corfu, I furnished the stations of this line with such
induction writing telegraphs. A translation station was
erected on the island of Malta, which made it possible
to correspond by the thin cable direct between Cagliari
and Corfu with satisfactory speed. In order to secure
the good insulation of this as well as of other lines,
which were to be laid in the eastern part of the Medi-
terranean, my firm undertook the electrical testing of
the insulated conductors in the cable-works of Messrs.
Newall & Co. at Birkenhead. A talented young man,
Mr. F. Jenkin, who afterwards made a name as an
electrician, was assigned me as assistant.

The cable-line through the Red Sea and Indian
Ocean from Suez to Kurrachee in India, the execution of
which had been intrusted to the firm of Newall & Co.,
brought me a very interesting task. My firm under-
took for the latter the electrical supervision of the
laying of this cable, as well as the furnishing and
setting up of the necessary instruments. The most
important of the cable-lines laid up to that time, that
from Sardinia to Corfu, about 700 nautical miles long,
hardly afforded a standard for the construction and
working of a line of 3500 nautical miles in length,
such as the proposed cable-line to India. According
to previous experience it was possible by intermittent
currents to work lines 700 nautical miles in length
with safety and sufficient power.

There were accordingly four or five intermediate

12*

180 APPARATUS FOR THE KED SEA LINE.

stations to be set up between Suez and Kurrachee,
which had to be provided with automatic translation,
so as to be able to work without troublesome and
embarrassing manual transferring of signals. The
fitting up of these translation stations was however
attended with peculiar difficulties in the case of long
submarine lines, as the charge left in the cable produced
disturbances, when as on the Corfu line it was un-
desirable to telegraph with secondary currents. There
were practical reasons moreover against the latter
mode of operating, which especially consisted in the
greater complexity of the whole arrangement. I accor-
dingly constructed a new system of signalling apparatus,
which was afterwards designated the "Red Sea system".
In this, not intermitting currents produced by induction,
but battery currents of varying direction, were employed.
The effect of this was that after every word an inter-
ruption of the second demagnetising battery, and a
discharge of the cable, must occur, before the latter
was again connected with the relay. For this purpose
special simple contrivances were made use of, which
were described at length in the account of the system,
which I published in 1859 in the German - Austrian
Telegraphic Journal, with the title "Apparatus for
wrorking long submarine lines". In the first part of
the line between Suez and Aden, which was laid in
the spring of 1859, such translation stations were
established at Cosseir and Suakim. They acted in a
very reliable and satisfactory manner, so that it was
possible to correspond with the Morse key provided

FIRST EMPLOYMENT OF THE CONDENSER IN CABLE TELEGRAPHY. 181

with discharging contact as quickly as on land lines,
whilst by excluding translation stations it wras only
possible to make oneself understood very slowly on
the line of 1400 nautical miles in length.

During my stay in Aden, however, I succeeded
by a peculiar expedient in communicating quickly and
certainly by the direct line also, and in rendering the
intermediate translation stations superfluous. Through
the study of the electric properties of underground
conductors it had become clear to me that all the
secondary currents, which confuse the telegraph signals,
could best be avoided, if definite amounts of positive
and negative electricity in proportion to the capacity
of the cable were suddenly sent to the delivering end
of the cable, and likewise at the receiving station only
definite quantities of electricity were allowed to leave
the cable. At first I thought to be able to attain
this by the intercalation of a polarizing battery,
possessing so large a number of elements and so small
a surface of electrodes that the quantity of electricity
necessary for reversing the battery just siifficed for
moving the relay-bar. I had brought with me such a
polarizing battery of 150 platinum elements, but found
that the resistance of the battery did almost as much
harm as the polarizing action did good. The fortunate
circumstance however came to my assistance that the
remnant of the cable of 150 nautical miles, or so, had
been submerged from Aden, to be subsequently utilized
for the further extension of the line. This was an
electric condenser, which could not but accomplish,

182 FIRST EMPLOYMENT OF THE CONDENSER IN CABLE TELEGRAPHY.

without the injurious resistance of the polarizing battery,
what I had expected of the latter. I therefore had
the more remote end of the cable insulated , when
the laying was completed, and used the cable as an
earth connection. The result was brilliant beyond
expectation. The Morse writing could now not only
be received direct from Suez without any difficulty,
but to my surprise could also be sent there without
lessening the speed of the signalling.

This was the first employment of the condenser
in submarine telegraphy, without which it would not
have been possible to communicate on the long Atlantic
lines with the speed and certainty now permitted by
Thomson's mirror galvanometers. Instead of insulated
lengths of cable, paper or mica condensers are now
made use of, which we did not possess at that time.

As regards the laying itself, I had introduced a
systematic method for the control of the electric
properties of the cable, which excluded all uncertainties
and misunderstandings. A clock was set up at the
starting point, which automatically insulated the end
of the cable at definite intervals of time, then connected
it with the earth, and finally with the telegraphic
apparatus. The ship could therefore carry out all the
measurements without the co-operation of the land
station, and the like held good of the land station,
which continuously telegraphed its measuring results to
the vessel, so that the latter possessed the requisite data
for calculating according to my formulae the situation
of any suddenly occurring fault. This supervising

"SCIENTIFIC HUMBUG" HONOURED AT LAST. 183

method turned out to be extremely necessary, for the
notoriously high temperature of the Red Sea softened
the gutta-percha and thereby produced numerous faults.
In spite of all the care that had been taken for their
removal, it appeared on arriving in Aden that a -
fortunately considerable, and therefore easily disco-
verable — defect existed in the cable, which rendered
communication with the preceding station Suakim im-
possible. The determination of the fault from Aden
yielded the result that the defect was somewhere in
the vicinity, i. e. in the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
Although Mr. Newall and his engineers had not much

o O

confidence in my determination of the position of the
fault, yet the cable was fished up and cut close behind
the place I had indicated, whereupon to the general
surprise and joy it appeared that the part of the cable
connected with Suakim was sound. The fault was situ-
ated almost exactly at the calculated place, and was
removed after inserting a short piece of new cable.

Through this successful incident the "scientific
humbug" had come all at once to honour. Success
was rendered possible by my having entirely substituted
resistance measurements for current measurements. A
fixed standard of the resistance to electrical conductions
did not then exist. Jacobi had tried indeed to introduce
a purely empirical standard as general measure of
resistance by sending to scientists and mechanicians
pieces of copper wire of equal resistance, recommending
them to take this resistance generally as unit. But it
soon appeared that the resistances varied, and repeated

184 MERCURY UNIT.

copying magnified the variations by a large percentage.
My firm had up to that time taken the resistance of
a German mile (43|4 miles English) of copper wire of
1 millimetre diameter as unit, and produced graduated
scales of resistance on the basis of this unit. It
appeared however that the copper itself with the
utmost possible purity had essentially different specific
resistance, and changed its resistance in the course of
time. To adopt the absolute unit of Weber as funda-
mental standard was rendered impossible by the then
state of electrical measuring, which at the time made
an agreement of the various productions of this unit
unattainable. Under these circumstances I resolved
to make pure mercury the basis of a reproducible
standard of resistance , and proposed to take the
resistance of a mercurial prism of 1 square millimetre
in cross section and 1 metre in length at the freezing
point of water as the unit of resistance. I shall return
to this standard of resistance in the description of my
papers on this subject , and shall only remark here
that the scales of resistance with the mercury unit,
regulated according to the weight system, prepared by
my firm, proved extremely useful in laying the cable
from Suez to Aden, and for the first time made reliable
determinations of faults possible. -

The cable -laying in the Red Sea was also rich
in interesting personal experiences for myself. The very
day after embarking at Trieste in the beginning of
April, I was so fortunate as to witness a splendid
zodiacal light in the evening sky. Scientists contended

TRAVELLING EXPERIENCES. 185

then, and still contend, concerning the cause of this
phenomenon. I believe those to be in the right, who
see in the zodiacal light a proof, that the air charged
with aqueous vapour, rising in the equatorial zone with
increased velocity, forms a high ring above this zone,
which is further enhanced by the effect of centrifugal
force. The appearance answered to the pictures one
sees in manuals of physics, and lasted about an hour
before it became quite extinct.

After an agreeable, calm passage we arrived in
splendid weather at Corfu, where we stopped several
hours, and had time to make acquaintance with the
interesting town and its splendid environment. At that
time the Ionian islands belonged to England. When
after a number of years I again visited Corfu it had
meanwhile passed into the hands of the Greeks, and
the town appeared to me considerably decayed and
poverty-stricken compared with its former appearance.

In the finest weather we sailed through the Adri-
atic and Mediterranean, so rich in historical associa-
tions, disembarked at Alexandria and travelled by the
just opened railway to Cairo, where we stopped a few
days to give the ship Agamemnon, laden with the cable,
and which made the journey round the Cape of Good
Hope, the necessary time for arriving in Suez. I used
this opportunity for an inspection of the town, which
interested me and my engineers in the highest degree
by its rich historical memorials and as the point of
junction of the civilizations of Europe and Asia. When
on the 14th of April we visited the pyramid of Cheops

186 VISIT TO THE PYRAMID OF CHEOPS.

we had the good fortune to observe on its apex an
interesting physical phenomenon, of which I subse-
quently gave an account in PoggendorfF s Annalen
under the title, "Description of unusually strong elec-
trical phenomena on the Cheops Pyramid near Cairo
during the blowing of the Chamsin."

During our donkey ride from Cairo to the pyramid
there arose an unusually cold desert wind, which was
accompanied by a peculiar ruddy colour of the horizon.
During our ascent or rather our transport by the Arabs,
who always encamp by the Gizeh pyramids, and do
not allow the office to be taken from them of carry-
ing or rather throwing the visitors up the steps, each
a yard high, the wind assumed a tempest-like force,
so that it was to a certain extent difficult to keep
oneself upright on the flattened apex of the pyramid.
The raised desert dust had now become so thick that
it appeared like a white mist, and altogether obscured
the view of the ground. It gradually rose higher and
higher, and after some time wrapped even the summit
on which I with my ten engineers was standing. Then
a remarkable hissing noise was heard, which could not
have been caused by the wind itself. One of the
Arabs called my attention to the fact that by raising
his outstretched finger above his head a sharp singing
sound arose, which ceased as soon as he lowered his
hand. I found this confirmed when I myself raised a
finger above my head; at the same time I noticed a
prickling sensation in my finger. That we had to do
with an electrical phenomenon appeared from the

VISIT TO THE PYRAMID OF CHEOPS. 187

circumstance that a slight electrical shock was felt
when one tried to drink out of a wine bottle. By
wrapping a piece of damp paper round it. I trans-
formed such a filled bottle, having a metallically coated
neck, into a Leyden jar. which was strongly charged
when one held it high above one's head. It was then
possible to obtain loud cracking sparks, of about
1 centimetre range. This established in an unequivocal
manner the electrical properties of the desert wind
which had been already before observed by travellers.

In the further course of our experiments I had
occasion to prove that electricity can also be service-
able as an effective defensive weapon. The Arabs
had at once observed with manifest distrust the flashes
darting from our wine bottles. They then held a brief
council, and at a signal every one of my companions
was laid hold of, to be forcibly transported down again,
by the three men who had brought him there. I was
standing just on the highest point of the pyramid, a
large stone cube in the centre of the flattened summit,
when the sheik of the tribe approached, and communi-
cated to me through our interpreter that the tribe had
resolved we should immediately leave the pyramid. On
being asked the reason, he replied that we manifestly
practised magic, and that might injure the source of
their livelihood, the pyramid.

When I refused to comply with his request, he
made a dash at my left hand, whilst I held the right
with the well -coated bottle — in a manifestly conjur-
ing attitude - high above my head. I had waited

188 ADVENTURES AT SEA.

for this moment and now lowered the neck of the
bottle slowly towards his nose. When I touched it I
myself felt a strong concussion, to judge from which
the sheik must have received a violent shock. He fell
speechless to the ground, and several seconds elapsed,
making me somewhat anxious, before with a sudden
cry he raised himself, and sprang howling down the
steps of the pyramid with giant leaps. When the Arabs
perceived this, and heard the sheik's continuous cry
of "magic", they one and all abandoned their prey and
plunged after him. In a few minutes the battle was
over, and we were absolute masters of the pyramid.
Anyhow Napoleon had not such an easy "victory at
the foot of the pyramids" as I had at their summit!

As the blowing of the Chamsin soon ceased, and
the sun again brightly illuminated the imperilled pyra-
mid, the Arabs recovered from their terror, and
clambered up again so as not to lose the expected
"backsheesh". Even at our peaceful leave-taking
however they evidently still regarded us with sus-
picion on account of our magical powers.

Nor were there wanting some small adventures
by sea during this cable - laying. The weather was
thoroughly calm and fine, as is always the case in the
Red Sea, where a rain-fall is a great rarity; only the
enervating heat was inconvenient. My travelling thermo-
meter indicated by day nearly always 100° and by
night 102° Fahr. , a temperature, which with our nor-
thern strength is indeed borne tolerably long without
difficulty, but which in the long run becomes extremely

ADVENTURES AT SEA. 189

troublesome. By day one lives in a perpetual conflict
with the sun, from whose rays head and back must
be carefully protected. By night the hoped for cool-
ing is entirely wanting. The splendour of the starry
southern heavens with the truly Egyptian darkness of
the nights is indeed imposing, but it does not make
up for the desired refreshing breeze.

One night, as I was in my test -room supervising
the insulation of the cable between Cosseir and Suakim,
I suddenly heard loud shouting and violent commotion
on board. The man at the ship's head, entrusted with
the continuous soundings, had fallen overboard. As
the whole deck was well lighted with gas, many
of the people busy there could see the man calling
lustily for help in the water and throw him life -belts,
kept ready everywhere on board. The vessel was
stopped and boats put out, which disappeared for an
uncomfortably long time in the darkness of the night.
At last they returned triumphant. The man had kept
himself afloat by swimming, and had been lucky enough
not to be seized by any of the numerous sharks, which
disport themselves in the Red Sea, and are said to
have an especial appetite for white people, whilst they
rarely molest the black. He was trembling violently
when brought on board, and had his knife still open
in his hand. Questioned as to what had befallen him,
he related that he had been surrounded by a number
of sharks, but luckily had been able to draw his knife,
and defend himself till the boats arrived. We all felt
a cold shiver at the vivid description of his perils

190 ADVENTURES AT SEA.

and combats. The boatswain just then stepped into
the ring, which had been formed round the man, and
announced to the captain that some of the life -belts,
which had been thrown to the unfortunate man. had
been recovered, and that several of them curiously
showed signs of having been pierced with a knife.
The man in his terror had taken the white rings for
sharks' bellies - - the shark, as is well known, turning
on his back when preparing to snap.

The shark plays an important part in the sailor's
life in the torrid zone, as he spoils the mariner's re-
freshing bath. The sailor therefore passionately hates
him and tortures the animal with glee, if he succeeds
in getting hold of one. I was witness when two
powerful sharks, at least twelve feet long, were
caught on a small flesh -baited anchor, and brought
on board. It was rather dangerous to approach them.
They had immense strength and so tough a life, that
even after having been disembowelled they still lashed
about with their tails.

When we lay at anchor in the harbour of Suakim
it was strictly forbidden to bathe, as very many sharks
were disporting themselves in the neighbourhood. One
evening after sunset, which is there quickly succeeded
by perfect darkness, we were sitting as usual at dinner
on deck, when suddenly "shark" was called by several
voices, and at the same time the cry of a man for
help resounded. The boats were lowered, and in the
light streaming from the ship something could be
clearly discerned moving in the water, which was taken

THE GOVERNOR OF SUAKIM. 191

for a shark. Several ran for their revolvers, which
lay always ready, as it was a common sport to shoot
at empty soda water bottles thrown into the water
during the progress of the vessel. Luckily before the
commencement of the cannonade it became apparent
that the supposed shark was a sailor who, contrary
to the prohibition, was taking a bath, and had been
alarmed by his comrades' cry of "shark!"

Arrived at Suakim we soon received a visit from
the highest officials , the Turkish pasha and the
governor of the place. They were both extremely
dignified figures, who moved with oriental gravity, and
carefully avoided all appearance of being astonished at
anything. A carpet was spread for them, and tchi-
bouk and coffee served. They smoked and drank
with dignity, without regarding us, who were standing-
round them. My friend William Meyer, who accom-
panied the expedition, said "Look Werner, what a
splendid fellow that is with the fine white beard; he
might be exhibited in Berlin for money!" To our
astonishment the individual in question turned slowly
towards us and said in the purest Berlin dialect: "Oh,
you speak German?" On our replying that we were
Germans, but were surprised that he could speak
German, he answered: "I 'm also from Berlin. Call
upon me!" Then he turned his head back in a digni-
fied manner, and took no further notice of us. Meyer
called upon him next day, and made the acquaintance
of a thoroughly sociable man when not in Turkish
company. He had left Berlin as journeyman tailor and

192 RETURN TO EUROPE.

gone out into the world fifty years ago, was making
for India when he was wrecked in the Red Sea off
Suakim, stayed there, became a Mohammedan and finally
chief of the town. At the same time he had become
a rich man. He showed my friend all his possessions,
he was only unwilling in spite of all requests to show
him his harem, and at last earnestly forbade him to
speak about his wives.

When we had finished our business in Aden I
wished to return with Meyer to Europe as quickly as
possible by the next steamer of the Peninsular and
Oriental Company, the Alma. Messrs. Newall and Gordon
contemplated doing the same. When the steamer ar-
rived it was however quite full, and they refused
to take us. Only through an order of the Governor
of Aden, procured by Mr. Newall, were we able to
carry out our purpose, though but as deck passengers,
no cabins being vacant. We had no objection to this,
as during our several months' stay on the Red Sea
we had always slept in our clothes on deck, as the
heat below was insufferable.

On board we found arrangements of a really
luxurious character, and an elegant social life almost
to be styled epicurean, which contrasted strongly with
our recent existence. Ladies and gentlemen changed
often in the day their elegant toilets, and two bands
of music took it in turns to lessen the tedium of
the voyage. We appeared very much out of place
in our ragged garments in this fine circle, and the
glances of the ladies that fell upon us betrayed indeed

WRECK OF THE ALMA. 193

intense astonishment at such an unseemly addition to
the ship's company. Nevertheless we were presented
by the first lieutenant to the highest in rank of the
company, the English Ambassador to China, who had
just happily succeeded in bringing on the Anglo-French
war with China. He graciously gave us an audience,
and exchanged a few words with each of us in his
mother tongue, being rather proud of his own extensive
linguistic acquirements and delighting to display them.
At the approach of night each sought his camping
place on deck, but our rest was long disturbed by
the ladies, who could not make up their minds to
return to the stifling cabins.

We had slept only a few hours, when we were
rudely awakened from our dreams. A violent shock
caused the ship to tremble, two others followed still
more violent, and when we had sprung up in alarm
we felt the ship heeling over. I had luckily not taken
off my boots, only laid aside hat and spectacles. When
I looked round for these, I perceived my hat already
on the way to the sinking ship's side, and involun-
tarily followed it in the same direction. Wild, terri-
fied, ear-piercing shrieks resounded on all sides, then
a general clatter, as everything on deck was taking its
course to the deep. Everybody instinctively made for the
higher part of the ship, most were able to reach it. I came
off worse, having lost time in my search for hat and
spectacles. Already the water streamed over the ship's
side, and warned me to think of my own safety. The

deck had in a few seconds assumed so oblique a po-

13

194 WRECK OF THE ALMA.

sition that it was no longer possible to clamber up it.
But necessity gives giant strength. Piling up chairs
and tables I managed to reach a rope, visible in
the bright moonshine, which hung down from the
elevated part of the ship, and climb up by its assi-
stance.

Above I found almost the whole ship's company
already assembled, and awaiting with admirable com-
posure the development of the drama. Then faint
cries of women for help broke the stillness of the
night, and some one called out that there were
still many ladies in the already half -flooded cabins.
Everybody was ready to assist in rescuing them,
but this was very difficult to accomplish, as the
smooth deck, lying already at an angle of more
than 30°, offered no longer a foot-hold. My rope
now did good service. A seaman, familiar with the
ship's structure, let himself down to the entrance of
the cabin, and fastened a lady to it, whom we then
pulled up. That proceeded however too slowly, for a
large number still waited to be rescued. Accordingly
with the help of further ropes a living chain was
soon formed, by which the poor trembling ladies, for
the most part surprised in their beds by the water
streaming through the opened cabin windows, were
lifted up from hand to hand. If an impediment occurred
anywhere the word "stop!" was given, and then every-
body had to sustain his burden until the furthering
process could be continued. At one of these pauses I
beheld by the moonshine in the dripping lady, anxiously

WRECK OF THE ALMA. 195

clinging to me, the proud young Creole, whom we
had admired at a modest distance, a few hours be-
fore, surrounded by a crowd of adorers which her
beauty had attracted.

The rapid sinking of the ship, after striking upon
a concealed coral rock, was explained by the circum-
stance already mentioned that the cabin windows had
all been open, and the water therefore found unimpeded
access into the hold. The vessel soon lay entirely on
her side, and the great question, on which now the
life or death of every living being on it depended, was
whether it would assume a position of rest, or cap-
size, and hurl us one and all into the deep.

I erected for myself a little observatory, with the
help of which I could note the further inclination of
the ship by the position of a particularly brilliant
star, and proclaimed from minute to minute the result
of my observations. These communications were awaited
with great anxiety. The cry "stand -still!" was greeted
with short joyful murmurs, that of "sunk further!"
answered by various doleful exclamations. At last no
further sinking was observable, and the paralysing fear
of death gave place to energetic efforts for effecting
our safety.

By the light of the moon and the glittering starry
sky we could distinctly perceive that we had run
upon a large rock, rising at one point tolerably high
above the water, and now only a few hundred yards
from us. The life -boats fastened on the lee -side

could be lowered without much difficulty, and then in

13*

196 WRECK OF THE ALMA.

conformity with traditional English sea-faring practice
the women and children were first put on shore. That
was in truth extremely unpractical, as on the land the
poor creatures were in a desperately helpless condition,
but the principle had to be rigorously observed.

When at day -break the turn of William Meyer
and myself came, we found the ladies almost without
exception in an extremely lamentable plight, as they
were very sparingly clad, and for the most part
shoeless. The rock, perhaps never before trodden by
human foot, was everywhere covered by jagged coral,
which drew blood from the unprotected feet. Here
help was most needed. I belonged to the lucky ones
who possessed boots, and had also saved my pocket
knife. I accordingly returned with the next boat to
the wreck, and fished out a thick mat of linoleum and
another of finer material, with which I then opened a
sandal workshop on shore. My friend, who had not
been so fortunate as to have saved his boots, was the
first to receive a pair of sandals, and then in gratitude
undertook to fit the ladies crouching motionless on the
ground with similar articles. He still remembered years
after with delight the grateful glances from beautiful
eyes, which this Samaritan service procured him.

But what next? On Whitsunday morning about
five hundred persons were sitting on a bare coral rock
a couple of acres or so in extent, and about eight
leagues out of the usual ships' course. We had in
the fine calm night, in which probably helmsman and
look-out had fallen quietly to sleep, run on the notorious

WRECK OF THE ALMA. 197

coral bank lying to the south of the Harnish islands,
and which is given a wide berth by all ships. We
could the less depend on a chance rescue, as the total
absence of drinking water rendered long waiting for
help impossible. The vessel indeed had not sunk
entirely, and we could save provisions of all kinds in
sufficient quantity , but the water -tank had become
filled with sea-water, and the distilling apparatus, which
was used for producing the needful fresh water, could
not be lifted out of its place. The water still found
in the cabins formed therefore our sole supply, on
whose sparing use it depended how long we should
be able to continue the struggle for existence.

But yet another serious danger threatened us.
The crews of the fine large steamers of the Peninsular
and Oriental Company, which then worked the service
between Suez and India, consisted almost wholly of
natives, as Europeans are not able to stand the climate
of the Red Sea for any length of time. Among the
150 persons or thereabouts, who formed the Alma's
crew, there wrere thus, with the exception of the
ship's officers, only three or four Europeans. The
captain was ill, and is said to have died from the effects
of the excitement soon after the shipwreck. The
officers had by their bad management of the vessel
lost the men's respect, and could no longer maintain
discipline among them. The latter began therefore to
mutiny, refused obedience, broke open the travellers'
trunks, and behaved rudely to the ladies. In these
straits a sort of government came spontaneously into

198 WRECK OF THE ALMA.

existence. The most active of the younger men, in-
cluding a number of English officers on their way
home from India, took possession of the old muskets with
bayonets, which were rather for ornament than for real
use in the vessel, and proclaimed martial law. A recal-
citrant drunken sailor was knocked down, and on the
summit of the rocky eminence a gallows was erected as
a sign of our authority. Thither, too, all the recovered
provisions were taken, and a guard-tent was set up,
before which a sentinel patrolled. This had a calming
effect and reduced the crew to submission.

It was above all things necessary to obtain
protection from the sun, which at this time of year
shone vertically down on the island at mid-day.
Accordingly a certain number began busily to occupy
themselves in erecting tents with the help of sails and
yards. Further a kitchen was contrived, and the pro-
visions , especially the water and the stock of beer
and wine, were stored safely. In these operations
Mr. Gisborne, the leading engineer of the cable-laying,
was especially prominent, and exercised a sort of
dictatorship on the island. Mr. Newall had at break
of day immediately gone with one of the three boats,
which were at our disposal, to Mokka, the nearest
place on the Arabian coast, to seek assistance. He
did not find any there however - perhaps because
the recent bombardment of Djedda by the English had
caused a very unfavourable feeling towards Europeans
- and therefore proceeded further towards the Straits
of Bab-el-Mandeb in the hope of falling in with a vessel.

WRECK OF THE ALMA. 199

This voyage in a frail open boat was a bold enterprise,
but our only hope depended on it. And in reality it
succeeded, thanks to a splendid telescope, which I had
had made for my journey by Steinheil in Munich.

For when the English man-of-war, which had left
Aden a few days after us to visit the intermediate
stations, and take off our engineers, had passed in
the early morning the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb , our
engineer Dr. Esselbach was standing on deck, searching
with my telescope the vast unbroken expanse. He
descried a white point, which he took to be the
sail of a European boat, as the natives only use
brown sails. He called the attention of the ship's
officers, and lastly of the captain himself, to it,
who with my telescope convinced himself of the
correctness of the observation, and at once directed
his course to the white point. To the great surprise
of everybody this soon developed into the boat of the
passenger steamer well known to the seamen, and al-
ready in the far distance Mr. Newall was recognised
by his striking long white beard.

Meanwhile the life on the coral rock had rolled
on as might have been expected. From 9 o'clock in
the morning to 4 o'clock in the afternoon we were
obliged to lie quietly under the roofs of our tents, to
enable us the better to resist the glare of the sun and
not to excite too great a craving for drink. Then

O O

the cooking began, and we dined as well as we could,
each of us getting on the first days a . small bottle of
pale ale, as the water was reserved for the women and

200 WRECK OF THE ALMA,.

children. Wine, which was also to be had, no one could
stand; it heated the blood to such a degree that those
who tried to drink it got ill. The first two days all went
passably well, but then great lassitude and despondency
began to set in. Faithful old servants refused to
perform small services, even though gold pieces were
offered them. Even the sheep and dogs, which had
been brought to land, lost all vitality. They pushed
with resistless force under the tent-covers, and chose
rather to be killed than subjected to the pitiless rays
of the sun. The pigs alone excelled even the human
beings in endurance; they kept incessantly exploring
the island, until they dropt dead in their struggle for
existence.

On the third day a small number of us , who
still possessed sufficient force and self-control to per-
form work when the sun was low, succeeded in
breaking through the outer wall of the ship and
obtaining access to the ice-room. Certainly there was
no longer any ice to be found there, but a moderate
quantity still of cold water. This was likewise reserved
for the numerous women and children, but every one
who had assisted in the work received as reward a
glass of cold fresh water. Many years after I have
often gratefully remembered that refreshing draught
when tormented and parched with thirst.

When the fourth day passed without prospect of
release , dull despair took possession of even the
stoutest hearted. A steamship , whose smoke we
descried in the far distance had gone its way without

RESCUE BY THE CABLE WARSHIP. 201

discovering us. On the following morning the cry
was again raised "steamer in sight!" but the cry this
time only awakened feeble hope. Still the smoke came
nearer, and the already slumbering vital spirits awoke
anew. The ship now approached, now moved off
again; hope began to spring up that it was seeking us.
Then at last it seemed to perceive our signals, it steered
its course straight for the island. No more doubting!
Rescue was at hand, and its certainty made the almost
dead alive again. We recognised our companion ship
in the cable-laying and Newall, our saviour, on board.
The scenes, that were now enacted, are never to be
forgotten. On the ship all was astir for effecting the
landing. Nobody appeared to notice the many-hundred-
voiced jubilation that greeted the ship's crew. The
anchor rattled down, and the boats shot into the water.
They brought casks full of water, and flat wooden
vessels, which were then placed on land and filled
by stout sailors hands. Mr. Newall had informed
them that we were in want of water, and their
first thought was' to quench our thirst. Every
one made a rush for the large wooden vessels and
tried with hollow hand to scoop up the water.
But that was a slow affair, and others kept pres-
sing forward. Accordingly the head was simply lowered
and the delicious fluid swallowed in greedy draughts.
The beasts too had scented the water and pressed
forward with irresistible energy, although they had
been lying for whole days as dead under the tent-
covers. A huge wether pushed everybody aside, and

202 EETURN VIA MARSEILLES.

plunged its own head into the vessel between that of
a fair blonde and a negro, without the latter being
at all disturbed. Pictures, assuredly never to be for-
gotten by those who gazed upon them.

As the number of about five hundred passengers
and ship -folk was too large to be transported by the
small man-of-war, the captain determined to leave the
crew on the island under a guard of sailors from the
war-ship, to be kept under strict discipline on account
of their mutinous behaviour , but to take all the
passengers on board and convey them to Aden. So
we arrived, packed in fearfully close quarters on the
deck of the little ship, again in Aden, where the
telegraphic news of our arrival in Suez had already
been anxiously awaited. By order of the governor of
Aden the next homeward-bound passenger steamer had
to take up almost the entire number of the shipwrecked,
in spite of its being already overcrowded. But we
gladly bore the inconveniences of this passage, and of
the further one from Alexandria to Marseilles , and
thanked God that we had not met with a tragic end
on the lone coral rocks of the Harnish Islands.

Neither in Cairo nor in Alexandria had we leisure
to improve our very defective external appearance.
Nearly all had lost their whole baggage in the ship-
wreck, and most of us were without funds. Not be-
fore Paris, whither we travelled without stopping, was
an opportunity afforded for a fresh outfit. We were
all obliged to travel by way of Marseilles, as the har-
bour of Trieste was blockaded by the French, and the

RETURN VIA MARSEILLES. 203

journey through Italy was impossible on account of
the war in Lombardy. The news of the declaration
of war by France and of the death of Alexander
von Humboldt I had received in the Red Sea during
the cable -laying. The subsequent great political events
had also been communicated to us through the cable,
so that we had remained well-informed of the events
of the world.

For the rest Meyer and I narrowly escaped being-
left behind in Malta. The captain of the French
passenger steamer emphatically declared that he could
take no passengers to Marseilles without passports, that
we must therefore provide ourselves with passports in
Malta, if we had lost our own in the shipwreck. When
the captain presented us to the respective consuls as
shipwrecked persons handed over to him in Alexandria,
all the rest received consular passports without any
difficulty; the Prussian consul alone, a commercial man
who had settled there and been entrusted with this
office, declared that he possessed no authorization,
as we could produce no regular evidence of identity.
Only after some stormy scenes did he give in, and
we were able to reach the ship just before its de-
parture.

The Indian line was extended in the following
year from Aden to Kurrachee, William Meyer super-
intending the electrical arrangements. Unfortunately
the line did not long remain in a serviceable con-
dition. Defects of insulation, which impeded corre-
spondence, showed themselves already in the Ked Sea

204 DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIAN LINE, REASONS.

cable in the course of the extension of the line to
India. Our electricians attempted repairs indeed, where-
by all the more serious faults were removed, but new
ones constantly made their appearance, which already
in the following year rendered the whole line unservi-
ceable, since the cable in the Red Sea was held fast
at the bottom by coral formations and therefore could
not be raised and repaired. The reason of this un-
fortunate failure was mainly owing to the circumstance
that the contractors had laid the cable, not in deep
water in the middle of the sea, but near the Nubian
coast, in the proximity of the intermediate stations,
in shallow water, where the formation of coral pro-
ceeds very rapidly at the sea -bottom. People had
not yet come to see that with submarine cables not
cheapness but excellence is in the first place to be
aimed at. It was apt to be forgotten that a single
defect, if it cannot be repaired, spoils the whole cable,
and that from any defect of insulation, however small
a greater one is sure to arise in course of time. Al-
most all the submarine cables laid in early days by
the English both those in the Channel, in the

Mediterranean and Red Sea, and also the first Atlantic
cable, which was laid in the summer of 1858 by the
engineer Whitehouse after an unsuccessful attempt in
the preceding year - - came to grief, because in the
construction and fittings, as well as in the testings and
laying, correct principles had not been followed.

It was the perception of this fact that led the
English Government in the year 1859 to entrust the

CABLE-TESTINGS FOR THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT. 205

control of the preparation and the testing of cables,
which it contemplated laying, to our London firm. In
these testings for the first time a consistent rational
system was adopted, which afforded assurance that
the completed cable was faultless, if the conductivity
of the copper conductor and the resistance of the in-
sulating covering entirely corresponded to the specific
resistances of the materials employed. The result was
that the insulation of these new cables was more than
ten times as great as had been the case in previous
submarine cables.

My brother William and I communicated in July
1860 to the British Association the substance of the
report delivered to the English Government on the
performance of these testings and the methods and
formulae employed in a paper read by William, entitled
"Outline of the principles and practice involved in
testing the electrical conditions of submarine cables",
and in this way we made our experiences public
property.

Since then no cables with defective insulation
have been laid, and their durability has proved satis-
factory wherever mischief has not been wrought by
local causes or external violence. In cables laid in
shallow water - - both in the Mediterranean and also
in the Black Sea - - such a destructive agency presented
itself in the shape of a small beetle belonging to a
group particularly dangerous to wooden ships (Xylo-
phaga). In the cables without iron sheathing laid by the
firm of Newall & Co. in the eastern part of the Medi-

206 CARTAGENA-GRAN COPPER-ARMED CABLE.

terranean a large part of the hemp covering the con-
ductor insulated by gutta-percha was eaten away
before the end of the year. Moreover the little
animals had frequently attacked the gutta-percha itself,
and there were numerous places where they had bored
right through to the copper, and thereby entirely
destroyed the insulation. Even an iron sheathing does
not completely prevent destruction by the wood-worm
of a cable laid in shallow water, as places at which
an outer wire has been fractured afford it access, and
as the young brood can make their way through the
interstices of the protecting wires and then grow to a
dangerous size within the protecting covering. To
obviate this danger brother William had constructed
a special cable for shallow water, in which strands
of the best hemp twisted round the conductors, insu-
lated by gutta-percha or caoutchouc, gave the cable
the necessary support, whilst a layer of strips of
copper - sheathing placed over one another in the
manner of scales was destined to protect the core of
the cable from the wood -worm. Our London firm,
which meanwhile had set up a good-sized mechanical
workshop and a cable factory of its own at Charlton
near Woolwich, received an order for such a cable
from the French government for a line between Car-
tagena and Oran. The then director-general of the
French telegraphs, M. de Vougie, had already expended
much money in attempts to lay a cable from the French
to the Algerian coast, without having obtained a satis-
factory telegraphic communication. He now wished to

JOURNEY VIA MADRID TO ORAN. 207

effect this in the cheapest way by a very light cable
via Spain, and entrusted us with the preparation and
laying of a copper -sheathed cable between Cartagena
and Oran.

The French Government had stipulated for the
procuring of the steamer as well as for its manning and
officering by members of the imperial marine. The
director-general, who was well known to me, as we had
both served on the jury of the Paris Exhibition of
1855, intended to be present at the laying. William
and I desired jointly to supervise the proceedings, and
we accordingly met in December 1863 in Madrid.
I travelled from Moscow, where I had happened to be
detained, via St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Paris, almost
without break of journey in five days.

My brother had meanwhile --in 1859 -- married
the sister of the before -mentioned Mr. Gordon, a clever
and charming lady. He brought his wife with him to
Madrid, as she insisted on sharing the toils and the
possible dangers of the enterprise. In Madrid it was
unpleasantly cold and windy, so that I could not per-
ceive that the climate had much improved since my
leaving Moscow. We soon continued our journey to Aran-
juez, Valencia, and Alicante, without even there finding
a more genial temperature. The winter was unusually
cold for Spain, and it was a curious sight to see on
the whole way from Alicante to Cartagena date-palms
and orange -trees abundantly laden with golden fruit
covered with snow. Even in Cartagena, where we
had to wait some days for the cable -ship, it was so

208 STATE OF THE CABLE.

bitterly cold in the houses destitute of fireplaces or
stoves, that my sister-in-law often afterwards declared,
that my fur brought from Russia had prevented her
from freezing in Spain. It was not before Oran that
we thawed again. The necessary preparations were
soon made, and we rejoiced in the hope that the
whole laying would be over in a few days. But "there's
many a slip between the cup and the lip'' - after four
weeks' toil and undergoing of grave dangers we had
lost the cable, and had to congratulate ourselves that
we had not also sustained loss of health or life.

Judged from the cool standpoint of advanced age
this cable-laying was an egregious piece of folly, since
cable, ship, and mode of laying were utterly inade-
quate. As an excuse for our nevertheless undertaking
it only the following reasons can be offered. We
desired under any circumstances to lay a cable of our
own, because we saw that our inventions and expe-
riences were being turned to account by English con-
tractors without any regard for us, and even without
our undoubted services in the development of sub-
marine telegraphy being so much as mentioned: and
further, and perhaps mainly, because the cable- construc-
tion and paying-out arrangements devised by brother
William were so well conceived and interesting, that
we had not the heart to leave them unused.

The cable would have been excellent in every
respect if it had remained in the condition in which
it left the factory. We were however unfortunately
soon convinced that its proper breaking strain had been

STATE OF THE CABLE. MODE OF LAYING. 209

much impaired, although the hempen strands were
supposed to be prevented from "dry rot" by being
impregnated with a solution of tannin. In spite of its
light weight it was hardly strong enough any longer
to be laid with safety in the considerable depths be-
tween the Algerian and Spanish coasts. Still worse
almost was it that my brother had invented for the
laying a new mechanism, which was now to be tried
for the first time. It consisted in the cable being coiled
round a large drum with stationary axis, which was to
be turned for the winding and unwinding of the cable
by a specially constructed small steam-engine. This con-
trivance, though carried out in a very ingenious manner
by my brother, yet appeared to me very dubious, for
the uniform rotation of so heavy a drum, especially
in a rough sea, was connected with difficulties, whose
extent could not be foreseen, and the portion of cable
unrolled by the revolving drum could only be properly
estimated when the ship's velocity, the ocean- depth,
and the currents were at all times exactly known.
But as the weather was calm and fair, and I had
moreover constructed an electrically worked velocity-
meter, which I desired to test, and which, as I hoped,
would always accurately indicate the ship's speed, we
resolved to make the attempt in spite of the decreased
strength of the cable.

Unfortunately my fears proved to be justified.
After the heavy shore -cable had been laid, and the
laying of the light copper cable , connected with it,
had proceeded for perhaps an hour without disturbance,

€ OF THE \

:VERSITT
AUFORNlA^-'"

210 THE CABLE BREAKS. TRIP TO ALMERIA.

so that my hope of success already noticeably rose.
the cable suddenly broke and sank in the rather deep
water, without any apparent reason. It was impossible
to pick up again the cable already laid, as it was
held fast at the sea -bottom by huge boulders. We
had in consequence not sufficient cable left to under-
take a laying to Cartagena, determined therefore to
take the shorter course to Almeria, and in the first
place to run across, with the object of searching for
a suitable landing place.

The trip to Almeria with glorious weather and
mirror-like sea was enchanting. The town is masked
by a hilly neck of land, which stretches far into the
sea. For our purpose this fine situation was certainly
rather unfavourable, for it compelled us to make so
wide a circuit round the promontory that the smaller
linear distance from Oran was thereby almost neutralised.
We landed however in order to take in stores, and
enjoyed the hospitality of the inhabitants, who would
not be denied giving us a festive reception and im-
provising in our honour an entertainment in the theatre.
What most surprised us at this entertainment was the
classical beauty of the women, whose features were
undoubtedly of Moorish type. One young girl in par-
ticular struck us, who by the unanimous vote of our
ship's company, composed of all nationalities of western
Europe, was pronounced the ideal of female beauty.

We did not dream on that enjoyable evening that
the next day would bring us dangers, the surmounting
of which still appears to me little short of miraculous.

OBSERVATION OF A WATER -SPOUT. 211

Rightly to understand what followed it must be
borne in mind that our ship had not been built for
cable-laying, but had only been procured in the
English market ad hoc by the French government.
It was an English coasting-vessel, whose former function
had been to tow colliers to London. These ships
are not built for the open sea; they have a flat bottom,
no keel, and no high prow for breaking the waves.
The hold of this unfavourably constructed ship was
for the most part occupied by a huge wooden drum,
with fixed iron axis, on which the whole cable was
wound ; the load was therefore very unfavourably
distributed for the open sea. But the weather was
uninterruptedly fine, and the sea calm. This changed
somewhat when, after leaving Almeria, we had rounded
the promontory, and saw the open sea before us.
A moderate breeze was blowing from the south-west,
and masses of black clouds hung behind the neck of
land along the coast. Then it struck us that the
nearest of these dark lowering clouds was continued
to the sea -level by a long prolongation, and that the
sea beneath was in wild commotion, so that it appeared
in the unbroken sunshine as a dazzling and jagged ice-
field. Our vessel passed, according to our reckoning,
about two leagues off this high foaming field, which
was perhaps half a league broad, whilst the length
could not be estimated. It was surprising that the
prolongation, coalescing bluntly with the cloud above
and then tapering quickly, did not come quite in

contact with the heaving surface of the water, but

14*

212 OBSERVATION OF A WATER -SPOUT.

remained separated from it by a clearly discernible
interval. There was also no special elevation to be
perceived of the foaming surface beneath , but the
whole surface appeared to be raised uniformly as high
as a house above the level of the sea. The end of
the protuberance at the same time executed an un-
doubted circular movement above the white part of
the sea, so that it returned about every ten or twenty
minutes to the same point.

Unfortunately we could not long continue the
observation of this interesting spectacle , a so - called
water-spout, as it rather quickly drew off along the
coast in an easterly direction, and we were also diverted
from it by another remarkable phenomenon. For the
ship began of a sudden to rock with such violence
that we could only with difficulty maintain an upright
position. They were short high waves , so - called
dead sea, over which we were being borne. Clearly
we were following in the wake of the water -spout.
The violent rockings of the ship made the captain,
who was well acquainted with its construction, very
anxious indeed ; he kept however his course in the
direction of the troughs of the waves, in the hope of
soon coming again into calmer water. Then dull short
blows struck upon my ears, which made the ship
tremble at every oscillation. The thought flashed
through me like lightning, "the drum has got loose
and will soon with irresistible blows knock the ship
to pieces." I rushed into the cabin to my brother, who
was already contending with sea-sickness; no one else

THE DRUM ENDANGERS THE SHIP. 213

knew precisely the construction of the drum and the
mode of its attachment, he alone therefore could per-
haps still save us. I found him already on his feet -
deadly pale, but composed. He too had immediately
understood the cause of the threatening blows, and that
had sufficed to dispel every trace of sea-sickness. In
the hold he in fact saw that the axis of the drum had
got loosened from its upper frame, and that the blocks
of especially hard wood, which had been carefully
prepared and fitted for the protection of the frame,
were wanting. The French ship's carpenters at first
pretended not to know what had become of them, but
when the blows increased in strength, and my brother
called out that we should all be lost, if the wood
was not immediately brought, their memory returned,
and the blocks were produced. The fellows had ad-
mired the unfamiliar solid wood and had regarded the
pieces as superfluous.

With the violent rocking, we could not however

o"

succeed in placing the blocks in their proper places.
Meanwhile the blows had increased to such a degree
that everybody was seized with fear lest the vessel
should no longer resist them. Then my brother called
to us through the open hatch- way, "The oscillation is
too great, steer against the wind!" The captain at
once gave the necessary order, and the ship turned
to meet the waves. A moment after to my astonish-
ment I beheld the prow plunged under water, and the
waves already washing over the fore-part of the deck.
I perceived at once the cause of the phenomenon.

214 CONSEQUENCES OF TURNING THE SHIP TOO SUDDENLY.

The ship with its full velocity had turned too suddenly
against the wind, and when a wave had once washed
over and depressed the prow, it retained the inclined
position and was driven down by its velocity on the
incline. At this critical moment I involuntarily assumed
the command, and called loudly into the engine room
hard by "Stop!", as the captain was wont to do.
Luckily the engine-men instantly obeyed. But the
ship's velocity could only be slowly reduced. We all
stood on the raised poop, and saw the fore -deck
becoming continually shorter and the sea more and
more approaching our standing place. Then the sea
broke over the after -deck, and a mighty whirlpool
was formed, the water pouring through the open
hatch into the ship's hold. Our end seemed at hand.
Then the swirl became weaker, and after some further
anxious moments the prow once more appeared above
the water, and we breathed fresh hope, for the violent
rocking and the ominous blows had now ceased.

My brother, who in the hold had not been able
to observe the approach of danger, was completely
surprised by the sea-water suddenly deluging himself
and the drum. All the greater was his delight when
the rush of sea-water ceased, and it soon after became
possible for him to adjust the wooden supports, and
thereby prevent the dangerous blows of the axis of
the drum. The captain now cautiously resumed the
course to Oran. The vessel continued indeed still to
rock disagreeably, but we got accustomed to it, and
rejoiced that the drum did not stir again. The great

THE WATER -SPOUT FLOODS THE SHIP. 215

excitement had dispelled all sea-sickness, and when it
became dark every one sought his berth, and soon
all was tranquil.

I had not been long asleep when loud orders and
cries of alarm on deck awoke me suddenly. Imme-
diately afterwards the ship laid itself on its side in a
manner I have never since experienced, and can even
now scarcely consider possible. People were thrown
from their beds and rolled on the steeply inclined
floor of the large cabin into the opposite cabins.
They were followed by everything moveable on the
ship, and at the same time all the lights were ex-
tinguished, as the hanging lamps were hurled against
the cabin deck and shattered. Then followed after a
brief anxious pause a recoil, and a few repetitions of
nearly the same intensity. Immediately after the first
shocks I succeeded in gaining the deck. I descried
in the half-light the captain, who in answer to my call
only pointed to the stern, exclaiming "voila la terre!".
Indeed a high rocky wall, feebly shining in the dark-
ness, seemed to be standing behind the ship. On
seeing it, the captain had suddenly brought the ship
round, and thereby caused the violent oscillations.
He thought we must have drifted, and were close on
the rocks of Cap des lions. Suddenly a voice called
in the darkness "La terre avance!", and actually the
high uncanny gleaming wall now rose close behind
the ship, and was advancing with a strange roaring
voice. Then came a moment so awful and overpowering
that it baffles description. Tremendous floods, which

216 THE WATER -SPOUT FLOODS THE SHIP.

seemed to burst in on all sides, poured over the ship
with a force which I could only withstand by con-
vulsively grasping the iron rail of the upper deck.
I felt how the whole ship was tossed hither and
thither with tremendous force by violent short blows
of the waves. Whether we were above or under
water was hardly to be distinguished. It seemed to
be foam, which we breathed with difficulty. How long
this state of things lasted no one was afterwards able
to say. Those also who had remained in the cabin
had to contend with the violent shocks, which threw
them hither and thither, and were terrified to death
by the roaring noise of the mass of water falling down
on the deck. The statements of time varied between
two and five minutes. Then all was over as suddenly
as it had begun, but the gleaming wall now stood
before the ship, and slowly moved away from it.

When after a short time the whole ship's company
collected with revived spirits on the deck, and talked
over all the terrors and wonders, the French officers
were of opinion that the most incredible wonder of
all had been that our lady had not once screamed.
The thoroughly English composure of my sister-in-law,
growing with the rising danger, appeared altogether
incomprehensible to the lively Frenchmen.

As we heard afterwards, the water-spout, which
we had observed at Almeria, had moved eastwards
down the Spanish coast, had then passed over to the
African side, and we had manifestly crossed its path.
That with our craft, so little sea-worthy, and so in-

PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA. 217

judiciously loaded , we had fortunately stood the
dangerous experiment, is perfectly incomprehensible to
me. When the water- spout had passed over us the sea
still remained for some time in wild commotion, and,
so far as we could observe, was covered with foaming
crests. Then we beheld a natural phenomenon of a
splendour and grandeur such as the most daring fancy
could hardly paint. As far as the eye could reach
the whole sea glowed with a dark red light. It
looked as if it were composed of molten red-hot metal,
and the foam- crests in particular of the procession
of waves radiated so bright a light that all objects
could be distinctly seen, and even the smallest writing
could be read. It was a beautiful eerie sight, which
stands even to-day, although more than a quarter of
a century has passed, with perfect distinctness before
my mental vision! We were at a point of the sea,
which was densely peopled by phosphorescent animal-
culae. A tumbler , which I filled with sea - water,
shone brightly in the dark when the water was
violently shaken. The wild swirling motion produced
by the water -spout had excited the whole mass of
phosphorescent animalculae, visible even to the naked
eye, and to their universal simultaneous phosphorescence
we owe the marvellous sight of the glowing sea.

In Oran, where a few hours later we landed
without our journey being further disturbed, we had
to consider what was next to be done. According to
an accurate estimate we had still cable enough to reach-
Cartagena, if it were paid out with the least slack

218 MISCARRIAGE OF A SECOND LAYING.

that was necessary for laying it without strain on the
not quite level sea -bottom. My brother had become
bolder through the luckily surmounted dangers and
wanted once more to attempt the laying without more
ado with the present contrivances. I opposed this,
however, since I had lost all confidence in the drum,
and the ship freighted with it. Finally we came to the
determination to coil the cable over, and carry out the
laying in the usual way with cone and dynamometer.
When the troublesome and tedious coiling of the
cable was finished and the fatal drum laid aside, we
proceeded to our second attempt. The weather was
again splendid, and the laying went forward without
any difficulty. The depth of the sea however proved
to be greater than was given in the French charts,
and we wrere obliged to load the dynamometer to a
hazardous degree, in order not to pay out too much
cable. I controlled the expenditure of cable by my
electric log. which hitherto had always done good
service. Thus things went without disturbance, until
we had already clearly in sight the high coast near
Cartagena. Suddenly my log refused to act - - as it
subsequently appeared because its screw had got
entangled in sea-weed. As my last reckoning had
shown that we had cable to spare, and should arrive
in Cartagena with a surplus. I went to my brother
and requested him to unload the dynamometer some-
what, in order to be secured against the fracture
of the cable. He was greatly delighted, and was
about to show me first how beautifully and equably

POLITICAL EVENTS. 219

the cable was running out with the present loading,
when all at once we saw the cable quite gently come
asunder. The brake -wheel stood instantly still, the
torn-off end disappeared in the deep, and therewith,
for our then circumstances , a considerable sum of
money, as we had undertaken the laying at our own
risk. But what for the moment aggravated us still
more than the money loss was the technical fiasco.
The labour of months, all the toils and dangers, which
not we alone, but also all our companions had under-
gone on account of this cable, were in a moment
irrecoverably lost on account of a few rotten strands
of hemp. In addition there was the unpleasant feeling
of being the object of commiseration of the whole
ship's company. It was a severe punishment for our
temerity.

When a few hours after the breaking of the cable
we landed in Cartagena, we had been over a month
without news from Europe. In Almeria we had also
not heard much in our flying visit, except that war
had broken out with Denmark on account of the
Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. In the hotel at
Cartagena we found French and English newspapers,
and all the great political news of the last month
from the Fatherland poured in upon us. An altogether
remarkable revolution had taken place in the news-
paper articles on Germany since the declaration of
war and the defeat of Denmark, which enjoyed the
favour of England. We had hitherto been accustomed
to read in English and French newspapers much well-

220 POLITICAL EVENTS.

meant praise of German science, German music, and
German song, as well as compassionate utterances on
the good-natured, dreamy and unpractical Germans.
Now there were furious articles on the conquest-
seeking, the war-loving, nay, the blood-thirsty Germans !
I must confess that all this gave me no annoyance,
but considerable pleasure. My self-respect as a German
rose higher with each of these expressions. The
Germans had for so long been only passive material
for the world's history. Now one might read for the
first time in black and white in the Times, that they
had of their own accord entered into its course, and
thereby excited the wrath of those who hitherto had
considered themselves alone entitled to the honour. In
my intercourse with Englishmen and Frenchmen during
the cable -layings I had often had painful occasion to be
convinced in what slight esteem the Germans were held
as a nation by other peoples. I had long political de-
bates, which always came to this, that the Germans had
neither the right nor the ability to form an independent
and united state of their own. "Well, what then do
the Germans exactly want?'' asked the highly respected
director- general of the French telegraphs, and former
companion in exile of the Emperor Napoleon, M. de
Vougie, after a long conversation on the reviving na-
tional aspirations in Germany at the close of the Franco-
Austrian war. - - "A united German Empire"', was my
answer. "And do you think," he replied, "that France
would suffer a state united and superior in numbers
to itself as next-door neighbour?'' - "No."' was my

POLITICAL CONVERSATIONS WITH M. DE VOUGIE. 221

answer, "we are convinced that we shall have to defend
our unity against France." "What an idea," he said,
"that a united Germany would fight us. Bavaria,
Wurtemberg, all South Germany will fight with us
against Prussia." "Not this time," I answered, "the
first French cannon-shot will make Germany one; we
have no fear therefore of a French attack, but await
it cheerfully." M. de Vougie shook his head; yet
the idea seemed to dawn upon him that the Pandora
box of the nationality question, which his ruler had
opened in the war with Austria on behalf of Italy,
might finally be turned against France. Three years
later, when the question of the annexation of Lauen-
burg by Prussia was occupying people's minds, I paid
a visit to the director -general in Paris. Remembering

o ~

our political conversations he called out to me on
entering the room: "Eh bien, Monsieur, vous voulez
manger le Lauenbourg?" "Oui, Monsieur," I returned
in answer, "et j'espere que Fappetit viendra en man-
geant!" It has truly grown, this appetite, and been
also appeased, and M. de Vougie will have thought
of my prophecy when with his Emperor he had to
retire before German troops entering France in triumph.
The first French cannon-shot had in fact made all
Germany one.

The Cartagena -Oran cable was an unlucky one
for us. When the lost cable had been replaced by
a new and somewhat stronger one, my brother repaired
again in the same year to Oran. All the arrangements
were excellently made, the experience gained in former

222 FAILURE OF THE THIRD CABLE -LAYING.

expeditions being fully utilized. The cable was new
and strong , the employes practised , the weather
favourable — in short, a failure was this time not to
be thought of. I received indeed at the expected time
the hoped-for despatch from Cartagena, announcing
that the cable had been successfully laid and mes-
sages already exchanged between Oran and Paris.
Unhappily this despatch was followed only a few hours
later by another, stating that the cable for unknown
reasons had snapped near the Spanish coast. Closer
enquiry showed that the fracture had occurred at a
point where the Spanish coast slopes down abruptly
to an unusual depth of water. The crossing of such
submerged ravines, as in general of extremely uneven
sea-bottoms, is always very dangerous. If the cable
is laid in such a way that it rests on two rocks,
which are so far elevated above the sea- bottom that
it remains suspended on them without touching ground,
it assumes the form of a catenary curve, whose tension
may become so great that it snaps. Such a catenary
curve the cable must at all events have formed at
the foot of the abrupt declivity just mentioned, for
the fracture occurred only a few hours after the
cable firmly settled itself there.

The picking up of the cable was attempted,
without success however , as the ground was rocky,
the sea deep , and the cable not strong enough for
such a depth. In short, we had also lost the second
cable for good and all, and had no other satisfaction
than the feeling of relief at being dispensed from the

THE LONDON AND BERLIN BUSINESS DISCONNECTED. 223

obligation of making another attempt by the circum-
stance that official despatches were actually exchanged
between Oran and Paris.

The great losses, which these cable-layings brought
us. caused a small crisis in our business relations. My
partner Halske did not relish such undertakings attended
with risks and serious losses, and feared also that the
venturesome spirit of my brother William might entangle
us in enterprises suited to the large scale of English
commercial life, but to which our resources were
unequal. He therefore proposed the giving up of our
English house. William Meyer as business manager of
the firm ranged himself on Halske's side. Although
I could not but admit the weightiness of the reasons
adduced, I still could not bring myself to leave my
brother William in the lurch at so critical a juncture.
We accordingly agreed that the London business
should be entirely dissociated from the Berlin house,
it being taken over by me (at my private risk) and
William. This was carried out, and the London business
now became the firm of Siemens Brothers. Brother
Charles in St. Petersburg likewise entered as partner.
Between the three now independent firms in Berlin,
St. Petersburg, and London, agreements were drawn
up to govern the mutual relations.

I may as well remark here that the copper-armed
cable laid by the London firm in the Black Sea in 1869,
of similar construction to the Cartagena - Oran cable,
likewise did not prove durable. It was laid by my
brother William with complete success as part of the

224 KERTCH-POTI CABLE.

Indo-European line, which I shall speak of later on,
between Kertch and Poti parallel to the shore, but
the very next year was destroyed by an earthquake
simultaneously at many points. On attempting to take
it up again it appeared that this was not possible, as it
was covered for the most part with rubble and earth.
This, and the circumstance that the interruption of
the telegraph service took place just at the moment,
when a severe shock was felt at the coast station.
Suchum-Kale, proved that the breaking of the cable
had actually been caused by the earthquake. This is
moreover quite intelligible, since soil and rubble, de-
posited on the shelving shore, are carried down to the
sea by numerous water-courses. From time to time
these masses must slip further, when a cable imbedded
in them will of necessity be torn. The movement
alluded to could not but be initiated by an earthquake
simultaneously at all places where the equilibrium had
been rendered unstable by recent deposits.

Through these and similar occurrences we have
learnt the lesson that submarine cables should never
be laid on the slope of steep declivities, and especially
not where soil and rubble are carried to a deep or
inland sea by rivers discharging into them.

We may regard the period of the cable -layings
described in the foregoing as our proper apprentice-
ship for such undertakings. Instead of the anticipated
profit they brought us many anxieties, personal dangers,
and serious losses, but they paved the way for the
successes, which subsequently fell to the lot of our

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860. 225

London firm in its important and well-executed cable
undertakings. I shall hereafter return to this second
period of our cable - layings , but only briefly review
it, as I personally had less share in the labours con-
nected with them.

I now turn to continue the short summary of my
scientific and technical labours already brought down
to the year 1850.

In the years 1850 to 1856 I was busily en-
gaged with Halske in improving telegraphic apparatus,
electrical appliances, and measuring instruments for
scientific and technical purposes. It was still a
tolerably unploughed field which we worked over,
and our activity was accordingly extremely fertile.
Our constructions, which were rapidly made known,
especially through the Universal Exhibitions in London
and Paris, have almost everywhere formed the basis
of later contrivances. As already remarked, only a
few of these innovations were patented, the majority
of them were either not at all, or only in later years,
described in journals. This facilitated indeed their
general introduction and brought us many orders, but
at the same time we lost in many ways the universal
acknowledgement of their origination. I shall here
only instance a few of the directions which our con-
structive activity took.

Besides the practical development of the Morse

telegraph for hand use, we were occupied in this

15

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

226 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860.

period with the elaboration of that apparatus into an
express -writer for our automatic telegraph system,
which was originally destined for the great Russian
lines, and came first into operation on the Warsaw-
St. Petersburg line in 1854. In this system the
messages were prepared by the so-called three -key-
puncher, whose object was to impress the Morse signs
on a paper ribbon, in which ./ by depressing the first
key a single round hole, by depressing the second
key a double hole, was cut out in the ribbon. The
necessary pushing forward of the ribbon took place
automatically, whilst the greater interval required for
the separation of the words was produced by the
depression of the third key. When in this manner
a message had been punched into the paper slip, the
latter was drawn along in the so - called express-
writing-transmitter by help of wheel -work between a
roller coated with platinum and a contact -spring or
brush. By this means the single holes produced a
dot, the double holes a dash at the receiving station.
As it turned out that ordinary magnets with iron
armature did not work quickly enough, we employed
for the relays as well as for the inkers light cores,
capable of turning in the stationary coils of the magnets,
which were formed of bundles of wires or of thin split
iron tubes, whereby the desired velocity could be
attained with certainty.

Bain had as early as 1850 employed a perforated
slip of paper for his electro -chemical telegraph, but
he had no suitable mechanism for rapid punching of

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860. 227

the slips. Wheatstone made good use of my three-
key-puncher in 1858 for his electro-magnetic express-
writer, without however naming the source whence
he derived it.

The signalling service of the railways, with which
our firm had from the first been particularly occupied,
brought further problems. On all the German railway-
lines ringing -apparatus had to be set up, which on
the departure of a train from a station should give
audible bell - signals for the whole distance. The
mechanician Leonhardt had already provided such
gong -apparatus for the Thuringian line, but they acted
imperfectly, as it was difficult to maintain in good
condition the large galvanic batteries, which were
required at the stations for setting the apparatus to
work. It was an obvious idea to employ magnetic
inductors instead of batteries, but the magneto-induction
machines, known up to that time, of Saxton and Stohrer
were not suited for the purpose. We now constructed
a new kind of such inductors, which worked admi-
rably, and afterwards entirely superseded all other
constructions. The essential feature of our inductor
was the employment as a rotating bar of an iron cylin-
der, which was provided with deep opposite grooves,
forming a channel for the reception of the coil of
copper wire. From the form of its iron cross -section
this bar received the name of the double T arma-
ture; in England it is known as the Siemens' arma-
ture. The steel magnets, hollowed out at the end,
which surrounded the rotating cylinder, could be set

15*

228 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860.

up along it apart from one another, accordingly exert
a more powerful magnetizing effect and less impair
each other's action. Inductors of this kind are to-day
exclusively employed wherever it is desired to procure
powerful currents by permanent magnetism.

My cylindrical bars with transverse coil possessed
the great advantage over the older constructions that
they had with powerful action less mass, and especially
with quick rotation little inertia. I employed them
therefore also for the construction of a very simple
and surely acting magneto -electric dial -telegraph, in
which the cylindrical inductor was quickly turned by
a handle with wheel-translation, whilst each semi-revo-
lution sent an alternating positive and negative current
through the line, each causing the pointer of the re-
ceiving apparatus to advance by one letter on the dial-
plate. It was enough to place the handle successively
on the letters to be telegraphed, to make them visible
in like order at the receiving station. The electro-
magnet of the receiving apparatus consisted of an iron
cylinder with polar extensions revolving on its axis,
which oscillated between the poles of two powerful
horse-shoe steel magnets. Therefore, according as a
positive or negative current traversed the fixed coils
of the electro-magnet, one or the other magnet attracted
the rotating armature, and thereby kept in motion the
hands of the receiving apparatus. This quickly and
surely acting magneto -electric dial -apparatus was in
great requisition especially for the railway service, and
is even now frequently used.

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860. 229

The arrangement just described of polarized
magnets - - i. e. those in which the oscillating bar or
magnet has two resting places, according as a positive
or negative current has last traversed the electro-
magnetic coils - - has obtained more considerable and
general importance through their being used for relays.
On the employment of polarized relays depends the
possibility of telegraphing the Morse alphabet with
short induced currents, the one direction of the current
initiating a dash on the paper strip, while the other
completes it. The length of the produced dash ac-
cordingly does not depend on the duration of the
current, but on the duration of the interval between
two short successive currents of alternate direction.

On this principle depend several of our telegraphic
constructions, of which only the induction writing-tele-
graph need be mentioned here. In this the short
currents of alternate direction required for its working
were produced by a well-closed electro-magnet, round
which was wound a primary coil of short thick
wire and a secondary of long thin wire. In the
primary coil the currents required for telegraphing
the Morse alphabet were produced in the usual way.
In the secondary coils connected with line and earth
there then occurred, at the beginning and close of
the currents circulating in the primary conductor,
powerful induced currents of alternate direction, which
produced the required Morse signs in the telegraphic
apparatus at the receiving station. For the magnetic
inductors magnetically closed electro - magnets with

230 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860.

massive iron cores were employed , to* make the
tension of the closing and opening currents equal as
far as possible.

With siich inductive writing - telegraphs it was
possible by means of a single Daniell battery to tele-
graph with certainty at the greatest distance on over-
head lines. For underground and submarine lines also
the induced electric currents proved highly advantageous,
for they made it possible to signal to greater distances
and with greater speed. As already mentioned the
Sardinia-Malta-Corfu line was fitted in 1857 with our
induction writing-telegraphs. For the working also of
the first Atlantic cable laid in the following year by
the managing electrician, Mr. Whitehouse. induced

O c?

currents were made use of, until the destruction of
the insulation, which unfortunately occurred soon after
the laying, prevented their further employment. Sub-
sequently recourse was again generally had on long
submarine lines to Thomson's mirror -galvanometer with
battery currents.

For land lines also there was this drawback to
the use of short induced currents, that they had to
be very powerful to be able to produce the necessary
mechanical movements at the end of the line. But
since the keeping in condition of very large batteries,
such as the working of long lines with uniform current
or intermitting battery current requires, was trouble-
some and costly, Halske and I tried to transform
mechanically battery currents of low tension into uni-
form currents of higher tension. We exhibited, at the

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860. 231

Universal Exhibitions of London and Paris, several
mechanical arrangements constructed by us for this
purpose, but they had at first the drawback that the
currents of high tension obtained were not of uniform

o

intensity. It was only through the construction of my
so-called "plate" machine that the problem of the pro-
duction of uniform currents of nearly constant tension
by voltaic induction was actually solved.

This "'plate " machine consists essentially of a
large number of electro -magnets, which are grouped
in a circle, and the so-called "plate", a conical piece
of iron, whose apex lies in the centre of the circle
of magnets, is set rotating above their poles. The
magnets are furnished with double coils, of which one
half of the inner ones are always inserted in the circuit
of a battery composed of a few large elements and
by a suitable contact arrangement — the contact being
always a fourth of a revolution in advance of the rolling
"plate" - cause the rotation of the plate, whilst the
outer ones are collectively united into a closed con-
ducting circuit. The iron cone by rolling over the
magnetic poles produces in the secondary coils of the
magnets inserted in the battery circuit an induced
current in one direction, but on the other hand in
those of the magnets outside the battery circuit an
induced current in the opposite direction. The two
induction currents would neutralise one another, and
no current could at all arise in the secondary circuit,
unless at two oppositely situated points of this circuit
there was a continuous contact, by which the opposed

232 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860.

currents of both halves were taken up and united into
a continuous current. This contact is effected by means
of brushes, which are moved round by the prolonged
axis of the iron cone.

The i 'plate" machine was constructed by me in
1854 and shown at several Universal Exhibitions, first
at the one held in Paris in the year 1855. One of
them together with other apparatus of our construc-
tion is preserved in the museum of the Berlin Post
Office, which probably possesses the most complete
collection of old telegraphic apparatus anywhere to be
found. The <;plate"' machine is interesting, because it
represents the first solution of the problem, how to
generate by induction continuous currents in one
direction, and follows precisely the same course as
that taken by Professor Pacinotti ten years later in
constructing his famous magneto-inductor: the principle
of current ramification, which is carried out in the
ring of Pacinotti, being already contained in it. My
machine is thus the precursor of the modern dynamo
machine with continuous current and at the same
time of the transformer. Had the self-motion of the
plate not been made a point of, and had it been
effected by mechanical revolution of the axis together
with the brushes, an effective dynamo-electric machine
would even then have been obtained, and the inter-
vening period of the employment of the Siemens"
armature would have been skipped. This may serve
as an instance of the difficulty which is often ex-
perienced in first apprehending the most obvious

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860. 233

truths. Indeed I can only think with a certain sense
of shame of the circumstance that, after establishing
the principle of the dynamo machine. I did not at
once hit upon the parallel connection of the two
halves of the coils with opposed induction, employed
in the "plate" machine, but was only led to it several
years later by Pacinotti's example.

In the year 1854 telegraph engineers were greatly
excited by a statement which appeared in the Leipzig
Polytechnic Centralblatt. The statement was to the
effect that the Austrian telegraph official Dr. Gintl had
succeeded in telegraphing between Prague and Vienna
by means of the Morse apparatus simultaneously in
opposite directions through the same conducting wire.
This was said to have been accomplished by providing
the relays with two coils, through one of which the
main current passed, while at the same time an equally
strong local current passed through in the opposite
direction. This second circuit had to be closed by a
separate contact at the same moment as the main
current. Dr. Grintl however soon found that this path
did not lead to the desired end. because it was im-
possible to let two contacts actually occur at the same
moment, and because the interruption of the main cur-
rent taking place at the end of each signal could not
but disturb the current coming from the other side.

o

Gintl therefore abandoned this method and tried to
solve the problem by making use of Bain's electro-
chemical telegraph. His experiments then yielded a
better result, and betrayed him into the belief that two

234 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860.

currents with opposite directions could traverse the
same conductor without mutual interference. In an
article "On the forwarding of simultaneous messages
through one telegraphic conductor"', which I contributed
to PoggendorfFs Annalen, I demonstrated the inadmis-
sibility of this view, and expounded the theory of
electro -chemical duplex telegraphy, but also showed
that this method was not capable of practical appli-
cation. At the same time I described a method of
duplex telegraphy with electro - magnetic apparatus,
which completely accomplished the desired result. The
same method was also independently discovered by
the subsequent chief engineer of our firm . Herr
C. Frischen in Hanover. It is known at the present
day by the name of i 'Duplex signalling method of
Frischen and Siemens" and is still frequently employed.
At the close of the above-mentioned article I dealt
with the theory of signalling with two apparatus in
the same direction along the same wire and with that
of simultaneous transmission in the same and in oppo-
site direction, described also the current ramifications
whereby these problems can be solved.

In the year 1857 I published in Poggendorff's
Annalen a longer article "On electro -static induction
and the retardation .of the current in jar- wires", which
gives the final result of several years' experiments on
the physical properties of underground conductors.
In this I took up again and developed further the
theory of the electro-static charge of underground con-
ductors broached by me as early as 1850. This theory

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860. 235

obtained at first but little credit in scientific circles;
even William Weber trying to explain the disturbances
occurring in the Prussian underground conductors by
self-induction. Faraday's ingenious theory likewise,
according to which the electro -static induction is not
effected by direct electric action at a distance, but by
the induction proceeding from molecule to molecule of
the dielectric, was unable to obtain acceptance with
most physicists of the old school. The actual influence
of the matter between two conductors on the extent
of the electric charge was explained by a more or
less profound penetration of the electricity into the
insulator and the diminution of the distance thereby
caused between the effective quantities of electricity
in the two conductors. I determined therefore to
carry out an experimental investigation, in order to
establish the actual state of things without connecting
it with any of the existing theories. My investigation,
which was made considerably more difficult by the
then very imperfect development of the means and
methods of investigation, led to a complete confirma-
tion of Faraday's molecular distribution theory. The
result arrived at was, that the laws of the motion of
heat and electricity in conductors also applied to elec-
tro-static induction, and that consequently the form of
Ohm's law for the electric current is applicable to it
likewise. I obtained in this way with the help of
Faraday's theory Poisson's formulae for the density
of electricity at the surface of bodies, and was able
to furnish an experimental proof that in all cases the

236 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860.

theory of Faraday suffices for the explanation of the
phenomena. I then carried this theory further in
several directions and solved problems by the help
of it. as e. g. the calculation of the capacity of a
battery formed of any number of Leyden jars of diffe-
rent capacity placed one behind another, a problem
which up to that time had not been solved. Unfor-
tunately I did not find the necessary leisure before
the spring of 1857 to prepare my work for the press.
Meanwhile eminent English physicists, like Sir William
Thomson and Maxwell, had anticipated sundry of my
scientific results; in particular the formulae, given by
Thomson, for the capacity of jar wires and the retar-
dation of the current were the same as those which I
had arrived at in a quite different and more elemen-
tary way. Maxwell has in his masterly works ela-
borated Faraday's theory in strict mathematical fashion,
and proved that it is everywhere in complete harmony
with the theory of potentials. We are therefore com-
pletely warranted in regarding with Faraday electric
distribution as an action propagated from molecule to
molecule, but not combined with a direct action at a
distance, for only one of these processes can actually
take place.

At the close of the above-mentioned paper I de-
scribed the apparatus known by the name of the Siemens'
ozone tube, and explained the theory of its action. I
succeeded with its help in converting oxygen into ozone
by electrolysis. There is still a great future in store for
this apparatus, as it enables us to subject gases to

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860. 237

electrolysis. They are put by it into the so-called
active state, rendering them capable of forming directly
with other gases chemical compounds, which could
otherwise only be obtained in a very roundabout way.

I have already mentioned that even in the middle
of this century one of the greatest obstacles in the
way of the development of the physical sciences, and
especially of physical technology, was the want of fixed
standards. In scientific writings pretty generally metre
and gramme were used as measures of length and
weight, but notwithstanding technology suffered from
an insupportable looseness and inaccuracy. Metre and
gramme at any rate always formed fixed points of
comparison, to which all estimates of measure could
be referred. Such a fixed point was entirely wanting,
however, for electric standards. William Weber indeed
had already, in conjunction with Gauss, theoretically
developed the admirable system of absolute magnetic
and electric units, and had also perfected to an ex-
traordinary degree the methods of exact measurement
and the requisite instruments, but standard tallies,
representing the absolute units and accessible to every-
body, were wanting. It was in consequence usual for
every physicist to set up his own standard of resistance,
which was attended by the serious inconvenience that
the results of his labours wrere not then comparable
with those of others.

Jacobi in St. Petersburg then made the proposal
to take as general unit of resistance an arbitrarily
chosen copper wire, which he deposited with a Leipzig

238 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860.

mechanician. This attempt, however, fell through,
because the resistance of the wire changed in course

o

of time and the copies supplied showed values varying
as much as ten per cent from one another. The
resistance of a German mile of copper wire of one
millimetre diameter at first employed as unit by Halske
and myself, and pretty generally adopted in Germany
and other countries for practical telegraphy, proved
also to be only a makeshift. I soon became convinced
that it is quite impracticable to set up an empirical
standard in the manner of Jacobi, as the electrical
resistance is not such a fixed and controllable property
of bodies as (say) the dimension and mass of solid
bodies. There was also no prospect of inducing the
whole world to accept a standard of resistance de-
posited in any particular place.

On these grounds the choice remained between
the absolute unit of resistance of Weber and an
empirical unit everywhere reproducible with the greatest
exactitude. Unfortunately the adoption of the absolute
unit was not then to be thought of, its reproduction
being too difficult, so that William Weber himself de-
clared to me that errors amounting to a considerable
percentage were unavoidable. I decided therefore to
take, as the basis of a reproducible standard of re-
sistance, the only metal fluid at ordinary temperatures,
mercury, whose resistance cannot be affected by mole-
cular variations and is influenced less by changes of
temperature than that of the solid metals available
for the gauging of resistances. In the year 1860 my

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860. 239

labours had so far progressed that I was able to come
before the public with the proposal to adopt as unit
the resistance of a column of mercury of 1 metre in
length and 1 square millimetre in cross section at
0° C. . and to publish my method of producing this
mercury unit. The paper, which appeared in Poggen-
dorff s Annalen, was entitled: "Proposal for a repro-
ducible standard of resistance."

Although Mr. Mathiessen in London violently
opposed the adoption of my unit and recommended
instead as empirical unit a wire of gold and silver
alloy with about the same resistance as Weber's unit,
my proposal was soon generally adopted , and the
Vienna International Telegraph Conference of the year
1868 made the mercury unit the legal unit of tele-
graphy. Nevertheless the English physicists continued
their efforts to introduce as international standard the
centimetre-gramme-second-system of resistance proposed
by Sir William Thomson and adopted by the British
Association -- the so-called c. g. s. unit — a resistance
ten times as great as that of Weber's absolute unit.
The British Association appointed a special committee,
to which Sir William Thomson and also my brother
William belonged, which carried on a lively agitation
for the general adoption of the British Association
unit, although there had as yet been no really exact
representation of the same. Reliance was placed,
however, on the expected progress in electrical methods
of measurements, and it was justly urged that the
adoption of a theoretically fixed standard of resistance,

240 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860.

based on a fundamental dynamic standard, would con-
siderably facilitate calculations with electrical forces.
Although on the other hand it could be contended
that the great majority of calculations with electrical
resistances belonged to the geometrical and not to the
dynamical domain, and that the reproducible unit with
a geometrical foundation proposed by me might just
as well be called an absolute one as the unit of Weber
resting on a dynamical basis, or the modification of
the same which was proposed as unit on the English
side, yet the c. g. s. unit of resistance has been sub-
sequently adopted in principle as the international stan-
dard. I shall once again return to this in the sequel.
The duty, entrusted to my brother William and
myself by the English Government, of controlling the
manufacture of cables subsidized by it, caused us to
make very exhaustive experiments with regard to the
properties of submarine lines, and especially to elabo-
rate a rational method for the testing of their electrical
condition. The Malta-Alexandria cable was the very
first which was subjected to a systematic testing and
controlling during its entire preparation, and which in
consequence proved also perfectly faultless after being
laid and has remained so. Such a rational testing-
was rendered possible by the exact standard of re-
sistance above described, and by our arrangement
of resistance coils, which allowed the combination of
any desired resistances in mercury units in the same
manner as weights are used in scales, furthermore
by essential improvements, which the methods of in-

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860. 241

vestigation and the measuring instruments underwent

O o

at our hands. For investigating the influence, which
the high pressure prevailing at great depths exerts
on the cable, steel tanks that could be closed were
constructed, and the insulation of the cables measured,
whilst they were subjected therein to a strong pressure.
The fact already observed by us during the laying of
the Red Sea cable was hereby confirmed, that the in-
sulating capacity of the gutta-percha is increased by
the pressure of the water, whereby the possibility was
established of laying submarine lines even at the
greatest depths. We further drew up tables for cal-
culating the extent of the diminution, which the insu-
lating capacity of gutta-percha, india-rubber and other
insulating materials undergoes through increasing tern-

O O O C>

perature, as well as for the diffusive capacity
specific induction - - of these insulators. Our experi-
ments showed that in these points india-rubber and
its compounds are far superior to gutta-percha, a
circumstance, which caused us to institute extensive
experiments, to obtain a good insulation of conductors
by coating with india-rubber, but which did not quite
lead to the sought-for practical results.

A paper communicated by us in the year 1860
to the British Association - - entitled "Outline of the
principles and practice involved in dealing with the
electrical conditions of submarine electric telegraphs'1
- summarized the main results of our inquiries, and
forms the foundation of the system of testing cables and

detecting their faults which was afterwards generally

16

242 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LABOURS TO 1860.

adopted. But although this paper was published in
English and my communication to the Paris Academy
of 1850, in which my methods of detecting faults
were likewise in principle contained, in French, yet
later writers and inventors have only in a few cases
taken note of them, and have with slight variations
published as new discoveries the methods therein given.
I merely call attention to the point here, in order
that the history of the development of electrical
technology may not be permanently falsified. A recent
book, compiled with much industry, bearing the title
"Traite de telegraphic sousmarine'7 by E. Wunschen-
dorff gives occasion for this remark. At the very
beginning of this work the original inventor of the
electric telegraph , the German Dr. Soemmering , is
designated as "Professeur russe", who is said to have
laid conducting wires under water near St. Petersburg
and in 1845 near Paris, and to have thereby become
the inventor of submarine telegraphy. While, for an
historical work, this is certainly a surprising confusion
of the German Dr. Soemmering with the German
Professor Jacobi living much later at St. Petersburg.
it is to be remarked that this and other projects of
submarine communication before the year 1847 are
only to be regarded as freaks of fancy, which could
not possibly lead to practicable underground communi-
cation. It was my conductors with a seamless gutta-
percha coating that first solved the problem of the
construction of underground and submarine lines, and
the wires laid by me for the mines in Kiel harbour,

ALDERMAN AND HONORARY DOCTOR. 243

and the iron -armoured cable -wire across the Rhine at
Cologne in the spring of 1850, formed the first actual
basis of submarine telegraphy. The German name of
the Frenchman Wiinschendorff may perhaps have con-
tributed to the ignoring of German achievements
running through the whole work!

To the last described section of my activity be-
long two more events, which were of great importance
to me.

In the year 1859 I was elected a member of
the Council of the Berlin Merchants' Company, which
forms at the same time the Chamber of Commerce
of the March of Brandenburg. The election takes
place by a poll of all the trading and commercial firms,
and is accordingly regarded as a special distinction.
Through this I gained the advantage of coming into
closer personal contact with the heads of the Berlin
industrial world. - When in the year 1860 the Uni-
versity of Berlin celebrated its jubilee I received the
degree of Doctor honoris caztsa in the philosophical
faculty. The granting of this honorary title in my
chosen home Berlin gave me especial pleasure, because
I saw in it an acknowledgement of my scientific labours
and was brought by it into a sort of academic relation
to my scientific friends.

I come now to speak somewhat in detail of my
political activity, to which I devoted myself with much

ardour in the following years.

16*

244 POLITICAL ACTIVITY.

From my earliest youth I had felt keenly the
want of union and the impotence of the German nation.
This feeling had been awakened in me and the brothers
nearest to me in age through our living in the petty
and middle states of Germany, where a patriotism
arising from a sense of political unity found no fruit-
ful soil, as was the case in Prussia, thanks to its
glorious history. Moreover in our family national and
liberal views had always prevailed, and my father in
particular was devoted to them. In spite of the me-
lancholy political condition into which Prussia and all
Germany had again sunk after the glorious War of
Liberation, yet the hope remained that the state of
Frederick the Great, who by his deeds had awakened
self-confidence in the Germans, must prove our future
saviour. It was this hope which had caused my father
to advise me to enter the Prussian service, and in
myself also this trust in a future raising of Germany
through Prussia had always been strong. Hence I was
carried away by the national movement of 1848 with
such irresistible force and in spite of opposing private
interests drawn to Kiel, to fight with Prussia for Ger-
many's unity and greatness.

When this movement of youthful enthusiasm, al-
together overshooting the mark, had collapsed through
the unfavourable circumstances of the time, when
Germany again had relapsed into impotent disunion
and Prussia had been deeply humiliated, a profound
dejection crept over all German patriots. Our hope
indeed was still fixed on Prussia, yet no one any longer

POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 245

believed that Prussia as a state would secure the union
of Germany, but our hope rested entirely on the ulti-
mate victory of liberal sentiments in the German and
particularly the Prussian people. This revulsion of
feeling explains the events of the period of conflict,
which would be scarcely intelligible without it.

Up to the year 1860 I was so fully occupied
with scientific and technical labours that I kept entirely
aloof from politics. Only when under the Regency of
the Prince of Prussia the political stagnation and the
pessimism, which had till then almost exclusively pre-
vailed, had diminished, and freeer political views had
again ventured to come forth, did I join the National *
Association formed under the lead of Bennigsen, and
patronized by Duke Ernest of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
I was present at the meeting which constituted it at
Coburg, and continued to take part in its aims as
faithful ally. Through this and my lively activity at
the elections for the Diet I became more intimately
acquainted with the leading politicians of the liberal
party. I attended the meetings of the new liberal
party then in process of formation, and assisted at
the deliberations concerning its programme and name.
The majority was inclined to vote for the name of
"Democratic Party*', whilst Schulze-Delitzsch wished
to call it the "German Party*'. I proposed the name
of ' 'Progressive Party*', as it seemed to me more*:
proper to designate the direction of activity rather
than the principles by the party name. It was re-
solved to combine my proposal with that of Schulze-

246 POLITICAL ACTIVITY.

Delitzsch and to call the new party "German Pro-
gressive Party".

The invitation to allow myself to be elected deputy
I had repeatedly declined, considered it however my
duty in the year 1864 to accept the election, which
had taken place without my intervention, as deputy
for the district of Solingen-Remscheid. The reorgani-
sation of the army proposed by the Government formed
at that time the great question determining party lines.
The essence of this question consisted in the doubling
of the Prussian army, already being carried out in
accordance with the Government plan, and the corre-
sponding increase of the military budget. The voice
of the country declared that this increase of the mili-
tary burdens could not be borne without leading to a
thorough impoverishment of the people. In fact the
prosperity of Prussia was considerably behind that of
the other German states, as the burden of the German
defences had even after the War of Liberation rested
chiefly on her shoulders. If this burden was to be
still further increased in so great a degree without
the enforcing of a corresponding participation of the
rest of the German states, it was thought the pro-
sperity of the country could not but retrograde more
and more, and the burden would finally become in-
supportable. It was known indeed that King William
had already as Prince of Prussia and as Prince Regent
been convinced of the necessity of raising again the
state of Frederick the Great to the height consistent
with its historical position at the head of Germany,

POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 247

and no one questioned the sincerity of the personally
popular and highly esteemed monarch, whose efforts
were directed to that end, but there was much doubt
in regard to the practicability of his plan. Faith in the
historical mission of Prussia for effecting the unification
of Germany and in Prussia's star had sunk too low.
Even the most eager enthusiasts for Germany's unity
and future greatness, nay even preeminently Prussian
patriots, deemed it therefore incompatible with their
duty to load Prussia with this new, and as it seemed
exorbitant, military burden. The representatives of the
people rejected, in large part certainly with heavy
heart, the reorganisation plan of the government, and
after repeated dissolutions the people confirmed this
vote at the new elections.

It was especially hard for me personally to vote
against the proposition of the Government, as in my
innermost heart I still maintained my old faith in the
vocation of Prussia, and it might also look like in-
gratitude if I opposed the desire of a monarch, who
had once personally shown his good will to me.
Moreover, from the attitude of the ministers von Bis-
marck and Roon in the chambers and from their de-
meanour and utterances in the bitter war of words
that often took place, I had gained the conviction that
serious action was before us, for which an increased
army would be required. But my political friends
quieted me by saying, that an active movement on
the part of Prussia for creating a united Germany
under the guidance of Prussia would necessarily lead

248 POLITICAL ACTIVITY.

to a war with Austria, and against this there stood
as insuperable obstacle the testamentary admonition
of Frederick William III. to his son: "Hold fast by
Austria!"

This inward conflict led me, in an anonymous
pamphlet, published by Julius Springer with the title
"On the Military Question", to discuss the question,
whether the doubling of the army in the event of war
might not be obtained in another way than that pro-
posed by the government, without the country being
burdened with the serious expenditure, which the
government plan rendered necessary.

Meanwhile the reorganization itself was carried
through by the minister of war von Roon without any
regard to parliamentary contests, and fortunately already
completed when in the spring of 1866 the differences
in regard to Schleswig-Holstein led to a breach with
Austria. That this breach would actually occur and
entail war few believed, despite the warlike prepara-
tions and threats. All the greater was the universal
astonishment when early in the morning of the 14th of
June the news spread, that war had been declared
against Austria and the German Confederation, and
that the declaration of war was already posted up on
the advertising-pillars. In fact after a hasty walk from
Charlottenburg to Berlin I found the nearest of these
pillars surrounded by a dense crowd. I was struck
by the calm earnest demeanour with which the often
changing crowd received the mighty event. No
criticizing remark of anv sort was heard when the

POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 249

serious and dignified announcement was repeatedly
read at the request of the bystanders. Everyone,
workman and privileged citizen alike , felt the im-
mense gravity of the fact "It is war!", but nobody
appeared to be depressed by it , everywhere it was
received with self-conscious calm. It was brought
strongly home to me. what a power lies in the glorious
past of a people. In perilous times it enhances self-
confidence, allows no pusillanimity to spring up, and
awakens in everybody the resolve to contribute his
part to overcoming the danger, as his fathers had
done before him. As in front of this advertising-pillar
at the Potsdam Gate so did it look in all Berlin, nay
in the wrhole country, at any rate in the old territories
of Prussia. All political disputes were forgotten or
at least postponed. Every man had but one thought:
to do his duty. That this feeling dominated all
classes of the people was clearly manifested in a
meeting, which was called on the very day of the
declaration of war by some private persons, with
the object of forming a society for the care of the
wounded. When a politician began the proceedings
with complaints against the government, which had
brought on the war, a brief remark of mine sufficed
for reply that war was now a fact, and the only
rjuestion before us was, how to pave the way for
victory, and assuage as far as possible the sufferings
of the wounded. This was received with such un-
animous applause that all further discussion was cut
short, and the formation of the aid society for the

250 POLITICAL ACTIVITY.

army in the field, which afterwards worked with great
success, was unanimously resolved.

When after a few weeks the war was ended with
the prostration of Austria and its allied German states,
the world looked quite different. The insignificant,
deeply humbled Prussia now stood in fact as proud
conqueror without a rival at the head of Germany.
With a wise understanding of the national mind, which

O "

regarded the unavoidable civil war only as a means
to the attainment of the yearned for German unity,
King William and his chief minister had imposed only
extremely mild conditions of peace on the conquered
states, where they were not entirely incorporated in
the Prussian state for its necessary security. The
•» victorious King and Captain also gave the world a
probably unique example of self-conquering justice, by
requesting from the Diet an indemnity for the trans-
gression of its constitutional rights necessitated by
state difficulties, and thus restored the country's internal
peace. It required certainly many more struggles in
the Chamber of Deputies, before the wisdom and
magnanimity of this kingly act received full recognition
and approbation.

Through the struggles continued for several years
with the government and the repeated dissolutions a
sort of fighting organization had been formed in the
Diet, which gave the leaders a decisive influence on
the divisions. Waldeck in particular , the leader of
the extreme democrats, had obtained great power.
His friends rejected all compromise, and held it to be

POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 251

requisite for attaining their ends, as well as befitting
the dignity of the House, to grant the desired indemnity
only on very far-reaching conditions. This in the then
political situation was an extremely dangerous pro-
ceeding, which seriously threatened the internal peace,
and might again imperil all the achievements of the
glorious victories of the Prussian army. I had, soon
after the conclusion of peace and before the convocation
of the Diet, stopped some time in Paris, and had
opportunity to become acquainted with the feeling of
the masses, as well as of the leading circles. It was

' O

there considered as altogether beyond question that
France could not suffer without very considerable
compensation the powerful position acquired by Prussia
at the head of North Germany and as leader of all
Germany, and must break it down, if necessary, by
force. From a thoroughly reliable source I learnt
that the reason, why France had hitherto put a good
face on a bad business, was merely because the Mexican
war had disorganized the army and in particular
exhausted the stores . but that warlike preparations
were proceeding at a great pace, and in the meantime
a prolongation of the internal conflict in Prussia was
being reckoned upon.

^/ On my return to Berlin I found the Chamber of
Deputies already assembled and the indemnity question
being hotly debated within the parties. Unfortunately
a large number of the parliamentary leaders not be-
longing to the Waldeck party, in the fixed expectation
that this group would carry the day at any rate in the

252 POLITICAL ACTIVITY.

Progressive party, had announced their secession from
the latter and declared for the formation of a new
party, the "National Liberal"'. I myself had on principle
never delivered long speeches in the House, as I re-
garded my political activity as only transient, and had
resolved not again to serve in Parliament. On the
other hand I had always taken an active share in the
party meetings and knew the leanings of most of the
deputies perhaps better than the parliamentary leaders.
It was my conviction that the great majority of the
Progressive party were disposed for peace with the
throne, and that it only required a powerful impulse
to give expression to this peaceful sentiment. In fact
my vivid description of the many-sided dangers, which
were connected with the refusal of the indemnity, fell
in the party meeting on fruitful ground , and after
Lasker. who at my request had put off his declaration
of withdrawal till after the sitting of the party, had
confirmed my arguments in an eloquent speech, the
Progressive party by a considerable majority declared
for the unconditional granting of the indemnity, although
Waldeck himself pronounced most decidedly for un-
flinching insistence on the point of right and the
refusal of the indemnity. When thereupon the granting
of the indemnity was also resolved by the House it-
self and thereby internal peace was restored in the
country, I retired from the political scene and hence-
forth devoted the leisure time, which the management
of my firm left me, to my scientific pursuits.

In the three years of my parliamentary activity

POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 253

I took an active part in the sittings of the committee
and party meetings on the three only bills which ob-
tained legal force by arrangement with the Government
and the Upper House. I was special reporter of the
division "Metals and metal goods" of the Franco-
German commercial treaty, and believe that I materially
contributed to its final adoption by a minute report
which I drew up on this most hotly disputed part of
the treaty. Unfortunately this report brought me
into conflict with my constituents. The latter sent a
special deputation to the Chamber, to protest against
the article which forbade the marking of manufactures
with the names of firms and trade-marks of the manu-
facturers of another country. The Solingen and Rem-
scheid manufacturers declared that it was a customary
practice to label the better class of goods, principally
ordered by English manufacturers and dealers, with
an English trade-mark, and that their business would
be seriously injured if this were disallowed; the con-
sequence of such a prohibition would be that they
would not only lose the English, but also the German
market for their superior goods, as even in Germany
English goods were preferred.

In spite of long discussions we could not arrive
at an understanding. The deputation admitted that
German industry was acting suicidally in representing
its good wares as foreign and only its inferior wares
as its own manufacture, it threw the blame, however,
on the purchasing public which demanded it. We
accordingly parted in disagreement, and I believe I

254 POLITICAL ACTIVITY.

should not have been re-elected if I had', stood again.
For the rest the prohibition has worked well, although
unfortunately it has not been carried out in all its
strictness. Since then in that old and famous seat of
industry, as in general throughout Germany a manu-
facturing pride has grown up, which only permits
the supply of articles of good quality, and it has
also come to be seen in many ways, that a more
effective protection is afforded by the good name
of the manufacturers of a country than by high pro-
tective duties.

An effective system of protection , securing the
consumption of the produce of native industry, can in
fact only be consistently carried out, if the country,
as e. g. the Uniteds States of North America, includes
all climates, and itself produces all the raw materials
which its industry needs. Such a country can exclude
all imports, but thereby at the same time diminishes
its own exports. It must be regarded as a fortunate
circumstance for Europe that America by its prohibi-
tively protective system has checked the rapid, and for
us dangerous, development of its industrial resources,
and restricted its own exporting power. Europe,
divided by high tariff barriers, thereby gains time to
perceive the danger of its situation, which will make
competition with a free -trading America in the world's
market impossible, if it does not in good time present
a united front by a thorough mercantile organization.
The contest of the old with the new world in all
departments of life will in all likelihood be the

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUSINESS. 255

great overwhelming question of the coming century,
and if Europe wishes to maintain its dominant position
in the world or at least its footing of equality with
America, it will have to prepare itself betimes for this
struggle. This can only be attained by the utmost
possible removal of all inter -European fiscal barriers,
which limit the market, enhance the expenses of pro-
duction, and diminish the power of competing in the
world -emporium. Further, the feeling of the solidarity
of Europe as against the rest of the world must be
developed, when the internal European questions of
political power and class interest cannot fail to be
turned towards higher ends.

During the period of my political activity I earnestly
continued my efforts to develop the large business
I had called into existence. A change had meanwhile
occurred in the management of the Prussian government-
telegraphs, which had brought me and my firm again
into closer connection with it. In the room of Coun-
cillor Nottebohm — who could never forgive me for
having in my previously mentioned pamphlet traced
the entire failure of the Prussian system of underground
communications to its real cause, the defective organi-
zation of the technical administration — an extremely
intelligent officer of engineers, Colonel von Chauvin,
had been named director of the Prussian state tele-
graphs. The latter renewed the relations with my

256 INDO-EUROPEAN LINE.

firm, which had been altogether broken off for many
years, and made use of its great experience in the
telegraphic department to improve the working arrange-
ments of the government -telegraph system, which had
remained almost stationary. As at the same time in
Russia my old friend and patron. Colonel von Lliders,
was again after long illness managing director of the
government telegraphs. I conceived the bold plan of
calling into existence a special telegraph line between
England and India by way of Prussia, Russia, and
Persia — the Indo-European line.

The way had already been paved for this plan
by the attempts of England to construct a line through
the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and Persia, in the
execution of which my brother William had taken an
active part. The English Government had in 1862
laid a cable from Bushire in Persia to Kurrachee in
India, in the laying of which our electrician Dr. Essel-
bach had unfortunately met his death. The land line
through Asia Minor and Persia joining the cable had
also been constructed under English direction by the
Turkish and Persian governments, and thus an overland
telegraph line to India had actually been called into
existence. But the impossibility of really solving the
problem in this way soon appeared. The line was
usually interrupted, and if it was actually in perfect
order, yet the messages often took weeks in trans-
mission, and at last reached their destination in an
altogether unintelligible, mutilated state. Theoretically
there also existed a second overland connection by

INDO-EUROPEAN LINE. 257

means of the Prussian and Russian government lines,
yet for the transmission of government and commercial
messages in the English language this proved almost
as unserviceable as the special line through Turkey.
From these experiences it was certain that the
great need of a quick and reliable telegraphic communi-
cation between England and India could only be satis-
fied by a line through Prussia, Russia, and Persia
planned as a connected whole, and under an un-
divided management. After I had thoroughly weighed
the practicability of such a line with my brothers
William and Charles, after moreover William had
through his friend. Colonel Bateman-Champain. the
constructor of the land line through Asia Minor, se-
cured the benevolent support of the English govern-
ment and Colonel von Chauvin had given the like
assurance on behalf of the Prussian government, our

o

three firms in Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg took
the execution of the plan in hand.

The greatest difficulty lay in inducing the Russian
government to give permission to a foreign company
to construct and work a telegraph line through Russia.
This succeeded only after lengthy negotiations, in
which our previous achievements both as engineers
and as reliable contractors stood us in good stead.
The concession finally granted gave us the right of
laying and working a double line from the Prussian
frontier by way of Kiev, Odessa, Kertch, thence
partly under water to Suchum-Kale on the Caucasian
coast, and further via Tiflis to the Persian frontier.

17

258 INDO-EUROPEAN LINE.

Prussia herself undertook to construct a double line
from the Polish frontier via Berlin to Emden, and
to allow this line to be worked by the company we
proposed to form. Persia, whither we sent to con-
clude an agreement our brother Walter and a young
relative, George Siemens, then assessor, now first di-
rector of the German Bank in Berlin, gave us a
concession like Russia for constructing a line of our
own from the Russian frontier to Teheran. The com-
pletion of the line, already partially constructed from
Teheran to India, was undertaken by the English
o'overnment.

o

We obtained permission to transfer the concessions
granted us to a company domiciled in England, with
the condition that the construction and maintenance
of the whole line should be entrusted to our firms,
and the further proviso that a fifth of the company's
shares should always remain in our hands. We there-
upon formed an Anglo -German company, with its
offices in London, and cannot but regard it as a
significant indication of the standing our firm had
already attained, that the considerable capital required
was subscribed in London and Berlin at our direct
invitation without the intervention of a banker. I may
here mention that the Indo-European line still exists
as originally constructed and in spite of dangerous
competition, caused by a new submarine line laid
down by English companies through the Mediterranean
and Red Seas, regularly pays a considerable dividend
to its shareholders.

INDO-EUROPEAN LINE. 259

The construction of the line was assigned to our
firms in the following manner. The Berlin undertook
in conjunction with the St. Petersburg business the
management of the construction of the land lines, whilst
the London concern was entrusted with the laying of
the submarine line in the Black Sea and the delivery
of the materials for the construction of the lines. To
the Berlin firm moreover was left the design and
construction of the necessary telegraphic apparatus.
In spite of great and unexpected obstacles the line
was completed by the end of 1869, although un-
fortunately the already mentioned destruction of the
cable along the Caucasian coast resulting from an

O o

earthquake, and the inevitably slow replacement of
the same by a land line, rendered a regular telegraph
service impossible before the following year.

According to the working programme drawn up
by us, the messages from London to Calcutta were
to be forwarded without any manipulation at the inter-
mediate stations, i. e. by purely mechanical means, in
order to preclude loss of time and mutilation by
telegraphists in forwarding. For this purpose I con-
structed for the Indo-European line a special system
of apparatus, which completely solved this problem.
It naturally excited great astonishment in England,
when at the first official experiments London and
Calcutta conversed with one another along a line of
nearly seven thousand miles as quickly and surely as
two neighbouring English telegraph stations.

An unexpected difficulty was caused by the

17*

260 INDO-EUROPEAN LINE.

circumstance that the two wires, especially in dry
weather, interfered with one another. This showed
itself first in Persia, where the chief engineer of the
Berlin firm, Herr Frischen. was occupied in arranging
the telegraph service. With the very dry weather
prevailing there the two wires were entirely insulated
from one another and from the earth, and nevertheless
correct Morse writing was received on both receiving
instruments of the distant station, when a message was
sent on one of the two lines. As the receiving apparatus
of the second line at the sending station showed
reversed writing, the cause of the disturbances could
not but be in the electrostatic charge of the side
line, for the currents dynamically induced in it should
have given reversed writing at both ends of the second
line. This was proved by a series of experiments,
which Herr Frischen made in Teheran on my wired
instruction. After the cause of the disturbance was
ascertained, it could be rendered innocuous by suitable
precautions.

This leads me to observe that this double cause
of the induced currents arising in neighbouring wires

O o O

occasions in the working of telephones many dis-
turbances hitherto not altogether intelligible, and still
needs thorough investigation. I have subsequently
had an opportunity, when my firm laid a seven-
cored land cable, to institute an instructive experi-
ment in reference to this phenomenon. With the
permission of the imperial telegraph administration
one of the seven conductors of the cable from Darm-

PURCHASE OP THE COPPER MINE OP KEDABEG. 261

stadt to Strassburg, insulated by gutta-percha, was
coated with tin-foil, whilst the other six conductors
were uncoated. It appeared from the experiments
carried out after the laying, that the tin-foil entirely
obviated the electrostatic charge between the coated and
the other wires, whilst the electro-dynamic induction
between them remained quite unchanged. Unfortunately
the experiment could not be made with perfectly
insulated tin-foil, as such an insulation was not to be
attained.

Even before the completion of the Indo-European
line our St. Petersburg firm had been entrusted by
the Russian government with the construction and the
remount of several telegraph lines in the Russian
Caucasus, and had for this purpose established a branch
in Tiflis. the management of which was committed to
my brother Walter. When after the completion of
the government works no sufficient occupation could
be found for the latter, he proposed to us the pur-
chase of a rich copper mine in the Caucasus at Kedabeg
near Elisabethpol. As mining did not fit into the
frame of the business activity of our firms , brother
Charles and I gave him privately the not very con-
siderable capital required for the purchase and the
working of the mine.

The copper mine of Kedabeg is very old: it is
even asserted that it is one of the oldest mines, from
which copper was actually extracted in pre- historic

262 THE KEDABEG MINE.

times. This is rendered probable by its position in
the neighbourhood of the large Goktcha lake and of
Mount Ararat rising on its western shore, a region.

o e

which has indeed often been regarded as the cradle

o

of the human race. A legend even runs that the
beautiful valley of the Shamkhor river, which belongs
to the forest district of the mine, was the site of
the biblical Paradise. At any rate the number of old
works, which crown the summit of the metalliferous
mountain, testifies to the antiquity of the working of
the mine , as does also the occurrence of native
copper, and finally the circumstance that extensive
pre- historic burial-grounds exist in the vicinity of
Kedabeg , in the investigation of which Rudolph
Virchow has shown such great interest.

The mine has a beautiful, really paradisiacal en-
vironment, with a temperate climate. It lies about
2400 feet above the great Caucasian steppes, which
extend from the foot of the spur of the little Cau-
casus - - termed the Goktcha chain - - to the Caspian
Sea. The working of it, when the primitive pit-
sinking, subservient to operations on the exposed ore,
could no longer be continued, came into the hands
of the Greeks, whose slantingly sunk stair- case like
shafts, by which they carried up ore and water on
their backs, were still in use at the time of brother
Walter's taking possession. Operations in accordance
with modern principles were commenced by us with
very sanguine expectations - - as is usually the case
with such undertakings under the direction of a

DIFFICULTY OF WORKING. JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS. 263

young Prussian miner and metallurgist, Dr. Bernoulli.
It soon however became apparent that considerable
difficulties would have to be overcome and large
sums of money spent, before the working could be
remunerative. This is intelligible when one considers
that the mine is situated about 400 miles distant
from the Black Sea and at that time was connected
with it neither by railways nor regular roads, that
all the material required for the mine and the pro-
jected copper smeltery, even to the fire -proof bricks,
of which there were then none in the Caucasus, had
to be brought from Europe, and that for the life of
a European colony in this paradisiacal waste, in which
earth -caves served for human habitations, all the
conditions of civilization had first to be created.

No wonder that the amount of money which the
mine swallowed up was great beyond all expectation,
so that the question soon became urgent for us brothers,
whether we should continue or give up the under-
taking. To decide the matter I resolved in the autumn
of 1865 to journey myself to the Caucasus, and learn
the state of affairs by actual observation. I count
this Caucasian journey among the most agreeable
memories of my life. 1 had always felt a secret
yearning towards the primitive seats of human cul-
ture, and Bodenstedt's glowing descriptions of the
luxuriant Caucasian nature had directed this yearning
towards the Caucasus and long ago had excited in me
the wish to know it. There was the further reason for
the journey that I was mentally and bodily very much

264 JOURNEY TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

worn by the death of my beloved wife after severe
sufferings, and seriously needed a renovating change.
Accordingly at the beginning of October 1865
I journeyed by way of Pesth to Basiash. where I
embarked on one of the fine Danube steamers for
Tchernawoda, in order to go from there via Kustendji
to Constantinople. On the ship it was very interesting
to me to meet the famous Omer Pacha, then com-
mander-in-chief of the Turkish army. As he exhibited
a desire for conversation we soon got acquainted; my
Havannah cigars were to his liking and his chibouk.

o o

which he ordered his slave repeatedly to fill for me.
to mine. Omer Pacha had at one time been a ser-
geant in the Austrian army, had then gone over to the
Turks, had adopted their faith and rapidly risen during
the war with Russia. The conquest of Montenegro,
which had up to that time been considered impossible,
finally carried him to the head of the Turkish army.
He was just returning from a prolonged visit to Vienna
and Paris. My attempts to get him to relate his war-
like exploits he unfortunately always evaded. The re-
collections of the victories, which he had achieved in
Vienna and Paris over the ladies of the ballet and the
opera, seemed to him to be more agreeable than those
of his warlike deeds. Only with regard to the ex-
pected future war of the East against the West of
Europe did he express himself, and that in a very
sanguine manner. A powerful troop of Turkish horse
would, so he thought, overwhelm the West as in former
times, and ride down all resistance. For a Turkish

OMER PACHA. 265

generalissimo this opinion appeared to me as some-
what childish. He seemed to feel very dependent on
public opinion in Turkey, as was manifested on the
occasion of a small travelling mishap which befel us.
The engine of our vessel had suffered damage in
passing the Iron Gate, and we were forced to spend
the night in Orsova, that it might be repaired. In
consequence we arrived somewhat late at Kustendji,
and learnt to our dismay that the steamer, which went
from there to Constantinople only twice a week, had
not awaited the arrival of our train. The prospect
of remaining several days in that dreary place was
extremely disagreeable to all of us, especially to the
seraskier. A deputation of the passengers headed by
me therefore went to him, and begged him to induce
the steam-ship company to send a small steamer with
us after the one that had already departed. He
however declined this for not very intelligible reasons.
But afterwards he told me privately, he could not do
it on account of his position, for if the steam-ship
company had not complied with his request, all the
Pachas in the whole empire of Turkey would have
said "Haha! Omer Pacha has given an order, but has
not been obeyed, haha!'' - to which banter he dared
not expose himself.

The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmora, the Fresh Waters,
the incomparably beautiful site of Constantinople
all this has been so well described and is so familiar
to the reader, that I had better be silent about it.
In spite of the splendour and grandeur of its situation,

€!
OF THE
;VERSIT¥
!

266 CONSTANTINOPLE.

which betrays at the first glance that Nature meant
it for the seat of a world-empire, Constantinople with
the opposite Pera, looked at from the sea, makes no
cheerful or elevating impression. Nobody would say
"I have seen Constantinople and can now die!" Pro-
bably the dark cypresses, with which the Turk adorns
his bury ing -places, rising everywhere in large groups
between the houses, give an air of gloom to the
aspect of the city in spite of its glorious environment.
It may also be the mental reflex of the melancholy
history of the place, or the presentiment that the
struggle for Constantinople will one day set Europe
in flames - - in short, the sight of Constantinople excites
our admiration indeed, but it does not delight us
like that of Naples or many another finely situated
city. The prominent architectural structures also, such
as the building of the ancient Seraglio at the Golden
Horn and even St. Sophia, have nothing stimulating
or cheering about them, although they are imposing
by reason of their size. The dome of the ancient
church of St. Sophia rises mightily indeed above the
sea of houses, but one perceives only the dome with
its unornamental pillars, looking ungainly at a distance.
The external appearance of St. Sophia has been
sacrificed to the beauty of the interior, which is indeed
grand and sublime beyond all conception. Never has
an architectural structure or any work of art, nay
hardly one of the grandest of Nature's beauties, made
so overpowering an impression upon me as the dome
of St. Sophia seen from within. One altogether forgets

ST. SOPHIA. 267

in looking at it the heavy weight of the roof, which
spans the wide square below, and receives an im-
pression as if the dome, floating weightless over the
large open space, were a gently curved lace veil, which
only touches the rounding with the fine points of the
edging. This illusion is produced by the dome resting
on a number of short and narrow pillars, between which
the dazzling light enters, causing the base of the pillars
to appear like lace. I could only with difficulty free
myself from the magic, which this floating roof exerted
on me. and must confess that thereafter the high vaulted
dome of St. Peter's with its heavy superstructure and
massive symmetry made no particular impression on me.
In St. Peter's one wonders that it is so much greater
than it seems, whilst St. Sophia on the contrary appears
greater than it is in reality, and thus carries the be-
holder himself away with admiration of this sublime
and by no means oppressive grandeur.

I was pleased during my stay in Constantinople
to meet several of the officers, who had already been
sent there by Frederick William III. to re -organise
the Turkish army, and to find among them some
with whom I was acquainted in my military period.
These officers had without exception remained Christians
and true Germans, whilst the non-commissioned officers
who had gone with them to Constantinople had in
part become Mohammedans, and in consequence had
already risen to higher grades in the army. One such
renegade I met in Trebizond, whither I proceeded in
the steamer goino1 to Poti, after tarrying a few days

O O J O i/

268 VISIT TO A PACHA IN TREBIZOND.

in Constantinople. I there visited the Prussian consul,
Herr von Herford, who was well known to me in Berlin.
He considered it proper that I should pay a visit to
the pacha of the place, who was entrusted with the
special commission of constructing a high road to
Persia. To my question, whether the pacha was in-
clined to receive us, the answer came, that he wras
occupied at the moment in his harem inspecting female
slaves, who were offered for sale, he would however,
after the lapse of an hour, receive us in his riding-
ground. When the consul presented me to him there,
the slender fair-haired man, who was still in his prime
of life, seemed somewhat familiar to me. The pacha
must have had the like feeling: he scrutinized my
face for some time and then asked, if I had been
formerly a Prussian officer and in garrison in Magde-
burg. When I answered in the affirmative, he asked
if I remembered about twenty years ago having had
the order to inspect the lightning conductor of a powder
magazine placed in the fortifications: he had been the
pioneer-sergeant who conducted me there. I had only
a dim recollection of this, but could not help wondering
at the pacha's excellent memory for faces. When the
consul thereupon made mention of the great engineering
task, which the pacha had in hand, the latter proposed
our taking a ride w7ith him along the new road on some
Arab horses he had just purchased, a proposal to which
I assented with pleasure. It was a splendid ride that
we had on the noble animals at a rapid pace, first on
the sea-shore, then in a charming valley with luxuriant

VISIT TO A PACHA IN TREBIZOND. 269

vegetation on the really beautifully made road. When
about an hour had passed the valley narrowed, and the
road appeared to make a sharp bend. Then the pacha
moderated the pace of his steed, and remarked that
the evening was already far advanced and he must
return, as he had still some business to attend to.
Perhaps the purchase of the slaves was not yet com-
pleted, as the consul whispered to me. I was seized
however with a great curiosity to see how the country
would open out beyond the bend of the valley, and
called to the pacha that I should like to take just
one glance round the corner, as the beautiful landscape
took my fancy exceedingly. But when at full gallop
I reached this corner, I found to my great astonishment
that the road came to a sudden end. Of course I
immediately turned back and in a few minutes caught
up my companions. The pacha evidently regarded me
with some suspicion, but I was so full of the beautiful
view, which I had enjoyed round the turning, that he
was soon at his ease again, and took leave of me in
very friendly fashion as an old acquaintance. The
consul however asked me afterwards, if I had also
seen where the road ended - - the pacha had pocketed
the continuation!

Trebizond is magnificently situated at the foot of
the Armenian table-land, with a rather abrupt and
broken descent along the entire coast. The beauty
of its situation is very considerably enhanced by the
exceeding luxuriance of the trees and shrubs, which
characterizes the whole region. Perhaps I should

270 JOURNEY TO BATOUM AND POTI.

have been still more enraptured with the town, had
not Bodenstedt's "enthusiastic descriptions raised my
expectations to somewhat too high a pitch. My journey
from Trebizond on the following day, favored by the
finest weather, lay along the steep beautifully shaped
shore. We steamed past Kerasoun, the celebrated
cherry city, from whose heights Xenophon's Ten
Thousand had beheld the heaving sea and cried
;'ThalattaP At Batoum our vessel reached its desti-
nation; then we were ferried across in a small coast-
ing steamer to harbourless Poti.

Batoum has indeed only a small but thoroughly
safe harbour, easily accessible even in bad weather,
and a very fine situation, with wooded mountainous
country in the rear; whereas Poti lies at the mouth
of the Rion, the Phasis of the ancients, in a wide
marshy plain, and possesses no harbour at all, but
only a roadstead, which on account of the shallow
water must be avoided by vessels in windy weather.
Thrice has the Russian government made the costly
attempt to construct a break-water, to afford some
protection to vessels, but all these attempts have been
fruitless. The wicked world asserts that the first mole
made of wood was eaten by the bore-worm, the
second of cement by the sea-water, and the third built
of granite by the generals! Although the last assertion
must be regarded as a bad joke, for in reality the
immense cost of the stone dike arrested further pro-
gress, yet these repeated failures illustrate the necessity
felt by Russia to obtain possession of the only available

HARBOUR -WORKS AT POTI. JOURNEY TO ORPIRI AND KUTAIS. 271

harbour of the coast, Batoum, because thereon depended
the further development of the whole Caucasian terri-
tory. The acquisition of Batoum alone would have
been a sufficient equivalent for the cost of the last
Turkish war.

I was met at Poti by my brother Walter, in
whose company I now continued the journey to Tiflis,
which both then and also three years later, when I
made a second journey to Kedabeg, was attended with
serious inconveniences. One had to go first in a

o

river-steamer up the Rion, as far as Orpiri, a place
which was exclusively inhabited by a Russian sect,
consisting of beardless men, who had been brought

O ' O

thither from all parts of the Russian empire. Apart
from the interesting omnium-gatherum of the most
varied nationalities and tongues on board the vessel,
the only noticeable thing, which presented itself on the
voyage up the Rion, was the sight of a really impene-
trable, swampy, primeval forest on both banks of the
river.

From Orpiri we drove to Kutais, the ancient
Kolchis, which is situated on the slope of a mountain
range, connecting the great with the little Caucasus,
on the border of the Rion valley, in surroundings
pleasing and beautiful.

High above Kutais towers a famous monastery
named Gelati, which is considered to be one of the
oldest in Christendom, and is said to be built on a
site regarded as sacred since the grey dawn of time.
I visited it on my second journey, and found myself

272 MONASTERY OF GELATI. OVER THE SURAM MOUNTAINS.

richly rewarded for the toil of a fatiguing ride, which
brought me to the monastery situated some thousand
feet above the level of the sea. The monastery, now
for the most part fallen into ruin, commanding a splen-
did prospect, is especially celebrated through a small
temple, resting on four granite columns, each of which
belongs to a peculiar architectural style. This temple
is said to date from an extremely remote period, as
altogether the age of many architectural remains in
the Caucasus is not to be reckoned as in Europe by
centuries, but by thousands of years. Although a certain
allowance must be made for exaggeration, yet all one
sees and hears indicates that the Caucasus is one of
the primeval seats of human civilization.

Kutais has now a railway station, and Tin1 is is
easily reached in a single day from Poti or Batoum.
At that time one thought oneself lucky to have at
least a new road over the Suram mountains, by which
the former very troublesome journey was considerably
facilitated. As compensation the Suram pass was
extremely picturesque, and afforded the most enchanting
views. The underwood of fhe forest and of the more
open parts consists here entirely of rhododendrons
and of the arborescent yellow -flowering azaleas of the
Caucasus, both plants, which present a most charming
spectacle in the flowering season, and fill the air with
overpowering perfume. If in addition one imagines
bluff walls of rock, rising often almost perpendicularly
to the height of several hundred yards, frequently
covered from top to bottom with rank old ivy, an

TIFLIS. 273

idea may be formed of the charms of this region.
On the other hand the Georgian table -land, upon
which one enters after crossing the Suram mountains
— the high road to Tiflis following closely the course
of the Kur - - has no particular beauty; it is stony,
often rent by chasms, and poor in vegetation. Still
one is reconciled to the sterile environment through

o

the ever -recurring view of the snowy peaks of the
great Caucasus, which already from the sea afford a
glorious spectacle.

Tiflis, traversed by the river Kur in its deep-cut
bed, leans to the north against a precipitous mountain-
wall, which is doubtless the main cause of the in-
supportable heat felt in the town during summer.
Hence every inhabitant of Tiflis, who can at all afford
it, possesses for the hot season a second dwelling placed
some thousand feet higher , which he only quits to
attend to business affairs in the town. Properly
speaking Tiflis is composed of two entirely distinct
towns, the upper European, and the lower Asiatic,
town, divided from each other by well-defined boun-
daries. The European Tiflis delights to style itself
proudly "The Paris of Asia", or at least claims this
title of honour immediately after Calcutta. It has in-
deed a thoroughly European appearance, being mainly
inhabited by Russians and western Europeans. In this
part are situated the imperial residence, the theatre,
and all the government buildings. The adjoining town

O O J O

on the other hand is in appearance and population
purely Asiatic. The reason why Tiflis in very early times

18

274 BRIGANDAGE IN THE CAUCASUS.

became a seat of civilization is doubtless to be found in
the famous hot springs, which possess an even higher im-
portance for Orientals than for dwellers in the Occident.
From Tiflis our course lay along a tolerably good
high -way to Axtapha , where the road to Baku via
Elizabethpol branches off from that to the Goktcha
Lake and to Persia, and the vast steppes extending
to the Caspian Sea begin. On account of the high
temperature we chose to continue our journey in the
early morning , and ordered the horses for 3 a. m.
The postmaster however energetically opposed this, as
a band of robbers was rendering the country unsafe.
The Russian government even to the present day has
not succeeded in entirely suppressing brigandage in
the Caucasus. The Tartars of the steppes and of the
neighbouring mountain regions , in spite of severe
punishments, cannot be weaned from it. Just now, in
the summer of 1890, when on the point of making
a third journey with my wife and youngest daughter
to Kedabeg, I get the news that a band of robbers
is carrying on its nefarious practices in the neighbour-
hood of our mining works and has given occasion for
extreme measures against them.

o

The predatory propensity of the Caucasian tribes,
ever manifesting itself afresh, has its root in the habits
and sentiments of the population of a country, in which
the bearing of arms still forms the man's pride.
Plundering is there considered more as a prohibited
sport than a crime. As knights in the Middle Ages
deemed it compatible with their dignity to snatch

ACROSS THE STEPPES. A SUPPOSED ROBBER. 275

his wares from the pedlar on the high-road, and to
fleece the citizens, so the Caucasian Tartar yearns to
roam on his steed as a free man through forests and
over steppes, and to take by violence whatever conies
in his way. It often occurred at Kedabeg, where the
Tartars belong to the best and most reliable work-
men, that pitmen, who had laboured industriously
for years, and almost without interruption the

Moslem sect of the Shiites to which they belong having
only one feast day in the year and no Sunday -— ,
suddenly disappeared, when they had saved enough
money to buy a horse and weapons. Sometimes they
returned after a length of time. It was known that in
the interval they had been practising brigandage, yet
this did not prevent them from becoming excellent
workmen again, if they had been unlucky in their
predatory occupation, or had lost the taste for it.

The warnings of the postmaster at Axtapha were
not strong enough to detain us, but we continued our

O O "

journey in the cool starry night with fleet horses, and
trusted to our good revolvers, which for precaution's
sake we held cocked in our hands. My brother Walter
however, whom the novelty of the situation did not
keep awake like myself, was not able to resist fatigue
very long, and soon slept the sleep of the just. Suddenly
there rang from the box of our low springiess open
wraggon, on which my brother's servant was seated beside
the driver, a loud cry of "Robbers"! At the same time
I saw in the gloom a white figure galloping straight

towards us. My brother awoke in consequence of

18*

276 ASCENT OF VENUS.

the shout, and without reflection discharged his revolver
at the figure, now close in front of our horses and
himself shouting loudly, fortunately without hitting
him. As it soon appeared, it was no robber but an
Armenian, who imagined himself pursued by robbers,
and had dashed towards us in search of protection.
The Armenians generally pass in the Caucasus for
very shrewd and smart men of business, who possess
little courage . and perhaps for this reason like to
equip themselves in as martial a fashion as possible
on their journeyings. As it seemed, the gang of robbers,
which had terrified our Armenian, existed only in his
imagination. His incautiousness however might easily
have cost him dear, and the fault would have been
entirely his own, as according to the custom of the
country it is an understood rule, that one must never
approach chance travellers on a journey at a rapid pace.
Shortly after this exciting incident we were de-
lighted by a remarkable natural phenomenon. A brilliant
luminous apparition suddenly arose right before us on
the horizon of the boundless steppe. It gleamed with
a magnificent many-coloured light, was distinguishable
from a meteor however by its remaining immovable
at the same point of the heavens. We racked our
brains as to the cause of the phenomenon, which we
could only compare to a parachute rocket with coloured
fire. It soon however became weaker, and after a
short time shrank to the dimensions of a bright star.
It was the rising Venus, which appeared so remarkably
magnified and coloured through the mist of the steppes

SUABIAN COLONIES IN THE CAUCASUS. 277

and the darkness in which the earth is still veiled in
those Southern regions even shortly before sunrise.

We passed the night in the Suabian colony of
Annenfeld. which lies or rather lay at the foot of a
steep declivity leading to the Kedabeg mine near the
Kur. in a very fertile but not salubrious region, for
the colonists afterwards abandoned the place, and
built for themselves a new village about five hundred
feet higher up the slope of the mountain. There exists
in the Caucasus a certain number of such Suabian
colonies. I believe six or seven, Tiflis also beino; one

" o

of them. They owe their origin to some rigid Luther-
ans from Suabia , who quitted their fatherland in
divers groups in the first decennium of our century,
and were desirous of migrating through Austria and
Russia to the promised land, where according to the
belief of their leaders earthly and heavenly joys awaited
them. The Russian government of the time however
set great store by the immigration of good German
husbandmen into the Caucasus, it therefore stopped
the columns, and induced them to send a delegation
under escort to Jerusalem, to make previous inquiry
whether land really suitable for them was to be had
there. When after a rather long interval the delega-
tion returned, it could only advise to discontinue the
march to the promised land , and as the Russian
government granted the people large and fine tracts
of land gratuitously, the Suabians settled there, and
always remained the true Suabians they were at the
time of the emigration. It comes upon a traveller as

278 RUSSIAN SECTS.

a great surprise to find in these Suabian settlements
the pure and unadulterated old Suabian customs and
language. One fancies oneself suddenly transplanted
into a village of the Black Forest, such is the appea-
rance of the houses, the streets, and inhabitants of
these colonies. It is true I found it difficult to under-
stand their dialect, as I had not then studied it, as
is now the case in a measure after twenty years
marriage with a Suabian lady, but I learnt from a
genuine Suabian that he too only understood it with
difficulty, as it was the dialect spoken at the begin-
ning of the century, and not the present one. essentially
changed through the influence of time. With the
language the people have also retained all their customs
and usages, just as they were at the time of the emi-
gration. They are as it were fossilized and inflexibly
resist all changes.

It looks however as if this immutability of national
custom and language were a general characteristic of

Oo O

the Caucasus, which presents a real mosaic of nations.
Besides the larger sharply separated tribes there are
a number of quite small ones, which inhabit secluded
and almost inaccessible mountain valleys, and have
faithfully preserved both language and customs, which
from time immemorial have been altogether different
from those of all the neighbouring peoples. Further
there exist in the Caucasus numerous Russian colonies,
composed of sects which have been transported there
from all parts of Russia in the endeavour to preserve
the uniformity of the State religion, and are united in

DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS. 279

separate settlements. These too have after more than
half a century still retained quite unchanged their
language, creed, and customs. The most wide-spread
of these sects are those of the Dukhobortsi and Molokani,
which like those of the Suabians take their stand on
definite and peculiar interpretation of biblical passages.
They are excellent workmen, and orderly people when
not carried away by fanaticism.

The Molokani are almost without exception artisans,
especially cabinet-makers, the Dukhobortsi on the other
hand good husbandmen and drivers. The vicinity of
a colony of Dukhobortsi has always been of inesti-
mable value to Kedabeg. Once only in the year do
the people refuse to work. viz. when their queen
proceeds from one colony to another and celebrates
religious festivals with them, which however seem to
lay great stress on earthly bliss, perhaps only to give
the faithful a faint idea of the anticipated and infinitely
greater joys hereafter.

From Annenfeld a steep, and not very well-made
road leads up to Kedabeg. At the height of about
3000 feet an undulating fertile plain is reached, broken
by small mountain ranges, formerly covered by fine
forests of oaks, limes, beeches, and other leaf-bearing

' " " O

trees. Since the cessation of the Persian rule, the
traces of which are especially recognisable in the
frequent ruins of works of irrigation, the woods here,
as in most of the elevated plains of the country, have
been entirely extirpated; the reason being that, in the
hot season when the grass dries up, and likewise in the

280 SITUATION OF KEDABEG.

winter when the steppes are covered with snow, the
shepherds drive their herds up the mountains to let
them browse on the young shoots. For this pur-
pose they simply fell the trees, and let the cattle
eat the buds and twigs. In this manner a single herd
often annihilates square versts of luxuriant forest. The
managers of our foundry have accordingly always
experienced the greatest difficulty in preventing these
devastating herds from destroying our woods, on the
preservation of which smelting is wholly dependent in
the absence of coal or other combustible material.

The smelting -works stand by a small mountain
brook, which below Kedabeg forces its way abruptly
through the ridge separating Kedabeg from the para-
disiacally beautiful Shamkhor valley. In the valley
where it emerges lie the ruins of a small Armenian
fortress, whilst the Shamkhor valley at about the level
of Kedabeg conceals an old Armenian monastery, which
was then still inhabited by a few monks. At present
the aspect of Kedabeg, seen by anyone ascending from
the valley, after crossing the last mountain slope and
passing an old cemetery on the way, is most surprising.
It is the throughly European spectacle of a small pic-
turesquely situated manufacturing town, which presents
itself to view, with huge furnaces and large buildings,
among them a Christian chapel, a school, and an inn
fitted up in European fashion. There is also a rail-
way carried over a lofty viaduct, connecting the branch
smelting establishment of Kalakent, some twenty miles
off, with Kedabeg and the neighbouring metalliferous

ITS ASPECT THEN AND NOW. 281

mountain. This remarkable spectacle of a modern
civilized centre in the midst of the wilderness has
made Kedabeg a regular place of pilgrimage for the
inhabitants of the country as far as the interior of
Persia. When I visited it for the first time, the ap-
pearance of Kedabeg was certainly a very different
one. Except the wooden dwelling-house of the managers,
which struck the eye through its position on a com-
manding height, onlv a few smelting furnaces and

o o <; O

administration buildings were visible. The workmen's
dwellings were only distinguishable by wreaths of
smoke on the mountain slopes, for they all consisted
of caves.

Caves serve in eastern Caucasia almost exclusively
for dwellings. They are properly speaking wooden
houses, which are built in a pit, and covered over
with a layer of earth a yard in thickness, so that the
whole looks like a mole-hill. In the middle of the
roof a chimney peeps out, which affords an exit for
the smoke from the one room, and is at the same
time the only admitter of light beside the entrance.
For the rest such caves are sometimes quite elegantly
made. In a visit, which, in company with my brother
and the smelting director, I paid to a neighbouring
"prince" so the larger landed proprietors of the

district are called we were introduced into a

tolerably spacious saloon-like room, the floor of which
was covered, with handsome carpets, whilst the in-
terior partitions were formed of Persian carpets sus-
pended after the manner of side-scenes. Opposite

282 THE EARTH -CAVE OF A PRINCE.

the divan was the fire-place, above it the aperture in
the roof. Behind the carpets there was a stir of life,
and every now and then we heard the voices of
women and children. The prince received us with
great ceremony and made us sit on the divan, whilst
he himself settled in front of it. After a short con-
versation through the medium of an interpreter, carried
on with all the forms of Oriental politeness, we were
desirous of departing, but our intention met with very
serious resistance. Soon after our entry we had heard
the bleating of a sheep, and at once surmised that it
was being slaughtered in our honour. In fact the
prince signified to us with a very grave countenance,
that he hoped we should not so offend him as to quit
his abode without having partaken of his hospitality.
We were therefore obliged to wait patiently till the
"skishlik" was ready, which was prepared before our
very eyes. This preparation took place in the usual
very primitive fashion. The flesh of the freshly
slaughtered sheep was cut into cubes of about the
size of a walnut, which were then arranged on an

j O

iron ramrod with disks of fat from the fatty tail of
the animal interlarded. Meanwhile a wood-fire was
made between two stones, and when onlv the glowing;

€/ O

embers remained of it, the prepared ramrods were
laid across the stones and frequently turned. A few
minutes after, the meal was ready, and each guest
took according to his fancy cubes from the garnished
ramrod presented to him. Such a "shishlik" ', if the
sheep is not too old and especially is quite recently

ACCUSTOMING THE WORKMEN TO STONE HOUSES. 283

killed, is very tender and savoury; it always forms
the basis of Tartar and Georgian meals, or what we
should call in our dinners the "piece de resistance" .

Precisely in the same way as the underground
abodes of princes the large underground stables are
constructed in the Caucasus. I had already made
their acquaintance during the journey at one of the
post -stations, where I was reminded by the neighing
and trampling of horses that I was walking over a
stable. The coolness of the underground habitations
in summer and their warmth in winter is extolled,
and it has cost the directors of the smelting-works in
Kedabeg much trouble to accustom the Asiatic workmen
to stone houses. When this at last succeeded with
the help of the women, the difficult workman's question
was therewith solved. For as the people there have
only very few wants there is no reason for their doing
much work. When they have earned sufficient money
to secure their maintenance for a few weeks they
cease to work and take their ease. To cope with
this there was only one resource, viz. to accustom the
people to needs, the satisfaction of which could only
be attained by continuous labour. The handle was
afforded by the natural inclination of the female sex
for a pleasant family-life and their easily awakened
vanity and love of dress. When a few simple workmen's
houses had been built, and we had succeeded in
quartering therein a few couples, the women soon
found pleasure in the greater convenience and comfort
of the dwellings. The men also found it an advantage

284 RESULT OF CIVILIZING EFFORTS.

not to have incessantly to take measures for securing
their roofs from the rain. Further care was taken
that the women should be able to procure all sorts
of small appliances, which made their life in the house
more comfortable, and themselves more attractive to
their husbands. They had soon acquired a taste for
carpets and mirrors, improved their toilet, in short
they experienced wants, for the satisfaction of which
the men were now compelled to provide, who in so
doing were very well pleased with the change. This
excited the envy of the women still dwelling in their
caves, and before long there was a general rush for
the workmen's dwellings, which of course necessitated
the building of houses for all the permanent workmen.

I can only urgently advise proceeding on the
same lines in our present colonial efforts. The man
without wants is hostile to all improvements of civilized
life. Only when wants are awakened in him, and he
is accustomed to work for their satisfaction, does he
form a promising object for social and religious civilizing
efforts. To begin with the latter will always only
yield illusory results.

When three years later I again visited Kedabeg,
I found a quite considerable place of European aspect
already arisen out of the Troglodyte settlement. The
bulk of the workmen was certainly still nomadic, but this
has remained the case even to the present day. These
are people who principally come from Persia after the
end of the harvest, work industriously in the mine or
in the smelting-house, but go further when they have

DEFICIENCY OF WOOD. 285

earned the necessary money, or when they are wanted
at home. There is however now a regular labouring
class, which ensures the continuation of the necessary
work at all times. The officials of the mine were
nearly almost without exception Germans, among them
a sprinkling from the Baltic provinces of Russia. The
business language has therefore always been German.
It is comical to hear Tartars, Persians, and Russians
murder the somewhat corrupted German names of
implements and operations and even the terms of
abuse common among the miners of the Harz.

The mountain, rich in sulphurated copper-ore, is
situated in the neighbourhood of Kedabeg, and is
connected with it by a so-called haulage-line. More-
over, as has been already mentioned, a narrow-gauge
line has been constructed by us, which runs in the
river valley of the wild Kalakent brook far into the
forests yielding wood and charcoal to the beautifully
situated branch smeltery Kalakent, and from there to
the wood wharves on the Shamkhor. For many years
this mountain railway ensured a supply of combustible
material, but carefully as the cleared spaces were
replanted in accordance with the principles of forest
management, yet at last want of wood threatened to
bring the smelting- works to a standstill. However
necessity itself is usually the best helper in emergencies;
which also held good in this case. We have recently
succeeded, I believe for the first time in the world,
in replacing coals for smelting by the raw material
of petroleum, naphtha, and by masut, the residuum in

286 A SUBSTITUTE FOUND IN MASUT AND NAPHTHA.

the distillation of petroleum. These combustibles are
brought from Baku by the Tiflis line, which has been
in existence for some years, to the Shamkhor station
at the foot of the mountain. With their help the
roasted ore is smelted in large round furnaces, 20 feet
in diameter, and worked up into copper. An electric
refining establishment at Kalakent transforms the raw
copper thus obtained into chemically pure copper,
whereby the silver contained in it is obtained as a
secondary product. As however it is difficult in winter
and during the rainy season to bring masut and naphtha
up the mountain from the railway - station to Kedabeg
on the impassable roads, a conduit has been constructed
of Mannesmann's weldless steel tubes, through which the

" O

masut is pumped up the slope about three thousand
feet from the plain. I hope personally to see this
contrivance in action this very autumn. Furthermore
the necessary arrangements have now been completed
for transforming the poorer ores, hitherto not paying
for the working up into refined copper, according to
a new process of my own, by a purely electrical method
without the employment of combustible materials.
For this purpose large turbines of over a thousand
horse-power have to be set up in the neighbouring
Shamkhor valley for working the dynamos , which
generate the necessary electric current. This current
has to be conveyed over the ridge, about 2500 feet
high, dividing Kedabeg from Shamkhor, in order to
extract and precipitate by the electric current the
copper from the powdered ore, at the very foot of

OFFER OF METALLIC BEDS. 287

the metalliferous mountain. When this arrangement,
already elaborated in detail theoretically and practi-
cally, is ready, there will exist in the distant Caucasus
a smeltery, preeminent in a scientific point of view,
and able to cope successfully with the disadvantages
of its site.

It may easily be imagined that the results obtained
by us in Kedabeg would bring us offers of metalliferous
property from all sides. Although my brother Charles
was as little inclined for further undertakings as I
myself, Kedabeg having already given us cares enough,
yet we could not always reject the invitation of people
of influence to take a look at the preferred beds.
When, after the death of my brother Walter, who
lost his life very suddenly by a severe fall from his
horse, I travelled in the autumn of 1868 for the second
time to Kedabeg, I was in this way induced to make
two tours in the great Caucasus. One of these from
Sukhum-Kale to Cibelda in particular was of uncommon
interest to me.

The Elbrus, 18000 feet high, the loftiest mountain
of Europe, if the crest of the high Caucasus range be
taken as the natural limit of this part of the globe,
is visible in its full height from a few points only,
being surrounded by a circle of lofty mountains. The
interval, which separates it from this circle, is accessible
at a few places only, and is again cut up into different
parts by several radial ridges, which render all human
intercourse impossible. Among these Cibelda is a na-
tural impregnable fortress, which can be defended by

288 TOUR TO CIBELDA.

a handful of men against whole armies. Long after
the rest of the Caucasus had fallen into Russian hands,
and the Circassians who would not bend beneath the
Russian yoke had emigrated to Turkey, Cibelda re-
mained still unconquered in the possession of its scanty
population, forming a tribe by themselves. The Russians
had conquered all apparently impregnable fortresses
of the Western Caucasus by the construction of roads,
which afforded them convenient access into the parts
to be subjugated. Cibelda however withstood also
the attack by the military road, but hunger and the
tempting proposals of the Russian government finally
induced them to voluntarily evacuate their fortress,
whereupon they likewise resolved to emigrate to Asia
Minor.

About a year had elapsed since this emigration,
when General Heymann, governor of Sukhum - Kale,
invited my brother Otto, who had stepped into
Walter's place in the business and also been appointed
German consul in his room, to make an examination
of same deposits of copper and silver ore in Cibelda.
When with brother Otto and my expert, the recently
engaged director Dannenberg, whose introduction to
his new office was the main purpose of my journey.
I came in September 1868 to Sukhum -Kale, the
general renewed his request, and promised to make
our journey to Cibelda as easy and safe as possible.
I could not resist the temptation to get in this way
to the very centre of the high Caucasus, which, as
was said, had never been trodden by the foot of a

TOUR TO CIBELDA. 289

native of Western Europe. A small military expedition
for the purpose of taking us to the metallic beds was
therefore equipped, under the command of a young
Russian captain, who had superintended the exodus
of the population of Cibelda.

Sukhum-Kale, i. e. the "Sukhum fortress", lies
very picturesquely on a small rocky bay at the foot
of the lofty ring of mountains girding Elbrus. Its
environment is entrancingly beautiful, above all by its
vegetation, whose luxuriance defies all description.
In the place itself my admiration was excited by a
long avenue of weeping willows, the height of which
vied with that of our loftiest forest-trees, their massy
branches hanging down from the dome -like tops to
the ground. Unfortunately this splendid avenue fell
in the year 1877 a sacrifice to the Russo -Turkish war.
The way taken by our well-mounted expedition led
immediately behind the town up the valley of a small
mountain stream studded throughout with magnificent
trees. It struck me that the mighty oaks and chestnuts
frequently, especially in sunny places, had a perfectly
brown envelope, which shut out all sight of green leaves.
This was owing to the wild hops, which covered them
to the very summits, and gave them this hue through
their large ripe umbels. As I knew the great value
of the hop, I proposed to General Heymann on our
return to have these hops gathered by his soldiers,
and sent as samples for examination to Germany. The
general did so, but the trial, as I may as well state

at once, unfortunately proved unfavourable. It was

19

290 TOUR TO CIBELDA.

not then known to me that wild hops possess no
bitter principle; this is only obtained from the fruit
of the female plants when all the male plants are
carefully kept apart, which of course is never the case
with wild hops.

Our bridle-path took us upwards the whole day
through equally beautiful scenery, untouched by human
culture. At the same time we were often refreshed
by enchanting distant views of the lofty snow-covered
mountain - chain . rising gradually before us, and the
glittering mirror of the sea, lying at our feet. Towards
evening we reached one of the small fortified Russian
encampments , whose continual advance on the newly
made military roads was the means whereby the
Russian forces finally broke the resistance of the brave
Circassians.

Next morning we continued our ride at sunrise,
and now approached the lofty chain. We had fre-
quently occasion to admire the bold construction of
the roads by the Russians; obstacles were there over-
come which appeared altogether insurmountable at the
first glance. We reached without much difficulty the
border of the district already designated by the name
of Cibelda, which forms the foreland of the high
stronghold of that name. To this there was only a
single entrance along a deep cleft in the mountains,
at the bottom of which a wild mountain -river took
its raging course. The cleft was bordered on the
side whence we came by a rocky wall, certainly more
than a thousand feet high, almost perpendicular and

TOUR TO CIBELDA. 291

probably over a verst in length. About half way up
a horizontal shelf had been formed, which was just
broad enough to serve at need as a bridle-path. This
path was the only approach to Cibelda; we were
therefore obliged to pass it. The officer rode forward
after giving us the advice not to look into the chasm,
but always at the head of the horse, and let it go
quite by itself. In profound silence we successfully
reached about the middle of the defile: at the edge
of the path some vegetation had settled, whereby the
view of the yawning gulf was diverted. Then I suddenly
observed that the forepart of the horse of my front
man, the officer, was quite low down, and at the same
time saw the latter swing himself gently from the
saddle to the side of the rocky wall. The horse too
did not lose its steadiness, but raised itself again, and
continued its way by the side of the officer. I in-
voluntarily considered it advisable to do just as my
front man, and also glided from my horse to the side
of the rocky wall. When I had successfully passed
the dangerous spot, where the officer's horse, misled
by the vegetation, had made the false step, I looked
with anxiety after my brother who followed me, but
perceived to my relief that not only he, but the whole
column of riders, had already followed our example.
In this manner we all reached in safety the end of
the narrow pass, and soon recovered from our toils
and alarms by the enjoyment of a good meal, partaken
in an enchantingly beautiful moss-covered grotto, open

towards the deep and tolerably broad river-valley.

19*

292 TOUR TO CIBELDA.

From this point the path altogether ceased, and
it was utterly incomprehensible to me how our guide
could find his way in the splendid primeval forest
through which we had now to wend. The formation
of the ground in the next part of the way was very
peculiar. There were imposing undulating elevations
with a bend from east to west, perhaps seven hundred
feet high, which we had repeatedly to cross. Their
southern 'slopes were adorned with splendid trees,
mostly oak, chestnut, and walnut, whose summits formed
so perfect a roof that the plague of lianas and other
creeping plants was precluded. The trees were of
enormous dimensions. It is probable that human hand
had never influenced the natural course of their growth ;
and accordingly old withered giants stood beside the
verdant and flourishing, whilst trees of a younger
generation overshadowed the mighty trunks lying on
the ground, doubtless felled by storms. It often cost
a good deal of trouble to evade such a dead tree
barring the way, for summit and root formed at their
ends effective abatis. Many of these prostrate trees
were so thick that a mounted rider was only just
able to see beyond them. Now and again they were
luckily lying in such a position, that we could pass
under them.

An altogether different picture wras presented to
us, when we had crossed the summit of such a ridge,
and had to come down again on its northern slope.
Here the sun had not had the power to dry the ground.
The whole slope was marshy in spite of its steepness,

TOUR TO CIBELDA. 293

so that the horses' hoofs stuck fast in the tenacious
soil, and we were frequently obliged to dismount and
assist our horses. Numberless creeping plants also
throve here, forcing us to make wide circuits; and
the places sought out by us, which on account of too
great moisture were free from creepers, bore a vege-
tation of reed -like plants of such a height that they
overtopped horse and rider. Once the ground became
so steep that the horses could not proceed. I could
then not help admiring the cleverness of our Russians.
They sought out a particularly steep and slippery
spot, and cautiously let down the horses one by one
with ropes attached to their tails, whilst we ourselves
slid down without any such check.

At the next ascent I made the discovery that
the tail of the Caucasian mountain-horse plays a further
important part in difficult mountain -tours. We were
obliged to climb up on foot the particularly steep
height, to spare the already much fatigued animals,
which had necessarily to bring us to our goal before
sunset, and I soon found myself at the end of my
strength. In my distress it occurred to me to grasp
the tail of the horse clambering quite cheerfully be-
side me up the stony path. That seemed to be a
well-known procedure to it; it redoubled its efforts,
and I attained without difficulty the crest of the hill,
where the officer received me with the applauding ex-
clamation ''Caucasian fashion!" When I looked back
at my hinder-men, I found them all, to my surprise,
also clinging to the tails of their steeds.

294 TOUR TO CIBELDA.

As the sun was going down we reached at last
a narrow rocky gate, which forms the entrance into
the proper natural fortress of Cibelda. When we had
passed it, there spread before us a spectacle of
such grandeur and beauty, that it almost over-
whelmed me at the first moment. Before us in the clear
evening glow lay the mighty Elbrus, covered far down
with snow. Right and left beside it a number of
further snow -mountains was visible, which developed
into a long chain especially on the right. Far below
us, partly still illuminated by the sun, lay a rocky
river-valley, which bordered the foot of Elbrus, whose
steep treeless slope descended towards it in a broad
expanse without any visible break. It reminded me
somewhat of the view one obtains from Grindelwald
over the sun-illumined Alpine chain; only the mighty
Elbrus was enthroned in the centre of the picture, as
if two Jungfraus were piled on one another.

After we had refreshed ourselves with this asto-
nishing and incomparably beautiful view, we traversed
the rather extensive plain, which spread out before us
and contained the village of the tribe of the Cibeldians,
who had emigrated the year before. It was not easy
to advance on the plain, densely overgrown with
burdock of more than a man's height, and to find
the way to the village. A wray broken by bears
through the shrubs stood us in good stead. That it
had been so made could be inferred from the kernels
of the fruit of the cherry -laurels lying about, which
form a favourite food for the bears of the region. The

TOUR TO CIBELDA. 295

wooden houses of the large village still stood entire,
just as their inhabitants had left them a year ago;
only here and there some destruction had been caused
by the bears in their search for food.

When we had quartered ourselves, we had first
to try to recover a human aspect, for in breaking
through the dense vegetation, which had made the
former gardens of the village almost impenetrable, every
inch of our clothing as of our beards had become
fringed with a layer of burs, so that we ourselves
looked more like brown bears than human beings.
The removal of the burs was an extremely trouble-
some and in part painful operation.

After a refreshing night's rest in the abandoned
dwellings our miner investigated the old copper -pit,
which he declared not to be worth working: but even
had it been so in the highest degree, its situation
would have made any mining operation impossible.
My brother Otto and I had meanwhile fully enjoyed
the overpowering grandeur and sublime beauty of the
environment. By the morning light one perceived still
better than in the evening the wild ruggedness of the
exposed surface of Elbrus , with its ice - fields and
glaciers, to which the lines of the water-courses, rushing
down the slopes and glittering in the sunshine, lent a
quite peculiar charm. The plateau, on which we stood,
descends abruptly to the river-valley, which separates
it from Elbrus; on the other sides it is surrounded
by high mountains, which, in contrast with Elbrus,
presented the most luxuriant green of Caucasian vege-

296 TOUR TO CIBELDA.

tation. A walk round the edge of the plain turned
towards the river afforded always new views, entirely
different from all the preceding, and of a sublimity
and beauty baffling all description.

The return-journey to Sukhum-Kale we made by
the same way as the journey to Cibelda, but in con-
sequence of the previous experience with less difficulty.
Unfortunately, I had now to pay my tribute to the
dangerous climate of this incomparably beautiful
country. Already in the Russian fort, where we again
passed the night, I felt ill. The young military doctor,
who accompanied us, at once perceived that I had
caught the dangerous fever of that region, and applied
without delay the usual remedy. Before the fever
had fully developed I received a powerful dose of
quinine, which caused severe singing in the ears and
other unpleasant sensations, but brought down the
fever to a mild form, so that I was able to complete
the journey. The fever in the district of Sukhum-
Kale is a tertian ague: on the third day I therefore
had to take a second, some\vhat weaker dose, with
the direction to take after further three days a third,
still weaker one. The fever was thus cut short; I
often suffered however in aftertimes of intolerable
pains in the side, as the doctor had prognosticated.

In former years I had repeatedly suffered of in-
termittent fever, which obliged me to take small doses

o

of quinine for several months, thereby seriously im-
pairing my health. In the Caucasus . where climatic
fevers occur often and in the most varied forms, the

FEVER. 297

treatment described is always applied with the best
results. Certainly there are also fevers in this district
so malignant that they end in death on a first attack.
The fever - producing regions are indeed as a rule
marshy and covered with luxuriant vegetation, but
also highly situated dry grass -land often passes for
unhealthy. I have in my journeys made the obser-
vation, that such regions mostly bear the traces of
an old, highly developed civilization, as is indeed
also the case in the environment of Rome and in the
Dobrudja, which in old times was styled the granary
of Rome. Fever breaks out in those regions with
special severity, when the soil is stirred up. The
fever- germs must have been gradually formed in the
fertile well-manured soil, which was subsequently left
unworked for centuries, and excluded from the air
by a covering of grass. Malaria accordingly represents
nature's penalty for interrupted cultivation of the soil.
This, in conjunction with the Caucasian treatment of
fever, led me even then to the opinion that climatic
fever depends on microscopic organisms, which live in
the blood, and whose term of life would coincide with
the interval between the attacks of the fever. By the
strong dose of quinine shortly before the attack the
young emerging brood of these organisms is poisoned.
The remarkable fact also, that people, who have
long lived in a fever region, are for the most part
secure from fever, but lose this immunity when they
have passed several years in regions free from it,
could. I thought, be explained by the assumption

298 SECOND TOUR IN THE GREAT CAUCASUS.

that in regions, where the fever-germs are continually
being introduced into the body, living beings are
formed therein, which feed on these germs, and there-
fore perish when the source of nutriment is dried up
for a long time. - This, of course, was only an un-
proved hypothesis, which was justly only so regarded
by my medically trained friends, to whom I communi-
cated it at the time, such as du Bois-Reymond. I have
nevertheless been gratified to see the bacteriological
researches of eminent scientists taking of late the direc-
tion indicated by me a quarter of a century ago. -

Our second tour in the great Caucasus had like-
wise reference to the investigation of a metalliferous
property, situated in a very inaccessible region, be-
longing to a princely family of Georgia. We travelled
from Tiflis to Tsarskie-Kolodzy, where our Tiflis branch
had petroleum-works, which were again given up after
the completion of the railway from Tiflis to Baku.
From there our way lay to the wine country Kakhetia,
celebrated for the fiery Kakhetian wine. This district
lies in the valley of the Alasan. and is separated from
the Kur valley by a ridge stretching far into the steppes.
From the summit of this ridge we had magnificent
views of the Caucasus, which from there presents it-
self as an unbroken chain of white peaks, reaching
from the Black to the Caspian sea.

Kakhetia passes for the primitive land of the vine-
cultivation, and in the chief place of the country pri-
mitive thanksgiving festivals take place, which recall
the Roman Saturnalia. High and low then flock to-

SECOND TOUR IN THE GREAT CAUCASUS. 299

gether from all Georgia to the festive place and offer
god Bacchus copious libations of Kakhetian wine,
when universal brotherliness is said to be the order
of the day. It is also vaunted of Kakhetian wine
that it exceedingly gladdens the heart of its persistent
drinkers, and those who know the country profess to
recognise the inhabitants of Tiflis everywhere by their
hilarity.

We accomplished the pleasant and interesting ride
through Kakhetia under the guidance of two sons of
the princely family, which had invited us to make an
inspection of the beds. At the foot of the lofty chain
the old prince with other sons joined us. The an-
cestral seat of the family, in which we passed the
ni flit, was remarkable. It consisted of a large wooden

O " o

house at the foot of the mountains, but yet situated
in the plain, which was built on posts some thirteen
feet high. A convenient ladder, which was lowered,
offered the only possibility of getting into the house.
It was a regular pre -historic pile dwelling, the style
having survived to our own day in the preservative
Caucasian air. In the interior of the house we found
a large hall, occupying the whole breadth of the
building, in which, along the only wall provided with
many windows, a table, over two yards in width,
stretched from end to end. This table formed the
sole furniture visible in the room, and had to fulfil
the most varied purposes. For dinner a carpet of
about half the width of the table was laid along its
edge, on which the viands and flat cakes were placed.

300 SECOND TOUR IN THE GREAT CAUCASUS.

The large thin flat cakes served not only for food.
but also for table-covers and napkins, as well as for
cleaning the table -utensils. For us strangers chairs
were brought in. When we had seated ourselves upon
them, the old prince and his sons after him sprang
upon the table, and crouched opposite us with their
bread - cloths. Only we guests were provided with
knives and forks, the princes ate in true oriental
fashion with their fingers. The meal itself was ex-
tremely savoury, especially the fillet of shishlik would
have created a sensation in the finest Berlin restau-
rant. During the meal Kakhetian wine circulated
freely in buffalo -horns: it was only rather embar-
rassing, that custom required the draining of the
horn in honour of every person, whose health was
proposed. We Europeans, unaccustomed to such copious
drinking, could not long stand that. A second

destination of the large table in the hall we got to
know at night-time; all the beds, both for us and
for the princes, were prepared upon it.

Early in the morning of the following day we set
out. and ascended the slope of the great Caucasian
chain. Our horses carried us quickly and indefatigably
up the rocky way. When it was beginning to get
dark, we were almost at our destination and bivouacked
on a splendid ridge, at the junction of two mountain-
streams. Under the protecting roof of gigantic trees
we encamped at a spot, which afforded a wide view
over Kakhetia extended at our feet and the mountain-
district lying beyond. With surprising skill the prince's

SECOND TOUR IN THE GREAT CAUCASUS. 301

satellites erected a hut of twigs over our camping-
place, leaving the view over the plain free, and made
it so comfortable that it would not have been possible
to have rested more agreeably. Then the meal was
rapidly prepared, which we consumed in a recumbent
position. After that the princes and their attendants
reclined in front of us. and began a national drinking-
bout with a kind of mulled wine of generous Kakhetian
growth. In the course of this each of the princes
drank my own and my brother's health with some
doubtless very flattering words, expecting that there-
upon we should also empty our horns. The princes
spoke Georgian only, an interpreter translated for us
into Russian what they said. No one of those present
understood our German answers, a circumstance of
which my frolicsome brother Otto took a somewhat
dangerous advantage by delivering the replies, which
I left to him, in extremely polite fashion indeed as
regards voice, tone, and gesture, but with a verbal
parody of the whole scene, which assuredly would
have been cut short by dagger-stabs, if his words had
been understood, and if we had not taken pains to
give a good colour to them by grave and respectful
countenances.

When, on the following morning, we had happily
slept off our little debauch in the refreshing mountain-
air, without any unpleasant after-effects, we inspected
the lode, which was certainly a rich one, but not yet
opened up, and owing to the troublesome access to
it offered insuperable obstacles to profitable working.

302 SECOND TOUR IN THE GREAT CAUCASUS.

After we had arrived at this conclusion, the return-
journey was immediately commenced.

At sunset we again arrived at the pile-built palace
and spent another night under its hospitable roof.
The next morning we took leave of our princes, and
rode back through the valley of Kakhetia. with the
intention of travelling across the steppe direct to
Kedabeg. As robbers were infesting the neighbourhood,
the chief of the district gave us a body-guard com-
posed of men. who themselves were not free from
suspicion of the robbers' trade. Placed under their
friendly protection, we travelled with perfect safety
according to the custom of the country.

The crossing of the broad and rapidly flowing
Kur. whose left bank we reached at noon, was attended
with some difficulty. We found a single small boat
there, which could only carry a few persons, but
discovered no oars, which moreover with the rapid
current would not have been of much use. The mode
of crossing employed by our guides was very inter-
esting, and I commend it to the Postmaster General for

O7

his description of the postal service in primitive times.
The two best horses were driven into the water until
their feet no longer touched the bottom. Then two

o

Tartars in the boat laid hold of their tails and had
themselves together with the boat and a few passengers
carried over the stream by the swimming horses.
When after depositing the passengers the boat had
been brought back in the same manner, they carried
over a second batch with other horses, and thus it

SECOND TOUR IN THE GREAT CAUCASUS. 303

went on. till only the Tartars remained. Finally these
took their horses into the water and let themselves
be carried over clinging to their tails.

O c?

I and my brother had remained to the last with
our somewhat dubious escort on the left bank of the
river. Our protectors squatted suspiciously together,
and kept throwing glances at us, which we did not
altogether like. Cigars, which we offered them, they
proudly refused because, as we found out after-
wards, being bigoted Shiites they were not allowed to
take anything from the hands of unbelieving dogs. It
appeared therefore advisable to show to the fellows
that we were sufficiently armed for defence. We set
up a board, that had floated down stream, as mark,
and shot at it with our revolvers, in the use of which
we were well practised. Every shot hit the board at
long range without much aiming. That interested our
companions very much, who themselves tried with their
long beautifully polished flintlock guns to hit our mark,
but did not always succeed. Then came their sheik
and gave me to understand by signs, that I should
show him my revolver, and lay it on the ground, as
he dared not take anything from my own hand. This
was a critical moment, but on Otto's advice I deter-
mined to comply with his request and put down the
revolver. The sheik took it up, looked at it on all
sides, and showed it with a shake of his head to his
companions. After that he gave it me back with
gestures of thanks, and henceforward our friendship
was sealed. Distrust of the fulfilment of the sacred

304 THE CAUCASIAN MOUNTAIN -HORSES.

law of hospitality may become very dangerous with
these people, on the other hand the case is extremely
rare that the confidence of the guest is betrayed. It
has certainly occurred that a guest has been hospitably
entertained and safely escorted to the boundary of the
district, and then shot down on alien ground, but that
is not considered to be proper. After crossing the
Kur we reached Kedabeg without further adventures.
In all our tours in the mountains we had had
occasion to admire the cleverness and endurance of the
small Caucasian mountain - horses. Indefatigably and
without tripping they clamber with their riders up
and down the steepest mountain-paths; without them
the broken and often fissured mountainous country
could hardly be traversed. It is regarded in the
Caucasus as safer to make difficult mountain-journeys
on horseback than on foot. That there are also
exceptions to this rule I experienced personally on my
second visit to Kedabeg. The autumn weather, always
bright and beautiful even up to December, changed
with unexpected suddenness to rainy weather with a
slight fall of snow. We were just then proceeding
to visit the Shamkhor valley, and made use of the
somewhat troublesome bridle-path thither, which runs
by the side of the wild Kalakent brook as far as
Shamkhor. When however it began to snow more
heavily, we found it advisable to turn back before
the path had been quite snowed over. It was
astonishing with what accuracy our horses were able
to find the mountain-path, already considerably covered

RETURN FROM THE FIRST JOURNEY. 305

with snow, which was close beside the deeply cut
river-bed, and always selected the particular parts
where there was a sure footing. I was riding imme-
diately behind my brother Otto, when I noticed, that
just at a dangerous spot hard by the edge of the
bank, here descending perpendicularly several yards,
a stone became loose under the weight of his horse.
A moment afterwards my horse trod upon the same
stone, which thereby was entirely loosened and caused
my fall. I only remember having heard the cry of
the succeeding riders, and that I was then standing
upright in the river-bed, my horse beside me. According
to the statement of my companions the horse fell
over sideways with me and then came on its feet.
It was at any rate a marvellously lucky escape.

Of the homeward journeys, for which both times
I chose the route via Constantinople, the first in par-
ticular was rich in singular experiences. The fine
weather lasted till the middle of December; only after
we had left Kedabeg did it change, and on the Rion
we encountered a fearful storm. With great difficulty
we reached Poti, but there we learnt that the steamship,
which was to convey us further, had already passed,
as an embarkation in such weather was impossible.
We, namely the whole company that had arrived in
the river -steamer, were thus forced to take refuge
for a full week in the only so-called hotel of
the place, a most dreary abode. This, I may
say, was the most unpleasant week of my whole life.
A violent storm raged the whole night, not only outside

20

306 KETURN FROM THE FIRST JOURNEY.

but also in my room. I repeatedly got up to examine
the windows and doors, but found them all closed.
The next morning however I saw my room full of
snow-flakes, and discovered that they had penetrated
through rifts in the floor. On account of the marshy
ground the houses in Poti are built on piles, which
explains the marvel of a snow-fall in a closed room.
The stormy weather lasted without intermission several
days, and what rendered my stay particularly dis-
agreeable was, that I had caught a severe inflammation
of the connective tissue of one of my eyes. This
painful inflammation, alleviated by no medical aid, the
confined inn-parlour filled with people of all classes
and nationalities, moreover bad provisions and a total
absence of any kind of attendance, made my life there
simply intolerable.

At last the eagerly longed-for steamer came in
sight, and in spite of the heavy sea succeeded in
taking aboard myself and three other travelling com-
panions. The passage was very stormy as far as the
entrance to the Bosphorus, and put our seaworthiness
to a severe test. All four of us however stood it to
the great astonishment of the captain. Among the
party was a Russian general, consul in Messina, and,
as I discovered later, father of a very charming
daughter, now the wife of my friend Professor Dohrn
in Naples; further a young Russian diplomatist, who
subsequently filled important posts, and finally an
extremely original Austrian foundry proprietor, who
never allowed his pipe to go out, except when eating

RETURN FROM THE FIRST JOURNEY. 307

or sleeping. As also the captain was a well-instructed
clever man, the unusually long voyage passed never-
theless quickly and agreeably for us, in spite of wind
and waves.

In Trebizond , where we anchored for a few
hours, I again met with one of my many small mis-
haps. I had taken a walk on the plateau above the
town, to enjoy once again the splendid prospect, and
was returning by the fine new road, which on the
side descending abruptly to the sea was entirely un-
secured by railings , when I met a large drove of
donkeys laden with sacks of corn. I inconsiderately
stepped to the unrailed side towards the sea, to let
the drove pass. That was all right at first, but gra-
dually the drove became denser, and finally occupied
the whole width of the road. No pushing and no
beating availed, the beasts could not, if they had tried,
make room for me. The attempt to jump on to one
of the donkeys failed, I was compelled to make way
for them, and fell down the steep stone-work into
mud and among bushes, whereby luckily the force
of the considerable fall was somewhat lessened. After
I had found that I had got off without serious in-
juries , I worked myself laboriously out of the thorns
and nettles, and only after long and many vain endea-
vours was able to scramble up again to the road. For-
tunately I found a small pond at the top, in which
I could wash myself and clothes. The still powerful
sun effected the drying with tolerable rapidity, and

thus I could manage to go through the town without

20*

308 RETURN FROM THE FIRST JOURNEY.

exciting attention and reach the steamer, which fortu-
nately had awaited my return.

On the further journey the strong wind grew into
a storm, so that the captain began to fear for his old
ship, and sought refuge in the harbour of Sinope.
Twice on the following days he attempted to continue
the voyage, but was each time driven back into the
safe port. Thus I had the opportunity of experiencing
by personal observation the correctness of the designation
of the Black Sea as the "inhospitable" , which the
ancient Greeks had given it.

In the harbour of Pera I found an Austrian Lloyd
steamer just ready to start for Trieste , where we
landed on New Year's eve safely and without let and
hindrance. On the way, in Syra and Corfu, we had
been suspected of being plague - stricken and com-
pelled to hoist the notorious yellow flag, because the
cholera was raging in Egypt.

With these two Caucasian journeys I regard my
travelling period proper as closed, for the European
journeys of to-day in comfortable railway-carriages or
post-chaises are only to be called pleasure trips. Also
the third journey to Kedabeg, for which I am now
preparing , to take my final leave of the Caucasus,
will hardly be anything else.

Harzburg, June 1891.

Otill full of the fresh impressions and pleasant
reminiscences of my third Caucasian journey, which
I made, as proposed, last autumn with my wife and
daughter, I shall resume my narrative by giving an
account of it. This tour, undertaken with all imaginable
comfort as a pleasure trip, will thus stand out in strong
relief to my first two journeys to Kedabeg.

We travelled in the middle of September from
Berlin to Odessa. There of course I did not omit to
visit the station of the Indo-European line, and held
a telegraphic conversation with the manager of the
company in London, Mr. Andrews. Such a direct
telegraphic intercommunication after a long journey
has always something uncommonly interesting, I might
almost say elevating , about it. The victory of the
human mind over inert matter is thereby brought
immediately and forcibly home to us.

From Odessa we proceeded to the Crimea, my
acquaintance with which had been hitherto confined
to the places of call of the steamers running between
Odessa and Poti. We decided to leave the vessel at
Sebastopol, and travel by road to Yalta. The drive

310 THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS.

was favoured by splendid weather, and permitted us to
admire at leisure the magnificent coast-scenery, which
stretches from the steep slopes of the southern table-
land of the Crimea to the sea. Much reminded us
here of the Riviera, indeed there were many points of
the Crimean coast, whose superiority we were obliged
to allow. The situation of the country -palaces Livadia
and Alupka, belonging to the Imperial family, as well
as that of many another residence of Russian notables,
is beautiful in the extreme. There was wanting, how-
ever, the fresh pulsating life of the Riviera, which so
considerably heightens the charms of its scenery and
climate. The climate of the southern Crimean coast
is pleasant and free from fever , and the means of
communication, becoming continually more rapid and
convenient, will doubtless therefore soon bring it a
great accession of tourists. On the other hand it is
impossible to speak as favourably of the climate of
the incomparably more beautiful and grander eastern
side of the high Caucasus, for there almost everywhere
malignant intermittent fevers prevail, and the prospect
of medical science overcoming this great plague of

O o I o

humanity appears as yet to be very slight.

It was an interesting coincidence, that the glad
tidings of the conquest of one of the greatest scourges
of mankind, consumption, by the discoveries of Koch,
reached me in this third journey to the Caucasus, in
the very regions where so many years before the
theory had obtruded itself upon me of the excitation
of climatic fever by microscopic life in the blood.

THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS. 311

The cure was said to be effected by introducing
into the patient's system a poison, produced by the
phthisis-producing bacteria themselves, in the shape of
their vital products. The reported results left no
doubt as to the correctness of the fact, and we
Germans heard with pride on all sides our countryman
lauded as a benefactor of humanity. But the assumption
of Koch, that the vital products of the disease-causing
bacilli constitute the powerful deadly poison, even
then excited my doubts. One could well imagine that
this self-induced poisoning might check the development
of the bacilli in the parts of the body occupied by them
- thus affording an explanation of the remarkable
phenomenon, that not every infectious disease leads to
the death of the person assailed by it - - but it appeared
inconceivable to me that an infinitesimal quantity of
such poisonous vital products of a limited number of
bacilli should produce in another body the powerful
effects observed. A vital process alone could accomplish
this, in which not the substance of the germs intro-
duced, but the vital conditions maintaining them, and
the time required for their increase, are the chief
factors in the case. The question as to the origin of
these germs, which develop a life hostile to the
bacilli whence they arise, appears to me only to admit
of a plausible answer, if one supposes the living beings
producing the disease to be themselves subject to
infectious diseases , whereby they on their part are
checked in their vitality and finally killed. It would
of course follow that life, animal as well as vegetable^

312 THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS.

is not restricted to the objects revealed by our mi-
croscopes, but that there are living beings related as
regards size to the microbes and bacteria , as these
are to us. No scientific objection can be raised to
this hypothesis, for the dimensions of molecules are
iii any case immeasurably less than living structures
of even so low an order. The mysterious process of
spontaneous fission , the succeeding immunity , the
otherwise inexplicable effect of the introduction of
vital products of the disease-causing bacilli into the
circulation of a body affected by the same disease,
would on this assumption be the obvious consequences
of the infection of the disease-generators themselves,
and the problem of the future would be, how to pro-
duce such an infection, and bring it to the speediest
issue, since indeed these secondary disease -generators
themselves might also be subject to rapidly developing
infectious diseases through microbes of a still lower
order. If however not the vital products, but the
secondary disease-carriers, of the bacilli are the curative
means, the bacilli must first become diseased, before
their substance can act remedially. Perhaps herein
lies the reason of the unsatisfactory action of Koch's
tuberculine , and the present suggestion may be of
service in the further investigation of this subject,
which is of such vast importance to all mankind.

In Tiflis we met my brother Charles, who ac-
companied us on our further journey to Kedabeg and
Baku and back to St. Petersburg. Dr. Hammacher,
member of the Imperial Diet, who had formed one

THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS. 313

of our party from the first, also remained our faithful
travelling companion as far as St. Petersburg. Tiflis
appeared to me not to be much altered externally in
the 23 years, which had expired since my last visit, but
it had lost its former aristocratic air, and can no longer
boast to-day of being the Asiatic Paris. The town was
formerly not only a grand-ducal residence, but also the
seat of the native Georgian nobility, which especially
in winter took the lead in the social gatherings of
Tiflis. All that is now changed. No Grand-Duke resides
any longer in Tiflis, and even the Georgian aristocracy
has almost entirely disappeared. A quarter of a cen-
tury ago the town was still Georgian, and the best
houses as well as the administration of the town were
in Georgian hands. But even then the Armenian
nationality began to spread, and gradually the land
and landed property passed into Armenian hands. In
earlier, warlike times, the brave and vigorous Georgians
maintained their possessions and their social position
against the crafty and pushing Armenians. That ceased
however, when under Russian rule permanent peace
and an orderly state of affairs were established. From
that time the Armenian element came to the front, and
the Georgian was compelled to make way for it. Now
well-nigh the whole property of the town is in Ar-
menian hands. The proud figures of the Georgians
in their dazzling accoutrements have disappeared from*
the streets of Tiflis, the Armenian dwells in their
palaces and is master of the situation.

The intermixture of nationalities in the Cauca-

314 THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS.

sus offers excellent material for studying the influence
of the intercourse of specifically different races of men
in warlike as in peaceful times. It is surprising that
in the Caucasus the Jewish element has not proved
capable of coping with the Armenian. It is true Jews
are to be found there in tolerable numbers, but they
are all drivers, and have the reputation of being rough
fellows, always on the look-out for an opportunity of
displaying their superior physical strength. Trading
they have altogether renounced. The Russians are
mostly clever and shrewd men of business, can how-
ever, as they themselves admit, not hold their own
against Armenians and Greeks. The reputation for
greatest longheadedness in all business-relations in the
Caucasus as in the whole East is enjoyed by the Greek,
yet the Armenians, when they are banded together,
carry off the palm from the Greek, who always traf-
ficks on his own account.

When after a few days we continued our journey
by railway, we found at the foot of the Kedabeg table-
land a new railway-station, Dalliar, from which the road
to Kedabeg runs by way of the new Suabian colony
Annenfeld. Here we found in course of construction
the already mentioned conduit, through which the
naphtha brought by rail from Baku to Dalliar was to be
pumped up to Kedabeg about three thousand feet. The
operations, as regards both the laying the tubes and the
arrangements of the pumping station, were proceeding
well, but we had to abandon the hope of seeing the
completed work in action before the beginning of winter.

THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS., 315

Our drive from Dalliar to Kedabeg formed a
genuine Oriental spectacle to the great delight of the
ladies. The Beys of the neighbourhood had heard of
the arrival of the owners of the wonderful mine, and
did not omit to greet us festively with their dependants,
and escort us to Kedabeg. This party was continually
renewed and increased on the road nearly twenty-
five English miles long. They swarmed round our
carriage on their fleet Caucasian mountain - horses,
mostly at a wild gallop, up hill and down dale, and
afforded, in their Caucasian costume and accoutre-
ments, an extremely attractive spectacle. In chasing-
past the men performed the most daring, break-neck
feats of horsemanship, at the same time firing off their
guns, so that our approach produced the impression
rather of a warlike encounter than of a peaceful
reception. Near Kedabeg the entire population of the
place, together with the miners and smelters, joined
the procession. In the house of our head manager,
Mr. Bolton, we were received by the ladies of his
household, and lodged most comfortably. During our
stay we derived some benefit from the visit, which
had taken place a few weeks before, of the young
Crown Prince of Italy, who, attended by the Russian
grandees of the Caucasus, had visited our mine and
smeltery. For the reception and entertainment of these
guests unusual arrangements had of course been made,
which had especially included provision for a comfor-
table descent into the mine and the procuring of an
improvised saloon -carriage for our railway. We re-

316 THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS.

peatedly made use of the latter in our visits to the
outwork Kalakent and the Shamkhor on the picturesque
line, carried often over perilous abysses.

Despite the often rather annoying fumes from the
works we fully enjoyed in glorious autumn weather
the charms of the beautiful environs of Kedabeg.

o

Among the special delights must be reckoned a bear-
hunt, which we attended in the so-called paradise.
This name is borne by a small table-land, bordered
by the rivers Shamkhor and Kalakent, which is splen-
didly situated and adorned with many wild fruit-trees.
The great abundance of fruit in the autumn attracts
the bears of the neighbourhood, and the officials of
our mine had often instituted successful bear-hunts in
this season.

We passed the night in the branch smelting house
Kalakent, and at sunrise repaired for the chase to the
neighbouring mountains, which during the night had
been surrounded by our forest -keeper with a chain
of beaters. It was a wonderfully fine morning, and
the noiseless march on the lonely hunting paths in
constant expectation of the bears was not without a
charm. After a rather long time, passed in intense
expectation, we heard in the far distance the call of
the beaters resounding from the summit of the slope,
the base of which we held. Nothing else was heard in

o

the general stillness except the falling of the autumn
leaves, a sound, with which hitherto I had only made
acquaintance in novels. I was posted on a narrow moun-
tain-path between brother Charles and Dr. Hammacher.

THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS. 317

My weapon was a rifle with two barrels, one charged with
ball, the other with small shot. Similarly defective
was the equipment of my companions in the chase.
Gradually the clamour of the beaters came nearer, but
of bears nothing was to be seen or heard. Suddenly
the forest -keeper called our attention by signs to a
slight rustle in front of us, and immediately delivered
a shot in the direction indicated. The bear slunk
away to the left without being hit. A shot delivered
by Dr. Hammacher took just as little effect. Then on
the other side of me cracked a shot by my brother
and immediately after a second. I thought my chance
was gone of getting a shot, when all at once close
beside me a large brown female bear, accompanied by
a cub. crossed the clearing. I delivered my ball-charge
at the bear, when the cub fell on its knees with terror,
which made me believe I had hit the latter. The
mother and her young however ran quietly down the
mountain. Every one of us of course thought he had
shot his bear, and the district was eagerly searched
for the wounded. Traces of blood were indeed dis-
covered, but neither then nor afterwards was anything
to be seen of our wounded bears. In the further
beating up too no bear was slain, only one more in
fact came to view and that close to the beaters.
These and the bear seem to have been equally ter-
rified and fled in opposite directions, the beaters cal-
ling out as if in their death-agony.

One of the finest tours in the further environs
of Kedabeg embraces the valley of the Kalakent brook

318 THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS.

above Kalakent itself to the summit of the mountain
enclosing the large Goktsha lake. From the summit of the
pass the immense lake is seen in the foreground, whilst the
chains of the Armenian highlands form the background
of the splendid panorama. My travelling companions,
who had not shrunk from the severe ride necessary
to reach this commanding eminence, had the good
fortune to enjoy a perfectly clear prospect, the snow-
caps of the great and little Ararat standing out with
perfect distinctness.

After brother Charles and I had had our full
delight in the great progress which our remote pos-
session had made in the last years, and our com-
panions had exhausted the charms of the surrounding
forest-clad hills in extensive rides, we continued our
journey to Baku, to pay a visit to the ancient sacred
perpetual fires, and to make acquaintance with the
sources of the modern fire-bringer, donor at any rate
of far greater blessings, petroleum. We had quite
special reasons for so doing, since it was owing to
naphtha, the mother of petroleum, that we found
Kedabeg in brisk and hopeful activity.

The route lay by way of Elisabethpol, the govern-
ment town of Kedabeg, in the neighbourhood of which
is situated Helenendorf, the largest of the Suabian
settlements. When the worthy Suabians heard of our
presence in Kedabeg, they sent their mayor with an
invitation to us, to visit Helenendorf likewise. We of
course accepted it, and on our arrival in Elisabethpol
were received by a deputation of the peasants, and

THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS. 319

were quickly driven to the village a few miles off.
There the whole community took pains to show attention
to their German countrymen and especially to their
Suabian countrywoman. We had to inspect the church,
the school, and the waterworks, and took genuine
delight in the old thoroughly German orderliness, which
has defied all opposing influences of the country and
climate. Helenendorf is the most flourishing and
prosperous of all the Suabian settlements in the
Caucasus, and owes this in part, no doubt, to the
healthy climate and the favourable situation in a fine,
mountainous, and well-watered region. To its inhabitants
the merit is due of having introduced German con-
veyances into the Caucasus. Eecently the colony has
taken to the cultivation of the vine, and turns out
excellent products of the native grapes by the appli-
cation of modern methods.

The railroad - journey through the monotonous
steppe of Elisabethpol to Baku does not offer much that
is noticeable. The vegetation is very scanty, with the
exception of places which lie by water-courses or have
artificial irrigation, of which certainly for the most
part only a few traces have remained. It is not the
land which has value in such regions, but the water
which can be conveyed to it. Progressive culture
will in this respect be still able to do much, but even
if the rivers were deprived of all their water to
fertilize the fields, this would benefit only a small
part of the great steppes of Russia. The needful
amount of rain is wanting. Whether this has ab-

320 THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS.

solutely diminished within historic times, which might
be concluded from many phenomena, or whether only
its distribution has become different, cannot as yet be
decided.

The astonishingly large number of wooden prospect-
towers thirty to fifty feet high in the wholly flat region,
which afforded but the smallest prospect, is explained
by the circumstance, that the inhabitants in the worst
fever- season pass the nights in these towers to escape
the fever.

A peculiar spectacle was afforded towards the
end of the journey by a whole town of similar wooden
towers, standing much higher still, apparently close
to one another, which crowned the summit of a near
mountain -range. More exact observation through a
telescope revealed that they were high boring-towers,
such as are wont to be erected for deep borings. This
was the district of the famous naphtha wells. Thence
the oil is conveyed for refining through numerous
conduits to the neighbouring "black town" of Baku
or rather to its newer part, which contains the
numerous petroleum distilleries. It is remarkable that
borings in the closest proximity, sometimes more than
a thousand feet deep, often yield altogether different
results. Frequently, on reaching the petroleum stratum,
a fountain arises, from which the naphtha spurts up to
a height exceeding a hundred feet. A hollow is then
quickly made in the neighbouring soil, to collect the
gushing naphtha. The yield of the well however soon
diminishes. After a few weeks it is wont no longer

THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS. 321

to "strike"', as they say in Baku, and the naphtha
must now be pumped up from the bottom of the
boring. The boring -towers are accordingly left stan-
ding, in order to be used subsequently as pumping-
towers. It is hard to explain, how it happens, that
at a very slight distance from a boring, where the
elasticity of the gases, which at first pressed up the
petroleum, is already quite absorbed, a new and strong
fountain can arise, as it must be assumed, that all the
wells spring from a single stratum of naphtha. Alto-
gether the origin of petroleum is still veiled in darkness,
and therefore one cannot say whether it will maintain
a permanent place in the field of human civilization.
How large an influence the naphtha wells of Baku
already exercise on the life and industry of Russia is
obvious from the long rows of reservoir waggons for
the transport of petroleum and masut, which are met
with on all the Russian railway-lines. As the forests
of Russia have almost everywhere been largely cleared,
and coal is only found in quantities on the Don,
masut and raw petroleum have quickly attained great
importance as cheap and easily transportable fuel.
A large part of the Russian locomotives and river-
steamers are even now heated by petroleum, and for
many branches of Russian industry this has proved
a great help in need, as was the case in the working
of our Kedabeg copper-mine.

The old town of Baku is beautifully situated on
the abruptly rising shore of the Caspian Sea. Besides

the district of the naphtha wells with the very

21

322 THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS.

modernized everlasting fires, the "black town", and
a number of interesting architectural remains of the
time when it was the residence of the Persian Khans,
the town offers few attractions for the stranger. But
with favourable weather he may procure himself the
pleasure of setting the Caspian Sea on fire, if he
makes an excursion in an iron" steamer to a place not
far from the coast, where inflammable gases rise from
the sea-bottom. In calm weather these may be ignited
and then. form a sea of flame around the ship, often
lasting a considerable time.

We made the return-journey by land via Moscow
and St. Petersburg. In crossing the great Caucasus
we traversed grandly beautiful wild mountain -valleys
in the depression at the foot of Kasbek. But if one
wishes thoroughly to enjoy their beauty it is better
to travel in the reverse direction, for the wild Terek
valley, which forms the northern slope of the mountains,
is so quickly traversed in descending, that one has
hardly time to enjoy the charms of the surrounding
country; a further drawback being the disagreeably
abrupt bendings of the otherwise marvellous road, when
passed over at full speed. From Vladi-Kavkas, the com-
mencement of the Russian railway-network, we travelled
to Moscow in three days without break of journey. Un-
fortunately, owing to the cloudy weather of the first
day, the fine views of the great Caucasus, especially the
towering Elbrus, escaped us. The numerous cairns on
both sides of the road were highly interesting. They
prove that for long periods of time a relatively high

THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS. 323

civilization prevailed on the northern slopes of the
Caucasus, and it is here perhaps that we must look
for the centre of origin and rallying point of the tribes,
which have at different times deluged Europe.

I resist the temptation to describe Moscow, and
will only refer to the feeling experienced there of
being thoroughly in Russia, i. e. on the border-land of
European and Asiatic culture. One has this sensation
more keenly if, like ourselves on this occasion, one
comes from Asia and therefore brings a vivid feeling
for Asiatic life and doings. This is hardly to be put
into definite words. "In Asia", said one of my fair
travelling companions, "dirt and rags are not repulsive,
here they certainly are". This is in fact quite charac-
teristic of the transition from Asiatic to European
civilization. The Asiatic in spite of dirt and rags
always exhibits a certain degree of manly dignity,
which the European in rags invariably lacks.

The Russian proper, i. e. the native of Great
Russia, forms a true transition between Asiatics and
Europeans, and is therefore the proper and successful
carrier of European civilization eastward. The con-
verse way, of which the Panslavist Russians now often
dream, the renewal of the "rotten West" by the native
energy of Asia, has certainly no great likelihood of
being ever realized. It can indeed not be denied that
there lies a danger for the development of Europeo-
American civilization in the fact, that Europe has be-
come the voluntary teacher of Asia in procuring and

utilizing the instruments of power, which the former

21*

324 THIRD JOURNEY TO THE CAUCASUS.

owes to its technical progress. With the great capacity
of the Asiatics for imitation and for utilizing their
acquirements, and with the ever advancing art of
depriving distance of its dividing power by improving
the means of communication, undoubtedly our little
Europe might be exposed to a new invasion from
Asia subversive of culture, but the first annihilating
blow would then light on the intervening countries,

D o

especially Russia, as history has indeed already re-
peatedly shown. For the rest this danger can only
arise, when the scientific and technical progress of
Europe comes to a standstill, so that it loses the great
start in its technical development, which most surely
protects its civilization from every inroad of barbarian
nations. Only internal suicidal conflicts could lead to
that, for in mental power and inventive faculties the
peoples of Europe are far superior to the Asiatics and
will doubtless remain so in the future.

.. In Moscow it was already intensely cold, in St.
Petersburg sledging had actually begun and the Neva
was covered with drifting ice, so that after a short
stay we continued our journey and could still enjoy
for a while the milder climate of home.

As in the two past years I have come here to
Harzburg at the end of June, in order to devote a
few weeks to recording these reminiscences, and do
not intend to leave before I have come to the end
of them. I have repeatedly tried in Gharlottenburg

INVENTOR'S JOYS AND SORROWS. 325

to continue my task, but I have not succeeded there,
where everything is pressing forward, in persistently
looking backward. For it is habit which puts the
strongest snackles on us. I have never been able
entirely to put aside the thoughts and plans, which
were just then occupying my mind, and this has
frequently spoiled my enjoyment of the present, to
which I could never wholly devote myself except in
passing moments. But on the other hand such a
thought-life, partly spent in dreamy speculations, partly
in strenuous aspirations, also affords great enjoyment.
It sometimes even perhaps brings us the purest and
sublimest joys of which man is capable. When a law
of nature, hitherto hovering darkly before the mind,
all at once clearly emerges from the enveloping mist,
when the key to a long vainly sought mechanical
combination is found, when the missing link of a chain
of thought is happily inserted, this affords the dis-
coverer the elevating feeling of an achieved mental
victory, which alone richly compensates him for all
the pains of the struggle and exalts him for the moment
to a higher stage of existence. Certainly the ecstacy
does not generally last long. Self-criticism usually soon
discovers a dark spot in the discovery, which renders
its truth dubious or at least narrowly restricts it.
It exposes a fallacy in which one has been entangled
or, as is unfortunately almost the rule, it leads to the
perception that only an old friend has been met with
in a new dress. Only when strict examination has
left a sound kernel does the regular hard labour

cD

326 INFATUATION OF MANY INVENTORS.

begin of elaborating and completing the invention, and
then the struggle for its introduction into scientific
and mechanical life, in which most men are ultimately
ruined. Discovering and inventing brings therefore
hours of supreme delight, but also hours of the greatest
disappointment, and of hard fruitless work. The
public commonly notices only the few cases in which
successful inventors have hit, almost accidentally, upon
a useful idea, and by making the most of it, have
attained without much labour to fame and affluence,
or the class of acquisitive invention-hunters, who make
it their life -task to seek for technical applications of
well-known things and to secure the benefit of them
by patents. But these are not the inventors who
open for the development of mankind new paths, which
will presumably conduct it to more perfect and happier
conditions of life, but those who — either in the
quiet of scholarly seclusion, or in the bustle of tech-
nical activity -- devote their whole being and thought
to this development for its own sake. Whether, by
correct judgment and use of the opportunities of
practical life, inventions lead to the accumulation of
wealth or not, frequently depends on chance. Unfor-
tunately however the instances of success possess great
attraction and have called forth a host of inventors,
who plunge into discovery and invention without the
necessary knowledge and without self-criticism and
thus are mostly ruined. I have ever regarded it as
a duty to turn such deluded inventors from the
dangerous path which they had entered upon, and this

PERPETUAL MOTION. 327

has always cost me much time and trouble. Unhappily
my efforts have rarely been attended with success,
and only complete failure and the bitterest self-inflicted
distress occasionally brings these inventors to a per-
ception of their errors.

There are specially two inventive ideas, which
have misled and frequently also ruined innumerable
people, otherwise fairly gifted and even remarkably
clever in their own sphere of activity. These are
the inventions of so-called perpetual motion i. e. of
a self-acting work -performing machine, and that of
the flying -machine and the manageable balloon. One
might have thought, that the knowledge of the law
of the conservation of energy had already so far
penetrated the popular mind, that creating force out
of nothing would have come to be considered as con-
trary to nature as the production of matter, but it
seems that generations must always pass away before
a new fundamental truth is universally regarded as
such. If a man is once possessed by the unhappy
delusion, that he has found the way to construct
working machines by mechanical combinations alone,
he has become the victim of a generally incurable
mental ailment, which defies all teaching, and even
the most painful experience. Almost the like holds
good of the endeavours to construct flying-machines and
manageable air-balloons. The problem itself is indeed
for every mind possessing a slight mechanical training
a very simple one. It is indubitable that we can con-
struct flying-machines according to the pattern of flying

328 MANAGEABLE AIR -SHIPS.

animals, if only the fundamental condition be fulfilled,
which consists in this, that we have machines as light
and powerful as the motor muscles of flying animals
and which do not require a much larger supply of
combustible material. When such a machine is invented,
every skilled mechanician can make a fly ing -machine.
The inventors however always begin at the wrong end,
and invent flying mechanisms without having the power
for moving them. Still worse is it with the manageable
air-ships. The problem of their construction has been
long ago solved in principle, for every air-balloon may,
in perfectly calm weather, be slowly propelled in any
direction by a suitable mechanism applied in the car.
Progress however can only be slow, because in the
first place power -machines of sufficient lightness are
still wanting to drive the voluminous balloon at greater
speed through the air or against the wind, and secondly
because the material of the balloon would not stand a
strong counter -pressure of the atmosphere, even if we
possessed such machines. The oblong form, which the
inventors give the balloon, in order that it may better
cleave the air, increases its weight with equal volume
and is therefore worthless. The like holds good of the
application of inclined planes, which are intended to
facilitate the supporting of the weight.

Besides these two problems there are a number
of others on which inventors squander time and money
by failing to perceive that the means for carrying
them out are not yet at the disposal of applied science.

ACTIVITY AFTER THE WAR OF 1866. 329

After these digressions I resume the thread of
my narrative with my retirement from political activity.

The war of 1866 had removed the obstacles
which opposed the longed-for unity of Germany, and
had at the same time restored internal peace in Prussia. A
new support was thereby given to the national idea, and
the hitherto vague tentative efforts, as it were, of German
patriots now obtained a firm foundation and definite
direction. It is true, the Main boundary still divided
Germany into a Northern and a Southern half, but
no one doubted that its removal was only a question
of time, if it was not rigidly fixed by external force.
That France would make that attempt appeared certain,
but there was a growing confidence, that Germany
would successfully stand this trial also. As a conse-
quence of this great revolution of popular sentiment
there resulted the general endeavour to consolidate
quickly what had been attained, to strengthen the
feeling of solidarity of North and South despite the
Main boundary and to prepare for the coming struggle.

This buoyant feeling was evidenced by increased
activity in all departments of life, nor did it fail to
react on our business affairs. Magneto-electric mine-
exploders, electric range-finders, electric apparatus for
steering unmanned boats, furnished with explosives,
against hostile ships, as well as numerous improve-
ments of military telegraphy, were the off-spring of
this stirring time.

I will here only give a detailed account of a
non-military invention of this time, as it has become

330 DYNAMO-ELECTRIC MACHINE.

the foundation of a new and important branch of
industry, and has exerted and still continues to exert
a stimulating and transforming influence in all depart-
ments of technology, I mean the invention of the
dynamo-electric machine.

As early as the autumn of 1866, when I was
intent on perfecting electric exploding apparatus with
the help of my cylindrical inductor, the question
occupied my mind, whether it would not be possible
by suitable employment of the so-called extra- current,
to considerably intensify the induction - current. It
became clear to me, that an electro-magnetic machine,
whose working power is very much enfeebled by the
induced currents arising in its coils, because these
induced currents considerably diminish the efficiency
of the source of electricity, might conversely strengthen
the force of the latter, if it were forcibly turned in
the opposite direction by an external force. This
could not fail to be the case, because the direction
of the induced currents was at the same time reversed
by the reversed movement. In fact, experiments
confirmed this theory, and it appeared that there
always remains sufficient magnetism in the fixed
electro-magnets of a suitably contrived electro-magnetic
machine to produce the most surprising effects by
gradually strengthening the current generated by the
reversed rotation.

This was the discovery and first application of
the dynamo-electric principle underlying all dynamo-
electric machines. The first problem, which was

DYNAMO-ELECTRIC MACHINE. 331

thereby practically solved, was the construction of an
effective electric exploding apparatus without steel
magnets, and such exploding apparatus is still in general
use at the present day. The Berlin physicists, among
them Magnus, Dove, Riess, du Bois-Reymond , were
extremely surprised, when I laid before them in
December 1866 such an exploding inductor, and
showed, that a small electro-magnetic machine without
battery and permanent magnets, which could be turned
in one direction without effort and with any velocity,
offered an almost insuperable resistance when turned
in the opposite direction, and at the same time produced
an electric current of such strength, that its wire -coils
became quickly heated. Professor Magnus immediately
offered to lay a description of my invention before
the Berlin Academy of Sciences, but, on account of
the Christmas holidays, this could only be done in the
following year, on the 17th of January 1867.

The priority of my application of the dynamo-
electric principle was afterwards impugned in various
quarters, when its enormous importance came to be
seen in its further development. At first, Professor
Wheatstone was almost universally recognised in Eng-
land as simultaneous inventor, because at a sitting of
the Royal Society on the 15th of February 1867, at
which my brother William produced my apparatus, he
immediately exhibited a similar apparatus, which was
only distinguishable from mine by the wire -coils of
the fixed electro-magnet being differently disposed in
their relation to those of the rotating cylindrical magnet.

332 DYNAMO-ELECTRIC MACHINE.

Next, Mr. Varley came forward with the assertion,
that already in the early part of the autumn of 1866
he had given orders to a mechanician for just such
an apparatus, and also subsequently handed in a
"provisional specification" of the same. My first
complete theoretical establishment of the principle in
the printed Transactions of the Berlin Academy, and
its previous practical elucidation, have however finally
been taken to be decisive in my favour. The name
given by me to the apparatus "dynamo-electric machine"'
has also become general, although frequently corrupted
in practice into "the dynamo".

Already in my communication to the Berlin
Academy, I had pointed out that technical science was
now in possession of appliances capable of producing
electric currents of any desired tension and strength
by the expenditure of energy, and that this would
prove of great importance for many of its branches.
In fact large machines of the kind were immediately
constructed by my firm, one of which was exhibited
at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867, whilst a
second was employed in the summer of the same year
by the military authorities for electric lighting experi-
ments in Berlin. These experiments proved indeed
quite satisfactory, with the drawback, however, of the
wire-coils of the armatures rapidly becoming so hot,
that the electric light produced could only be allowed
for a short time without interruption. The machine
exhibited in Paris was never actually put to the test,
as there were no appliances for the transmission of

DYNAMO-ELECTRIC MACHINE. 333

force in the space allotted to my firm, and the jury,
to which I myself belonged, did not subject the exhibits
of their members, which were "hors concours", to any
trial. All the greater was the sensation caused by
an imitation of my machine exhibited by an English
mechanician, which produced from time to time a small
electric light. It was considered a sufficient recognition
that the order of the Legion of Honour was awarded
to me at the close of the exhibition.

When at a later time the dynamo-machine, after
considerable improvement, especially by the introduction
of Pacinottrs ring and Hefner's coiling system, had
received the most extensive application in practice,
and both mathematicians and engineers had developed its
theory, it seemed almost self-evident and hardly to be
called an invention, that one should arrive by merely
reversing the rotation of an electro-magnetic machine
at the dynamo -electric machine. Against this it may
be said, that the most obvious inventions, of primary
importance, are commonly made very late, and in the
most round-about way. For the rest it would not
have been easy to have arrived by accident at the
discovery of the dynamo-electric principle, because
electro-magnetic machines only "excite", i. e. spon-
taneously strengthen their electro-magnetism on re-
versing the rotation, when their dimensions and the
disposition of the coils are perfectly correct.

To this period also belongs my invention of
the alcoholmeter, which very successfully solved an
extremely difficult problem, and accordingly excited

334 ALCOHOLMETER. BERLIN FIRM.

much attention at the time. The problem consisted
in constructing an apparatus to register continuously
and automatically the quantity of absolute alcohol
contained in the spirit flowing through it. My apparatus
solved this problem so completely, that it indicated
the quantity of alcohol, reduced to the customary
normal temperature, as accurately as could be determined
by the most exact scientific measurements. The Russian
government has employed this apparatus for almost
a quarter of a century in levying the high tax, which
is imposed on the production of spirit, and many other
European states have also subsequently adopted it for
the same purpose. Apart from a few important
practical improvements due to my cousin Louis Siemens,
the apparatus is still supplied in the original form as
a regular article of manufacture by a factory specially
erected for the purpose in Charlottenburg. No imitation
has hitherto been successful anywhere, although the
apparatus is unprotected by a patent.

The dimensions, which the firm of Siemens and
Halske gradually attained, of course required a correspon-
ding organization of the management and the help
of able technical and administrative assistants. The
friend of my youth, William Meyer, who filled the
post of chief engineer and confidential clerk from the
year 1855, had, by his considerable organizing talent,
not only rendered valuable service to the Berlin firm,
but also to its branches in London, St. Petersburg,

HALSKE RETIRES FROM THE FIRM. 335

and Vienna, Unfortunately he fell ill of a serious
disorder after eleven years activity in the business,
and died after prolonged sickness, deeply lamented by
me as a personal friend and faithful co-worker.

Not long afterwards, in the year 1868, my old
friend and partner Halske retired from the firm. The
favourable development of the business — this will
hardly appear credible to many at first sight — was
the determining reason for his taking this step. The
explanation lies in Halske's singularly constituted nature.
He took great pleasure in the faultless productions
of his clever hand, as well as in everything that he
could entirely overlook and control. Our common
activity was thoroughly satisfactory for both parties.
Halske always gladly adopted my constructive plans
and designs, which with remarkable mechanical tact
he at once most distinctly apprehended, and to which
he often first gave their full value by his practical
skill. At the same time Halske was a clear-headed
cautious man of business, and him alone have I to
thank for the good business results of the first years.
The case altered however, when the business increased
and could no longer be managed by us two alone.
Halske regarded it as a desecration of his cherished
establishment that strangers should have rank and rule
in it. Even the installation of a book-keeper gave
him pain. He could never get over it that the well-
organized concern should exist and work without him.
Finally, when the designs and undertakings of the firm
became so large that he could no more overlook

336 FELLOW-WORKERS.

them, he felt no longer satisfied, and resolved to retire,
in order to devote his whole activity to the ad-
ministration of the city of Berlin, which afforded him
personal satisfaction. Halske remained a dear and
faithful friend to me -till his death, which occurred
last year, and always, even to the last, retained a
lively interest in the establishment of which he was
joint -founder. His only son takes to-day an active
part in the management of the present business as
confidential clerk.

As Meyer's successor we appointed the former
director of the Hanoverian telegraph system, Herr
Karl Frischen, who after the annexation of Hanover
passed over into the service of the North German
Confederation, and had for several years filled the
office formerly held by Meyer as chief telegraph
engineer of the Government telegraphs. The business
gained in Herr Frischen an eminent technical worker,
who had already distinguished himself by many original
inventions. Further it was now of great advantage
to the firm, that excellent departmental managers and
constructors had been formed among its junior assistants,
who had received their training in the firm. I shall
only mention Herr von Hefner-Alteneck, whose achieve-
ments as head of our construction-office have earned
for him a world-wide reputation.

Supported by such able coadjutors I was able more
and more to confine myself to the general management
of the business, and to leave with full confidence the
details to our assistants. In this way I obtained greater

REMARRIAGE. 337

leisure to occupy myself with scientific and such social
problems as I had particularly at heart.

My domestic life underwent a complete trans-
formation through my second marriage, which took
place on the 13th of July 1869, with Antonie Siemens,
a distant relative, the only child of the meritorious,
and in agricultural technology well-known, professor
Carl Siemens in Hohenheim near Stuttgart. I have
often jokingly said in after-dinner speeches and the
like, that this marriage with a Suabian lady should
be looked upon as a political act, as the Main line
was bound to be bridged, and this could best be
done by as many alliances of affection as possible
being concluded between North and South, which must
then of themselves soon be followed by political ones.
Whether my patriotism was not considerably influenced
by the amiable qualities of the fair Suabian herself,
who has again brought warm sunshine into my some-
what gloomy and laborious life, I shall not here more
closely enquire.

When on the 30th of July 1870 the news arrived
by telegraph in Charlottenburg that the Emperor
Napoleon had crossed the German frontier at Saarbrtick
and the fateful war between Germany and France had
actually begun, my wife presented me with a little
daughter, to be followed two years later by a son.
I gave our daughter the name Hertha, in pursuance
of a vow to give her this name, if the German war-
ship so called, which the French fleet were chasing
in all waters, escaped capture. My four elder children

22

338 THE WAR OF

were in Heligoland at the time of the declaration of
war, and had to flee as speedily as possible with the
whole troop of visitors, in order not to be prevented
from returning by the blockade. The telegram of my
eldest son, then sixteen, from Cuxhaven may pass as
a sample of the deep emotion and courage that had
taken possession of all Germany - - "I must join too'',
words that happily could not be translated into action,
as before the completed seventeenth year no one is
accepted in the Prussian army.

The war with France, like that of 1866, was
speedily carried to a victorious issue for Germany,
after a struggle of tremendous proportions. The joyful
consciousness, that Germans from all parts for the first
time in the course of their history fought and con-
quered side by side under the same flag, made the
heavy sacrifices, with which the gloriously achieved
victories had to be purchased, appear more endurable,
and lightened the profound mourning and misery, which
the war entailed. It was a glorious and elevating
time, which has left impressions never to be effaced
on all who lived through it; and coming generations
will assuredly never suffer the feeling of devout grati-
tude to die out, which the nation owes to the great
leaders who put an end to its ignominious discords,
and made it united and powerful.

Although I had entirely renounced political acti-
vity after the year 1866, I still continued to take the

THE PATENT QUESTION. 339

greatest interest in public affairs. One question, to
which I had long before paid particular attention, was
that of patent - right. It had long become clear to
me that one of the greatest obstacles to the free
and independent development of German industry lay
in the lack of protection for inventions. It is true
that in Prussia, as also in the other large states of

7 O

Germany, patents were granted for inventions, but the
grant entirely depended on the good pleasure of the
authorities and lasted at the most only for three years.
Even for this short time they afforded only a very
unsatisfactory protection against imitation, for it rarely
paid to take out patents in all the states belonging to
the Zollverein, since every state applied its own test
of originality, and indeed strictly speaking it was im-
possible, as many of the smaller states did not grant
patents at all. The consequence was that inventors, as
a matter of course, sought in the first instance to turn
their inventions to account in foreign countries, espe-
cially England, France, and the United States. The
youthful German industry was therefore altogether
thrown upon the imitation of foreign productions, and
thereby indirectly still more strengthened the preference
of the German public for foreign manufactures by
only dealing in imitations, and these for the most part
also under a foreign flag.

As to the worthlessness of the old Prussian patents
there could not be two opinions. Indeed they were
as a rule only applied for in order to obtain a certifi-
cate that an invention had actually been made. Further-

22*

340 ACTION ON THE PATENT QUESTION.

more , the then dominant thoroughgoing Free Trade
party regarded the patenting of inventions as a relic
of the old monopoly rights, and incompatible with the
principles of Free Trade. In this sense a circular
letter was sent in the summer of 1863 by the Prussian
Minister of Commerce to all the chambers of commerce
of the state, in which the uselessness, nay even inju-
riousness of the patent system was set forth and finally
the question propounded, whether the time had not
come to abolish it entirely. This led me to draw up
a memorial to the Berlin Chamber of Commerce, the
council of Berlin merchants, which adopted the dia-
metrically opposite point of view, to set forth the
necessity and utility of a patent -law for the promotion
of the industry of the country, and to sketch the out-
lines of a rational patent -law.

My detailed statement was approved by the
Council, although the latter consisted of very pro-
nounced free traders. It was unanimously adopted
as the opinion of the Chamber of Commerce , and at
the same time communicated to the other chambers
of commerce of the state. Of the latter those, which
had not yet sent in a reply assenting to the abolition
of patents, expressed their sympathy writh the Berlin
decision, and as a consequence the proposal for abo-
lition was abandoned.

This favourable result afterwards encouraged me
to initiate a serious agitation for the introduction of an
imperial patent -law, on the basis proposed by me.
I sent a circular to a considerable number of men,

ACTION ON THE PATENT QUESTION. 341

who I supposed would have a special interest in the
matter, and asked them to form a "Patent Protection
Union", with the object of procuring a rational Ger-
man patent -law. The call was generally responded
to, and a short time after the Union was called into
existence under my presidency. I remember with
pleasure the stimulating debates of this Union, to
which eminent legal authorities such as Professor
Klostermann, Mayor Andre, and Dr. Rosenthal be-
longed. The final result of the discussions was the
draft of a patent -law, which essentially rested on
the foundation laid by me in my statement of 1863.
This consisted of a preliminary inquiry in regard to
the novelty of the invention and subsequent public
exhibition of the specification, thereby affording an
opportunity for objections to the grant; further the
grant of the patent for the term of fifteen years, with
yearly increasing impost and complete publication of
the patent granted; finally establishment of a patent-
tribunal , which on application could always declare
the nullity of the patent, if the originality of the in-
vention was afterwards successfully disputed.

These principles gradually gained approval with
the public also, and even the Free Trade party of the
most rigid principles was quieted by the economic
basis of the proposal, which consisted in the protection
appearing as a reward for the immediate and complete
publication of the invention, whereby the new ideas
underlying the patented invention became themselves
industrial common property, and might even bear

342 ACTION ON THE PATENT QUESTION.

fruit in other fields. It took however a long time
before the imperial government resolved to take legis-
lative action in the matter. I fancy that a memorial,
which as president of the Patent Protection Union I
addressed to the imperial Chancellor, had a consider-
able influence on the decision for the promulgation
of an imperial patent -law. In this memorial I laid
stress on the inferior condition and the slight esti-
mation of German industry, its productions being every-
where styled "cheap and nasty"; and at the same
time I pointed out that a new firm bond for the young
German empire would be created, if thousands of manu-
facturers and engineers from all parts of the country
could find in the institutions of the empire the long
desired protection for their intellectual property.

In the year 1876 a meeting of manufacturers as
well as of administrative officials and judges was called
together from all Germany, which made the draft of
the Patent Protection Union the definite basis of their
deliberations. The bill resulting from these deliberations
was adopted by the Reichstag with a few modifications,
and has very materially contributed to strengthen Ger-
man industry, and procure respect for its productions
both at home and abroad. Our industry has since
been on the best way to lose in almost all its branches
the stigma of "cheap and nasty", which Professor
Reuleaux rightly gave to its productions at the Phila-
delphia Exhibition in 1876.

PROGRESS OF THE LONDON FIRM SINCE 1864. 343

I will now take up my account of the develop-
ment of the businesses established by us from the
point where I described the changes, which our London
house had to go through after the unsuccessful cable
undertakings between Spain and Algeria in the year
1864. The firm of Siemens Brothers, from that time
separated from the Berlin business, had quickly and
regularly developed under brother William's direction,
both as manufacturing and contracting concern. As
William had also at the same time great success in
the engineering business carried on by him privately,
and his time and energies were thereby very much
taken up, the desire arose at the end of the sixties
that brother Charles should undertake the special
management of the London telegraph business. Charles
consented, as since the expiration of the Russian
maintenance contracts he no longer found any consider-
able sphere of activity in Russia,

Halske's resolution to retire from the Berlin firm
was taken about the same time, and we three brothers
decided accordingly upon an entire reform of the
business - connection of our different firms. A joint
business was formed which embraced them all. Each
firm retained its independence as regards administration
and financial methods, its profit and loss account however
was carried over to the joint business, of which we
three brothers were the sole proprietors and partners.
The St. Petersburg concern was placed under an able
manager, whilst Charles went to England to undertake
the special management of the London firm.

344 PROGRESS OP THE LONDON FIRM SINCE 1864.

How splendidly the London house, now named
"Siemens Brothers", prospered in the immediately
following period has been described at length in the
above-mentioned book of Dr. Pole on my brother
William. I therefore confine myself here to some
remarks on my own and my brother Charles's personal
cooperation.

When in the year 1869 Charles transferred his
residence to London, the factory at Charlton was
already in full work as a mechanical workshop for the
construction of electric apparatus of every kind; a cable-
sheathing shop was also combined with it, in which
important cables had already been manufactured. The
principle employed by me in the testings of the English
Government cables, that the permanence of a cable
could only be assured, if it were tested at all stages
of its manufacture with scientific thoroughness and
accuracy, had borne good fruit , and the system of
cable testings, then elaborated, has answered admirably
well in the sequel.

The remarkable success of the Malta -Alexandria
line, which we tested according to this system for the
English Government, had considerably raised our tech-
nical reputation in England, and perhaps for this reason
the only factory in England, which then turned out
wires coated with seamless gutta-percha according to my
method, threw difficulties in the way of supplying the
purified gutta-percha which we ordered from it. We
accordingly resolved to establish our own gutta-percha
factory, and accomplished this with complete success.

DIRECT ATLANTIC CABLE. 345

In this manner we were enabled ourselves to under-
take great cable -lay ings, and thereby to break down
the monopoly of the great cable-ring which had mean-
while been formed, and whose purpose was to monopo-
lize the whole submarine telegraphy. In reality my
brothers succeeded in calling a Company into existence,
which entrusted to us the production and the laying of
an independent direct cable between Ireland and the
United States. The requisite capital was subscribed
on the Continent, as the English market was closed
to us by the overwhelming competition.

Brother William shewed his great constructive
ingenuity by designing a large steam -ship expressly
destined for the laying of cables, which was christened
by us "Faraday". Brother Charles undertook the
command of it on laying the cable. I considered
Charles specially fitted for this task, as he was cool
and deliberate, besides being a good observer and
resolute in action. I myself was not to be deterred
from sailing in the Faraday, freighted with the deep-
sea cable, to the starting point of the laying, Ballins-
kellig Bay, on the west coast of Ireland, and there
undertaking the direction of the operations of the land-
station during the laying.

It was tolerably favourable weather, and every-
thing went well. The difficult abrupt descent of the Irish
coast into deep water was successfully got over, and
according to the electrical testings the state of the cable
was faultless. Then suddenly there occurred a small
defect in the insulation, so small that only extremely

346 DIRECT ATLANTIC CABLE.

sensitive instruments, such as we were employing, could
have detected it. -According to previous cable-laying
practice, this defect would have been allowed to pass,
as it was without any influence on the signalling. But
we wished to lay down a perfectly faultless cable, and
determined therefore to take the cable up again to
the point of the fault, which must be immediately
behind the ship. This indeed went off well in spite
of the great depth of 18,000 feet, as was continuously
telegraphed to us from the ship. Suddenly however
the scale of our galvanometer flew out of the field of
sight, - - the cable was broken! Broken at a depth,
from which to fish up the end again appeared quite
impossible.

It was a hard blow, which threatened our personal
reputation as well as our business credit. The intel-
ligence spread through all England in the same hour,
and was received with very different feelings. Nobody
believed in the possibility of recovering a detached
piece of cable from so great a depth, and even brother
William advised by telegraph to abandon the paid-out
cable, and to recommence the laying. I was how-
ever convinced that Charles would not return without
having made the attempt to pick the cable up, and
calmly watched the continual fluctuations of the scale
of the galvanometer to detect any signs pointing to
the movement of the cable-end by the search- anchor.
Such indications indeed frequently occurred, without
having further consequences, and two anxious days
passed without any news from the ship. All at once

DIRECT ATLANTIC CABLE. 347

a violent mirror- vibration! The end of the copper-
wire must be in metallic contact. Then for several
hours feeble regular twitching of the reflected image
of the scale, from which I inferred a jerky lifting of
the cable -end by the grapnel. However succeeding
quiet for hours together caused hope to sink again.
Then once more strong mirror - vibration produced
by a current from the ship, wrhich was greeted with
reiterated hurrahs by the workers at the "station.
The incredible had been realised. From a depth ex-
ceeding the height of Mont Blanc the cable had been
found by a single operation, and what is more, had
been brought up to the surface unbroken. Many favou-
rable circumstances must have combined to make this
possible. Good sandy sea-bottom, fine weather, suitable
appliances for seeking and lifting the cable, and a good
manageable ship with a skilful captain, happily con-
curred, and made the apparently impossible possible
with the help of much luck and self-confidence. Brother
Charles, however, confessed to me afterwards that
during the uninterrupted lowering of the grapnel,
which took seven hours, to reach the sea - bottom,
giving him for the first time a clear idea of the known
depth, he had lost all hope of success and was him-
self astounded when it came.

After successful removal of the fault and re-esta-
blishment of connection with the land the laying was
continued for some days without disturbance. Then
the ship reported rough weather, and soon after a
small fault again occurred in the cable, which was

348 DIRECT ATLANTIC CABLE.

left however till reaching shallow water off Newfound-
land, in order to seek and remove it when the weather
was more favourable. The picking up proved how-
ever to be very difficult, as the sea-bottom was rocky
and the weather persistently bad. Much cable was
thereby lost, and the Faraday was obliged to return
to England without finishing her task, to ship fresh
cable and coals. Yet even the following expedition
led only to the more accurate localization, but not to
the removal of the fault, and a third attempt was
necessary, in order to render the cable communication
perfectly faultless.

This first transatlantic cable-laying of ours was
not only exceedingly instructive for us, but in point
of fact led for the first time to the complete clear
apprehension and mastery of cable - layings in deep
water. We had shown, that even in unfavourable
weather and at a bad time of year cables can be laid
and repaired, and that too in very deep seas and with
a single, but well -constructed and sufficiently large
ship. The loss of cable, which we had had in the
repairings, was attributed by brother Charles to the
unsuitableness of the construction of the cable, which
was identical with that adopted for the first successful
transatlantic cable. For diminishing the specific gravity
of the cable steel wires had been used for the cover-
ing and protection of the conductor, surrounded with
hemp or jute. On a strong pull these twisted the
cable and produced kinks in the cable on the bottom
of the ocean, which very much impeded or altogether

DIRECT ATLANTIC CABLE. 349

prevented the taking up again. In accordance with
Charles's suggestion we afterwards used only a closed
steel -wire sheathing and thereby removed all the diffi-
culties, which so considerably hampered our first deep
sea laying.

On the further technical improvements in the
method of laying cables in deep water, to which the
preceding enterprise led us, I cannot here enlarge. I
will only mention that my theory, propounded on laying
the Cagliari-Bona cable in 1857, has held its ground
very well. As already mentioned, I have further
developed and mathematically treated this theory in
an essay laid before the Berlin Academy of Sciences
and the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians
in London, and believe that it may now be regarded
as fairly settled.

The laying of this our first transatlantic cable
brought us brothers many exciting incidents, one of
which occurred at a very unfavourable moment and
profoundly agitated me.

I had been elected in the year 1874 by the Royal
Academy of Sciences in Berlin one of its ordinary
members, an honour which hitherto had only fallen
to the lot of professed savans, and on the day fixed
for the purpose I was about to give my prescribed
inaugural address at a special meeting of the Academy,
when on leaving the house I received a telegraphic
message from London to the effect, that according
to a cablegram the Faraday had been crushed by
icebergs and had gone down with all hands on board.

350 FURTHER ATLANTIC CABLES.

It required no slight self-control on my part, oppressed
as I was by this terrible intelligence, still to deliver
my address, which did not admit of postponement.
Only a few intimate friends had perceived my violent
emotion. Certainly I had hopes from the first moment,
that it was only a "love-token" of our opponents, to
cause this dread intelligence to be concocted in America,
whence it was telegraphed. And indeed it soon turned
out to be a baseless fiction. How the story originated
could never be found out, and after the lapse of
several anxious days the Faraday was reported safe
and sound from Halifax. It had for a considerable
time been detained at sea by a thick fog.

The successful completion of the American cable
raised the London firm at a stroke to a far higher
level of English business - life than it had occupied
hitherto. The testing of the electric properties of the
cable by the highest authority in this department, Sir
William Thomson, had proved that it was entirely
faultless and possessed a very high signalling capacity.
It was of great importance that the cable ring, which
had been formed under Sir John Fender's auspices,
was now broken through. It is true the attempt was
made to restore it by subsequently admitting to the
ring the cable laid by us. This however was to our
advantage, for there was soon formed another, and
this time a French, company, which gave orders to our
firm to lay an independent cable. After a short time
this also was purchased by the Globe, as the cable
ring was called, but this led to American capital being

FURTHER ATLANTIC CABLES. 351

attracted to cable telegraphy. Brother William received
in the year 1881 a cablegram, in which the well-known
railway - king Mr. Gould ordered a double cable to
America, which was to be constructed entirely like
the last laid by us - - the French so-called Pouyer-
Quertier cable. It is a sign of the credit, which our
firm enjoyed also on the other side of the ocean, that
Mr. Gould declined to receive a representative to con-
clude the contract, "as he had perfect confidence in
us," and confirmed this by the remittance of a large
instalment. This was the more noteworthy, as Mr. Gould
is well known in America as a very cautious and keen
man of business, and it was a matter of some millions.
At any rate, however, he had correctly speculated, for
his unlimited confidence constrained my brothers to
propose the most favourable conditions possible and
to execute the work in the very best fashion. The
Gould cables after some competitive contests were also
united with the Globe, but it was America that again
broke through the monopoly. In the year 1884 the
well-known Americans, Mackay and Bennett, gave orders
to Siemens Brothers for two cables between the English
coast and New York, which were faultlessly manufac-
tured and laid within a year, and have up till now
maintained their independence of the cable ring.

These six transatlantic cables have all been laid
by the "Faraday", which proved a most satisfactory
ship for cable -laying, and as such has served as a
model for the competing firms. The double screw
with axes inclined to one another, which was first

352 DEATH OF WILLIAM.

employed in it, gave to the great ship of 5000 tons
a degree of mobility hitherto unattained, which made
it possible to carry out cable -laying and repairing
work in every season and even in unfavourable weather.
Brother Charles had already returned in the year
1880 to St. Petersburg, after the London firm had
at his instigation been transformed into a private
limited liability company. In the year 1883 brother
William was, alas, torn from us and his untiring ac-
tivity by a quite unexpected and sudden death. Herr
Loffler, an official of many years standing, was in-
stalled as managing director of the London firm, and
has been recently succeeded by a younger member
of the family, Mr. Alexander Siemens.

My appointment as ordinary member of the Berlin
Academy of Sciences was not only very honourable in
itself for the favoured individual, who did not belong
to the class of professional savans, it also had a pro-
found influence on my later life. As my friend du Bois-
Reymond, who acknowledged my inaugural address as
presiding secretary of the Academy, rightly pointed out,
I belonged by natural endowment and inclination in
a far higher degree to science than to practice.
Scientific research was my first, my early love, and
it has retained my affection to the advanced age,
which I now - - I can hardly say - - enjoy. At the
same time I have certainly always felt the impulse to
make scientific attainments useful for practical life.

APPOINTED MEMBER OF THE BERLIN ACADEMY. 353

I expressed that in my inaugural address , when I
enlarged on the theme that science does not exist
for its own sake, merely to satisfy the thirst for
knowledge of the limited number of its votaries, but
that its office is to increase the treasures of know-
ledge and power of the human race, and thereby to
raise mankind to a higher level of civilization. It was
noteworthy that friend du Bois in his reply to my
address bade me at the end welcome "into the circle
of the Academy, which only pursues science for its own
sake". In very truth scientific investigation must not
be means to an end. The German savant has always
been justly distinguished by this , that he pursues
science on its own account, for the satisfaction of his
thirst for knowledge, and in this sense I have always
been able to reckon myself more to the savans than
to the engineers, since the prospective profit has either
not at all, or only in special cases, guided me in the
choice of my scientific work. The entrance into the
narrow circle of distinguished men of science could
not therefore but elevate me in a high degree and
spur me to scientific activity. Moreover the statutes
of the Academy exerted a beneficial constraint upon
me. Every member must in rotation give a lecture,
which is then printed in its Transactions. As it was
very disagreeable to evade this obligation, it compelled
me to complete and publish researches, which under
other circumstances I should perhaps have postponed
in favour of others seemingly more interesting, or have

left altogether unfinished. Whilst therefore before my

23

354 ACADEMIC LABOURS.

reception into the Academy I seldom got so far as
the publication of a piece of scientific work, and
usually contented myself with the enlargement of my
own knowledge not without subsequent vexation,

if my results were discovered and then made public
by others - - I was now obliged every year to finish
and publish one or two contributions. To this state
of things is also to be ascribed the circumstance that
in my academical lectures I dealt less with matters
of my special department, electrical technology, than
with subjects of general scientific interest. They were
partly detached thoughts and reflections, jotted down
in the course of my life, which were now brought
together and scientifically worked up, partly novel
phenomena, which aroused my particular interest and
called for special investigation. I shall once more
return to these purely scientific publications at the
close of these reminiscences.

Although since my reception into the Academy
I had been far more occupied than heretofore with
purely scientific problems, which stood in no relation
to my business calling, I did not omit to continue
to devote the needful time to the latter also. The
superior management of the Berlin firm, and the
technical work connected with it, usually claimed
my whole working time during the day. The diffi-
culty of my task was much augmented by the in-
creasingly multifarious character of the firm's opera-
tions, and the great dimensions they had assumed;
and although able coadjutors relieved me of a con-

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BERLIN FIRM. 355

siderable portion of the burden, yet there still remained
for me much arduous and unceasing work.

^/Jt had very early become clear to me that a
satisfactory development of the continually growing
firm must depend on securing the hearty spontaneous
co-operation of all the workers for the furtherance
of its interests. To attain this it seemed to me es-
sential that all who belonged to the firm should
share in the profits according to their performances.
As my brothers acceded to my view this principle
came to be adopted in all our establishments. Ar-
rangements to that end were settled at the cele-
bration of the twenty -fifth anniversary of the original
Berlin firm in the autumn of 1872. We then
determined that a considerable portion of the yearly
profits should regularly be set aside for allowing a
percentage to officials proportionate to their salaries
and bonuses to workmen, and as a reserve fund for
necessitous cases. Moreover we presented the col-
lective body of workers with a capital-stock of £9000
for an old age and invalid fund, the firm agreeing to
pay every year to the account of the managers of
the fund, chosen directly by those interested, fifteen
shillings for each workman and thirty shillings for
each official, who had served in the business uninter-
ruptedly for a twelvemonth.

These arrangements have worked remarkably well
during the nearly twenty years of their existence.
Officials and workmen regard themselves as a per-
manent part of the firm and identify its interests with

23*

356 PENSION FUND.

their own. It is seldom that officials give up their
position, since they see their future assured in the
service of the firm. The workmen also remain per-
manently attached to the firm, as the amount of the
pension rises with the uninterrupted period of service.
After thirty years continuous service the full old
age pension commences with two thirds of the wages;
and that this is of practical importance is proved by
the respectable number of old age pensioners who are
still strong and hearty, and beside their pension con-
tinue to receive their full wages. But almost more
than the prospect of a pension the endowment fund
for widows and orphans connected with the pension
fund binds the workmen to the firm. It has been
proved to be the case that this endowment is still more
urgent than the invalid pension, as the uncertainty of
the future of those dependent on him commonly
weighs more heavily on the workman than his own.
The ageing workman nearly always loves his work,
and does not willingly lay it down without actual and
serious need of rest. Accordingly the superannuation
fund of the firm, in spite of a liberal use of the pensions
by the workmen themselves, has only consumed the
smaller part of the incomings from the interest of the
funded capital and the contributions of the firm to-
wards pensions; the larger part could be applied for
the support of widows and orphans as well as for in-
creasing the capital stock of the fund, which is destined
to secure the workman's claim for pensions in the
event of the possible liquidation of the business.

VALUE OF PRIVATE PENSION FUNDS. 357

The reproach has been made to this arrangement
that it binds the workman too much to the particular
workshop, because by his leaving it he loses the
advantages gained. This is quite true, although the
hardship is considerably mitigated by the circumstance
that with dismissal for want of work every dismissed,
workman receives a paper, giving him a preferential
claim to re-admission over other workmen. Certainly the
workman's freedom to strike is considerably restricted
by the conditions regarding pensions, for on his vo-
luntarily leaving his old age claims lapse by the rules.
It is however to the interest of both parties that a
permanent working staff should be formed, for only
thereby is the firm enabled to maintain the workmen
even in unfavourable times and to pay them wages
affording subsistence. Every large factory ought to
form such a pension -fund, to which the workmen
contribute nothing, but which they themselves manage,
of course under the control of the firm. In this
manner the strike mania, which seriously injures in-
dustry and especially the workmen themselves, is best
coped with.

It is certainly somewhat hard that the provisions
of the Workmen's Old Age Insurance. Law of Ger-
many have no regard to the already existing or
prospective private pension funds, and thus oblige
the particular factories to pay double for pensioning
their workmen. However the peaceful relations between
employers and employees, which are secured by the
private pension fund, as well as a permanent staff of

358 LARGE COMMERCIAL HOUSES IN THE MODERN STATE.

workmen, are so important, that such an excess of
expenditure is amply justified.

The esprit de corps produced by the arrangements
described, which binds together all the fellow labourers
of the firm of Siemens & Halske, and gives them an
interest in its welfare, explains in great part the com-
mercial success which we achieved.

This leads me to the question, whether altogether
it is to the general interest that large commercial
houses should be established, which permanently remain
in the possession of the family of the founder. It
might be said that such large firms are hindrances to
the rise of many smaller undertakings and therefore
act injuriously. That is certainly pertinent in many
cases. Wherever it is possible to maintain an export
trade by the productions of handicraftsmen, large
competing factories have a prejudicial effect. Wherever,
on the contrary, the development of new branches of
industry or the opening of the markets of the world
for those already in existence comes into question,
large centralised business undertakings with abundant

o o

capital are indispensable. Such capitals can certainly
at the present day be most easily brought together
in the form of joint stock companies, but these can
nearly always be only pure gain-seeking companies
which, by their own regulations, are only allowed to
have in view the attainment of the largest possible
amount of profit. They are therefore only adapted
for reaping advantage from already existing well-
tried methods of working and organizations. The

LARGE COMMERCIAL HOUSES IN THE MODERN STATE. 359

opening of new paths is on the contrary nearly always
troublesome and attended with great risk, requires
also a larger store of special knowledge and ex-
perience than is to be found in joint stock com-
panies, for the most part short-lived and often
changing their management. Such an aggregation of
capital, knowledge, and experience can only be formed
and maintained in long established commercial houses,
remaining by inheritance in the same family. Just
as the great commercial houses of the Middle Ages
were not only money -making institutions, but con-
sidered themselves called upon and bound to serve
their fellow- citizens and the state by seeking out new
commodities and new highways of commerce - - the
obligation being transmitted as a family tradition through
many generations — so at the present day in this
awakened scientific age the large technical business-
houses are called upon to put forth their whole
strength, that the national industry may take the lead
in the great contest of the civilized world, or at
least the place assigned to it by the nature and
situation of the country itself. Our political institutions
still rest almost everywhere on the feudal system,
according to which the landed proprietor was almost
exclusively regarded and honoured as the supporter
and maintainer of the power of the State. Our time
can no longer recognize the validity of this privilege.
Not on possessions, be they what they may, will the
conservative force of society henceforth depend, but
on the spirit which animates and fertilizes them. Al-

360 SOCIAL POSITION.

though it is conceded that inherited possession of the
soil binds by tradition and education the owner more
firmly to the state, and is therefore more conservative
than land easily transferable and capital altogether
moveable, it yet no longer suffices to protect the state
from impoverishment and decay. This protection can
only be secured to-day by the conscious co-operation
of all the spiritual forces of the nation, the mainte-
nance and further development of which is one of
the most important problems of the modern state.

Although the fact, that I owe my position in
life to my own efforts, has always afforded me a
certain satisfaction , yet I have always gratefully
acknowledged that my path was smoothed by my ad-
mission into the Prussian army and therewith into the
State of the great Frederick. I regard the cabinet
order of Frederick William III., which accorded me
the entry into the Prussian army, as the opening of
the only path then possible, in which my energies
could be developed. I have often, in my later life,
had opportunity to perceive how true had been the
utterance of my father that, in spite of all discontent
with the Prussian policy of the Holy Alliance, Prussia
was yet the only firm point in Germany and the only
anchorage for the hearts of German patriots. I have
therefore always bestowed my, I may well say, inborn
affection to the German fatherland first and foremost
on Prussia, and have always been faithfully and grate-

SOCIAL POSITION. 361

fully devoted to it and its five kings, under whose
rule I lived. It was not only the knowledge to be
acquired at the Prussian military schools and the
mental culture there attained, which facilitated my
later progress in life, it was also the position of
military officer held in such esteem in Prussia, which
was of the greatest assistance to me.

Prussia was, as I have already mentioned in
another place, down to the middle of the present
century essentially a military and bureaucratic state,
only to the nobility and landed gentry certain honorary
privileges appertained. An industrial class proper was
entirely wanting, in spite of all the effort which
enlightened officials, such as Beuth, made in order
to form one from the insufficiently developed artisan
class. Moreover, as the trade of the country was
very limited, there was also wanting a prosperous
cultured middle class as counterpoise to the army, the
officials, and the landed nobility. Under these circum-
stances it was in Prussia of great value, to belong as
officer to the court-retinue and to have the entree to
all social circles.

It is customary at the Prussian court for this
privilege, possessed by every, even the civil officer,
of belonging to the court - circle to be continually
exercised. Thus as early as the winter of 1838, when
a young officer in the artillery and engineering school,
I was commanded to attend great entertainments at
the royal palace, and since that time, accordingly for
more than half a century, I have frequently been per-

362 SOCIAL POSITION.

mitted to be present at these great court gatherings,
which faithfully reflect Berlin society and clearly illus-
trate the immense revolution which Prussia, and all
Germany with it, has undergone during that time.
At these assemblies I have frequently had the oppor-
tunity of becoming personally acquainted with the
members of the Royal Family.

As previously mentioned, I had already had
occasion at an earlier period of my life to be grateful
to the Prince of Prussia for his kindness in liberating
me at St. Petersburg from a painful position. I have
ever retained this feeling of gratitude, but unfortunately
in consequence of my political views was constrained
to incur the anger of the monarch by voting in the
Diet according to my convictions against the reorgani-
zation of the army. When the declaration of war
against Austria had actually taken place, and the
brilliant victories of the reorganized Prussian army had
clearly proved the wisdom of the strengthening of the
army by this reorganization, I took indeed pains to
help to remove the injurious consequences of the
parliamentary resistance to the reorganization, and
successfully struggled for the grant of the indemnity
so magnanimously asked for by the victorious ruler,
but hardly thought I could ever hope to regain the
former favour of the sovereign. I was therefore all
the more agreeably surprised when at the close of the
Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867, at the same time
as the French croix d'honneur, the Prussian Order of
the Crown was conferred upon me.

SOCIAL POSITION. 363

A few years later the Emperor gave a still more
decided expression to this renewal of favour with a
kindliness, which could hardly be surpassed. I had
already for a number of years been a member of the
Council of the Berlin Merchants' Company, and accor-
ding to the prevailing practice had been proposed by
the president of the Company for nomination as Coun-
cillor of Commerce, without my knowing anything
about it. The Emperor had already approved of the
nomination, and the president of police was kind enough
to call upon me and personally to bring me the grati-
fying intelligence of this impressive mark of favour.
The title of Councillor of Commerce however was not
quite to my taste, for I considered and felt myself more
a savant and engineer than a merchant. The president
of police, who soon perceived my uneasiness, tried to
combat my objection and asked, what he should say
to the Emperor, who had desired to do me a favour.
Whereupon the remark slipped off my tongue, that
first lieutenant, honorary doctor of philosophy, and
Commercial Councillor did not agree, such a mixture

O '

would produce a stomach-ache! The police -president
finally promised to convey my petition to the Emperor
that my appointment as Councillor of Commerce should
not be published, and we agreed to meet at a particular
spot at the court ball to be given the same evening.
He there came up to me with a cheerful countenance,
and reported that he had communicated to the Emperor
my scruples regarding the stomach-ache; that the
Emperor had laughed heartily at it, and remarked he

364 SOCIAL POSITION.

himself felt something of the same sort, I should there-
fore ask for some other favour when he addressed me.
This unfortunately I could not do. A title more in
accordance with my position did not exist in Prussia
for non-officials and I could not possibly follow the
advice of the president to request a higher order,
since, as I said to him, one gratefully accepts such
when offered, but does not solicit it. This refusal
gave offence to the president, and as the Emperor
soon after passed without addressing me, I imagined
I had again incurred his displeasure. All the more
delighted, nay almost abashed was I, when the presi-
dent of police communicated to me, he had told the
Emperor that I knew of nothing to ask from him, and
that he had thereupon replied "well then, present
him to my wife".

In consequence of a mistake in persons this pre-
sentation did not take place then, and I also after-
wards omitted to be presented to the Empress in the
usual way, as it was repugnant to me to force myself
into the presence of royalty, as is so often done.
That this did not pass unnoticed I afterwards learnt
from the Empress herself. During the Vienna Ex-
hibition of 1873 the latter requested the German
jurors to be presented to her, I being one of them.
After the presentation was over, she sent for me
specially and said : "I have a bone to pick with you,
Herr Siemens, you try to give us the slip, but in
future you will not find that so easy". Indeed the
august lady often afterwards gave me proofs of her

SOCIAL POSITION. 365

esteem and graciousness in visiting our factories or
inviting me to give lectures on electrical subjects.

One of these lectures, which I had to give in the
Imperial palace, had special significance through the
Grand Duke of Baden on the day before the delivery
of the lecture having sent me a programme, precise
both in extent and subject, which the Emperor himself
had dictated to him. The theme ran "Nature and
cause of electricity and its application in practical
life". It was not easy to satisfy the theoretical part
of the programme, as our knowledge of the nature
of electricity is still very slight, but even the drawing
up of such a programme shows how profound was
the interest taken by the Emperor in the physical
sciences, the great importance of which for the further
development of human civilization he fully perceived.

The Crown Prince and his family have also in-
variably displayed the liveliest interest in the gradual
development and the scientific achievements of our
establishment, and have frequently honoured our fac-
tories with their presence. To this gracious and kindly
recognition of my efforts I, in fact, owe my place in
the list of recipients of honours, which the Emperor
Frederick announced on ascending the throne. Without
the usual preliminary inquiry I was included in the
list, and to my great astonishment first heard through
the newspapers of my admission into the ranks of
the nobility.

366 ACTIVITY AT THE PATENT OFFICE AND IN SOCIETIES.

Although my time was very much taken up with
my scientific work and my business, I yet never lost
my interest in the questions of public life. I was an
active member of several scientific and technical socie-
ties, took part both commercially and privately in the
great exhibitions, and was frequently appointed by the
government on special commissions for scientific and
technical questions. Of this multifarious activity I shall
here only cite a few instances, which appear to me
worthy of mention.

When the Imperial patent law came into being,
substantially in accordance with my proposals, an
invitation was issued to me to assist the newly con-
stituted Patent Office at least for a number of years.
I willingly complied, in order to be enabled to secure
that the practical application should be in harmony
with the adopted principles of the patent law. In
this manner I obtained the rank of an official of the
Empire and as such was proposed by Prince Bismarck
for the title of "Privy Councillor". I gratefully ac-
cepted the same, as the bearing of a title in Prussia
is very general and my colleagues, the members of the
Academy of Sciences, for the most part bore it.

I was an active member and for a number of
years deputy-chairman of the Association for the Pro-
motion of Industry, which was called into existence
by Beuth, the father of Prussian industry, and ren-
dered great service to the industrial development of
Germany under the many years' presidency of the
State Minister Delbrtick.

ELECTRO -TECHNICAL SOCIETY. 367

I had a large share in the establishment of the
Electro-Technical Society through the mediation of the
Secretary of State Dr. von Stephan,/! was" the first
active president of the Society and made many of my
technical labours for the first time public through
lectures in this Society. Similar societies were founded
in several places after the pattern of the Berlin Electro-
Technical Society; at the same time the meritorious
older Society of Telegraph Engineers in London, called
into existence by my brother William, expanded their
name and programme by adopting electric engineering
as the aim of the Society. The formation of the
Berlin Society is to be regarded as the commencement
of electro -technical science as a special branch of
civil engineering, the term "electro -technical" itself
occurring for the first time in the designation of the
Society. By the adoption of the resolution subsequently
brought forward by me, "to request governments to
establish professorships of electric engineering at all
technical academies, in order that young engineers may
have the opportunity of getting to know the assistance
which electrical technology might afford them in their
special work", the Society has rendered good service
as regards the rapid development of electric engi-
neering in all its branches, as the resolution was almost
everywhere complied with. Also by its endeavours
to obtain an international system of electric standards,
the Society has done great service. The initiative was
taken by the Congress, which was connected with the
Industrial Electric Exhibition in Paris of 1881, - a

368 PARIS CONFERENCES.

request being preferred to the French government to
bring about diplomatically the assembling of an inter-
national conference of delegates, whose task should be
the establishment of a scientific system of standards
for electro-technology.

Such a conference, to which Helmholtz, Wiede-
mann, Clausius, Kirchhoff and myself were deputed
by the German Empire, met in Paris in the following
year, and decided in principle for the absolute standard
system of William Weber, with the modification that
the c. g. s. standard, for which England had already
pronounced, was adopted as the standard of resistance.
Owing to the little accuracy however, with which
hitherto the absolute resistance unit of Weber could
be reproduced in practice, it was resolved to take as
a practical basis the mercury unit, which I had pro-
posed, and to invite the scientists of every country,
to ^settle experimentally the relation of the modified
c. g. s. unit to the then widely adopted Siemens unit.
As the mean of all the determinations in consequence
arrived at there resulted for this relation the value
1-06; and accordingly a column of mercury of 1 square
millimetre in cross section and 106 centimetres long
at 0° C. named "Ohm" was established at the final
conference in the year 1884 as the international
legal unit of resistance. In like manner the names
of meritorious physicists were selected for the re-
maining units of the system; it is however to be
regretted that the name of William Weber, the creator
of this absolute standard system, was passed over,

PARIS CONFERENCES.

although this honour ought to have been specially
paid him, when his own system was adopted. For
myself it was a little triumph that a reproduction of
my mercury unit, which Lord Rayleigh made ac-
cording to a method somewhat different from my
own, should yet agree to a ten thousandth part with
the standard tallies delivered by our firm.

It was certainly somewhat hard for me, that my
resistance unit, arrived at with so much trouble and
labour, which had speaking generally made the first
comparable electric measurements possible, then was
employed for more than a decennium throughout
the world and adopted as legal international standard
of resistance for telegraphy by the International Tele-
graph Congress, should have now suddenly to be set
aside with my own co-operation. But the great
advantage of a theoretically established system of
standards, consistently carried out and universally
adopted, necessitated this sacrifice offered up to
science and the public interest.

My literary activity was in general limited to
the presentation of my scientific and technical labours
and the description of the mechanical contrivances
which I had constructed. I was however often obliged
to repel attacks, which were levelled directly or in-
directly at my firm or at myself personally. This

was the more necessary as my firm never advertised,

24

370 LITERARY ACTIVITY.

and only let good workmanship proclaim its merits.
Unfounded attacks on its achievements could therefore
not pass unchallenged, which frequently had to take
the form of an appeal to the law of libel, as the
newspapers usually had more sympathy for their
regular profitable advertisers.

Of such rectifications I will only here instance
one sent in April 1877 to the Elberf elder Zeitungj
since it is of a more general interest. The anonymous
writer, who gave occasion to this rectification, had
praised the dynamo-electric machines of M. Gramme
in Paris, whom he styled the meritorious inventor
of the dynamo -electric machine and electric lighting,
and for whose recognition he claimed the German
love of justice in high-sounding phrases, without
even making mention at all of the German share in
these inventions. In my reply I emphasized the un-
doubted merit of Gramme in the development of
the dynamo - electric machine , which consisted in
the combination of the ring of Pacinotti with nay
dynamo -electric principle, I could however not omit
to reverse the appeal to German love of justice in
favour of foreign services by pointing to the fact
that the German is always inclined rather to recog-
nise foreign and exotic than home growths. This
was, I added, a great obstacle to the development
of German industry, since the latter was often com-
pelled by the preference for foreign manufactures
to send its better products to the markets of the
world under a foreign flag, whence it came to pass

LITERARY ACTIVITY. 371

that German manufactures were everywhere wrong-
fully characterized as inferior cheap wares.

I have had occasion before to refer to this, and
in particular have characterized as unpatriotic and
despicable the suicidal practice of bringing the better
German manufactures to market as English, French,
or even American. It is difficult to decide whether
the blame rests mainly with the German public or
the German manufacturers, in any case it is the out-
come of a reciprocal action between the prejudice of
the former and the short-sightedness of the latter, who
have only their momentary advantage in view. Since
the establishment of the new German Empire and the
national advance connected with it there has un-
doubtedly been an improvement in this respect, but
the eradication of the evil is still far from complete.
Our manufacturers still too much lack the pride to
supply only good articles, and our public the per-
ception that such commodities even at a higher price
are the cheapest. Only from the reciprocal action of
both is the national pride in the products of one's
own industry developed, which affords the best pro-
tection for the latter. How strongly the feeling of
the superiority of native to all foreign products is
developed in England was vividly brought home to
me, when I was once watching, with brother William,
the unloading of a vessel, which for the first time
brought ice to London from a Norwegian port. The
ice was deposited in handsome cubical blocks on

the landing place, and was regarded with manifest

24*

372 LITERARY ACTIVITY.

interest by the purchasers. My brother began a con-
versation with one of them by praising the fine
appearance of the blocks. "Oh yes" was the reply
of the person addressed, a herculean butcher, "it
looks very well but it has not the English nature".
Even English ice must necessarily be colder than
foreign ice. This prepossession of every Englishman
in favour of native products, which always influences
his choice, strengthens the pride of the English artisan
and manufacturer in the excellence of their work
and thereby often causes the preconceived opinion to
become truth.

Of my other popular publications I will here
only cite my lectures "Electricity in the service of
life" of the year 1879 and "The Age of Science" of
the year 1886.

In the former lecture I descanted on the state
of electrical engineering and added some reflections
on the further progress, confidently to be expected,
which would result from the circumstance that elec-
tricity could now with the help of the dynamo-elec-
tric machine also perform heavy work, whereas hitherto
it had only been useful through the rapidity of its
action in mediating, directing and controlling intelli-

O 7 o" o

gence and signals, leaving the execution of the heavy
work itself to other natural forces.

The lecture "On the Age of Science", which I
gave at Berlin at the opening meeting of the Society
of Naturalists and Physicians in the autumn of 1886,
dealt with the change of social conditions through the

LITERARY ACTIVITY. 373

rapidly growing command of man over the forces of
Nature. I set forth that engineering, resting on the
basis of physical science, was more and more relieving
man of the previous severe bodily labour, which Nature
had imposed on him for the maintenance of his life,
that the wants of life and means of enjoyment would
be satisfied by ever diminishing bodily exertion, and
thus become cheaper and accordingly more accessible
to all; further that through the distribution of force
and the inevitable fall of the rate of interest the
superiority of large factories to individual labour would
more and more be neutralized and consequently the
practical ends of Social Democracy would be attained
without a violent overthrow of the existing order solely
by the undisturbed progress of the Age of Science.
I also tried in my lecture to show that the study of
the physical sciences in its further progress and general
diffusion would not brutalize men and divert them
from ideal aspirations, but on the contrary would lead
them to humble admiration of the incomprehensible
wisdom pervading the whole creation, and must there-
fore ennoble and improve them. The occasion appeared
to me opportune for publicly asserting my convictions,
since the unshakable belief in the beneficial conse-
quences of the undisturbed development of the Age
of Science is alone competent to repel with success
all the fanatical attacks which threaten human civili-
zation on all sides.

It is not sufficient however to leave scientific
engineering to its own undisturbed development, it is

374 PROPOSAL OF AN INSTITUTE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

rather necessary to assist its progress as far as possible.
For this certainly already much has been done in
Germany through the highly developed system of
scientific technical instruction, for which the best con-
ceivable arrangements have been made at the numerous
universities and polytechnic schools. There was a total
absence however of any organization for the furtherance
of scientific investigation, i. e. for the extension of the
area of our physical knowledge, on which technical
progress is also dependent. In Prussia years ago the
necessity of an institute had been perceived, which
should have for its object the scientific support
of engineering and especially of applied mechanics,
and a commission, to which I was summoned, had
elaborated a plan for such an institute, which was
to be added to the new polytechnic institution in
course of erection at Charlottenburg. This was how-
ever no solution of the problem of furthering scientific
investigation itself.

The necessity of an institute, not subserving in-
struction but scientific research exclusively, had very
strikingly appeared at the conferences on the establish-
ment of international electric standards in Paris. There
was found no suitable place in all Germany for carry-
ing out the difficult work of exactly producing the
absolute resistance unit of Weber. The laboratories
of the universities are, in conformity with their desti-
nation, arranged for the purpose of instruction and
indeed as a rule entirely claimed for that object,
German scientists have nevertheless in the leisure-hours,

ERECTION OF A PHYSICO- TECHNICAL IMPERIAL INSTITUTE. 375

which their teaching vocation left them, used these for
carrying on their researches, and have accomplished
much, but for extensive thorough research neither the
rooms and their fittings nor the leisure -time of the
scientists were sufficient. My proposal to add to the
planned institute for the scientific support of engineer-
ing a second, which should be exclusively at the
service of scientific research, met indeed with much
sympathy, but the execution of the plan was re-
garded as impossible under the existing circumstances.
Suitable premises were wanting, sufficiently large and
not liable to vibration from vehicular traffic, and it
also appeared difficult to obtain the consent of the
Prussian Diet to the considerable expenditure required
for the erection and subsequent maintenance of such
an institution.

I had already bequeathed in my will a conside-
rable sum of money to be applied to the furtherance
of scientific research, but precious time would perhaps
•have been lost before my possibly still remote death,
and particularly the favourable opportunity would then
have gone by for calling into life a large undertaking,
answering to the needs of the time, by the combina-
tion of the planned institute destined for scientific re-
search with the scientific-technical one already agreed
to in principle. I therefore resolved not to wait till
my death, but to make the Imperial Government the
offer, to place at its disposal a large piece of ground
perfectly suited to the purpose or the equivalent
capital for an Imperial institute devoted to scientific

376 ERECTION OF A PHYSICO- TECHNICAL IMPERIAL INSTITUTE.

research, if the Empire would undertake the cost of
building and the future maintenance of the institute.
My proposal was accepted by the Government, con-
firmed by Parliament, and on this foundation the
physico- technical Imperial institute at Charlottenburg
has grown up, which now forms a German home for
scientific research under the guidance of the first
physicist of our time, Privy Councillor von Helmholtz.

Charlottenburg, June 1892.

1 hoped last year to bring these recollections to
a close in Harzburg, but was prevented by my wife's
illness and many other troubles. In the autumn I had
myself a severe attack of influenza, which compelled
me to winter in the south. Accompanied by my wife
and youngest daughter I resorted to Corfu in December.
It is true that there is not much provision in the place
for sick persons, and the climate in January and Fe-
bruary is about the same as that of a rainy North
German summer, but the glorious situation and the
beautiful surroundings of the town afford great plea-
sure even at that season of the year.

Corfu still lives on the benefits, which the Eng-
lish protectorate formerly brought the island. The fine
roads made by the English, although already in part
thoroughly out of repair, still continue to afford fair
communication between the most important parts of
the island. The English waterworks also, which have
made the city of Corfu a healthy place, are luckily
still kept up. Till a short time ago the Corfiote lived
in ancient Phaeacian ease on the profits, which the

378 IN CORFU.

numerous old olive-trees of the island brought him;
he never took the trouble properly to gather the fruit,
but waited till it fell to the 'ground of itself, and then
collected what was in good condition. Recently how-
ever petroleum has sent down the price of oil, and
anxiety for daily bread is beginning to be felt even
in Phaeacia. Greater attention is therefore now paid
to the cultivation of the vine, which indeed costs
much more labour, but is also far more remunerative
than the cultivation of the olive. One sees with re-
gret in many parts of the island the old picturesque
olive-trees cut down to make room for the more pro-
fitable vine - cultivation. Almost the only foreigners,
who permanently reside in Corfu, are French traders,
who buy up all the wine. The large amount of red
colouring matter, which the wine of Corfu contains,
doubtless makes it very suitable for the manufacture
of "genuine" claret. In former times no wine could
be exported from the island, as the Corfiotes preferred
to drink their wine themselves. Thus the most ancient
habits change in an age that does not suffer the un-
changeable !

At the end of February, when the fruit-trees
began to bloom, we left Corfu and went to Naples,
where we hoped to find better weather and more
amusement. But the Apennines were still thickly
covered with snow, even dear Vesuvius wore a light
snowy mantle, and in Naples it rained still more persis-
tently and severely than in Corfu. As a compensation
we there enjoyed the pleasant intercourse with friend

IN NAPLES. 379

Dohrn and his amiable family. A month later we
went to Amalfi, but not before Sorrento did the long
ardently desired blue Italian sky at last smile upon us.
There I first began to feel my strength returning when,
taking a walk with my wife, we were attracted by
the prospect of a fine view and reached the highest
point of the neighbourhood, the monastery of Deserto.
My hope of being able to pay another visit to Vesuvius,
and perhaps of taking another look into the sources
of its changing activity, unfortunately remained unful-
filled, on account of the unfavourable weather. It gave
me however much pleasure to see it again, for one
clings to persons and things, which have earned our
gratitude. For during an ascent in the year 1878
Vesuvius had given me such unmistakable indications
of the cause of its activity by its regularly recurring
explosion-like eruptions, that the sphere of my ideas
concerning the formation of the earth's crust and the
underlying forces was considerably enlarged.

At the beginning of May we returned home, but
unfortunately I had yet to sustain two violent attacks
of fever. Having now luckily got the better of these
likewise, I hope that the sick period of my old age
is passed and that a calm and cheery evening of life
will be granted me in the midst of my beloved ones.

I have already in the foregoing pages frequently
spoken of my brothers and sisters, but considering the
great influence, which they had on my career, I feel

380 BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

constrained to append a condensed and connected sum-
mary of their lives.

I will first mention my brother William, snatched,
alas! so early from us. How in a foreign land, which
he set foot upon without any acquaintances and in-
troductions and with very limited means, he worked
himself up to a position of great distinction, has been
admirably recorded by the pen of so competent a writer
as Dr. Pole. Many foreigners, Germans among the rest,
have made their fortunes in England, but that has
usually depended on certain lucky hits, among which
a single invention of great material importance is com-
monly to be reckoned. William achieved more, he
forced the public opinion of England to honour him in
his life-time, and in a still more striking manner after
his death, as one of the leading spirits, to whom the
country owes the great development of its technical
industry by the diffusion and application of scientific
knowledge. By participating indefatigably in the work
of the numerous associations, which made good in Eng-
land the previous want of sound preliminary technical
education, William contributed much to bringing English
engineering up to the level of advanced physical science,
and it redounds to England's honour to have impartially
acknowledged this service on the part of a foreigner.
William's exertions were considerably assisted by the
uninterrupted and close connection with his brothers,
and by his marriage with the amiable Miss Gordon of
an honourable Scottish family, which made it easier for
him to obtain a firm footing in English society.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 381

William died on the 19th of November 1883, in
his sixtieth year, of a slowly developed and scarcely
noticed disease of the heart. His almost sudden death
overtook him at the height of his activity. Already
all the honours had been heaped upon William, which
a savant and engineer can obtain in England. He
was repeatedly president of the foremost scientific and
technical societies, amongst others first president of
the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians
founded by himself. The highest recognitions and

«/ o

prizes accorded by these societies were awarded
him. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge made
him honorary doctor; and he received the honour of
knighthood at the hands of the Queen. His death
was felt throughout England as a national calamity,
and was as such lamented in all the newspapers. The
funeral service took place with befitting solemnity in
Westminster Abbey. A year after his death a window
was dedicated to his memory in the Abbey, presented
by the scientific and technical associations of England,
the leading English men of science and representatives
of technical industry taking part in the proceedings.
His deeply afflicted wife retired to her beautiful
country house, which the forethought of her husband
had bequeathed her, at Sherwood, near Tunbridge
Wells, there to mourn her lost happiness. We brothers,
and I in particular — for William was to me more
than a brother — felt his unexpected death as a
severe blow, which the lapse of now nearly ten years
can soften but not expel from memory.

382 BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

Of my brothers Hans and Ferdinand, who became
agriculturists, Hans afterwards devoted himself to agri-
cultural engineering, and undertook a spirit distillery
in Mecklenburg. That certainly did not bring much
grist to his mill, but gave him the opportunity of
falling in love and getting engaged. After his marriage
he acquired with my assistance a bottle manufactory
near Dresden, which he managed till his death in the
year 1867. Ferdinand still lives on his manor of
Piontken in East Prussia. He was again betrothed in
1856 and then married; one of his two daughters is
the wife of my son William, and some years ago
presented me with the first grandson.

My brother Frederick had in the fifties actively
participated in William's efforts to improve his re-
generative steam-engine and evaporating apparatus.
In the year 1856 he hit on the happy idea of employing
the regenerative system, hitherto but little successful,
for metallurgical purposes, and in particular for rever-
beratory furnaces. A number of patents, which he
took out in different countries, partly alone, partly
in conjunction with William, for a perfected form of
regenerative gas-furnaces, formed the basis of a furnace-
building business established by William and himself.
To work this in Germany and Austria, he transferred
his residence to Berlin, shortly after his marriage in
1864. In 1867, after the death of our brother Hans,
he took over the glass-works near Dresden, and by his
technical gifts and energy soon raised the same into
a model factory for glass manufacture. Through the

BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 383

introduction of the regenerative system, and afterwards
of the heating by radiation, he gave the impulse
to an epoch-making improvement in metallurgy and
especially of the glass industry. Recently he has made
over the Dresden glass-works and the works apper-
taining thereto in Bohemia to a joint- stock company,
since they no longer afforded him material enough
for his inventive activity. He is now busily engaged
in perfecting his regenerative heating process and steel
manufacture. In a widely different department also,
that of gas-lighting, he has introduced great improve-
ments, bringing into use in gas-burners the regenerative
principle of heating, and in this manner has considerably
increased the illuminating power of the gas. He has
thereby not a little retarded the victory of the electric
light over gas, which however has not produced a jar
in our fraternal harmony. After William's death he
undertook the latter' s furnace business in England,
and has continued it with the best success. An amiable
wife and a charming troop of children will, we may
hope, give him still many years of happiness and
stimulate him for further untiring endeavours.

Charles had found in Russia a sphere of action
extremely congenial to his faculties, and very con-
siderably contributed, by the successful execution of
our large undertakings, to the firm establishment and
financially sound development of our business. But
when in the year 1867 our Russian maintenance
contracts expired, and the Russian government took
all further telegraphic affairs into its own hands, the

384 BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

St. Petersburg firm seemed condemned to lose its po-
sition of importance. As about the same time Charles's
wife began to ail, and a change of climate appeared
urgently necessary for her, Charles transferred his
abode to Tiflis, and undertook the management of the
branch founded there, as well as of our Kedabeg
mine, which had already grown to considerable propor-
tions. Unhappily however the condition of his wife
grew continually worse, a prolonged residence in
Vienna and Berlin equally failing to restore her health.
She died in Berlin in the year 1869, leaving Charles
with one son and two daughters. I now proposed to
Charles to stay in Berlin for good, and to take part
in the management of the Berlin firm. We were even
planning, as we were both widowers, building a house
for joint occupation, when William came forward with
the wish that Charles should settle in London. Charles
accepted this proposal and till the year 1880 managed
the business of Siemens Brothers & Co. in conjunction
with William. He showed himself in London, just as
in St. Petersburg, a far-seeing man of business, an
able organizer and manager of large undertakings.

O o O O

The factory at Charlton near Woolwich was con-
siderably extended at his suggestion, the cable works
especially much enlarged, and a gutta-percha factory
set up. But after several years residence in England
Charles's health, formerly always very good, began to
show signs of decline ; he could not bear for long the
damp English climate. Moreover an irresistible longing
manifested itself in his children for their native country

BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 385

Russia. For these reasons in 1880 Charles returned
with them to St. Petersburg and once more undertook
the management of the business there, which he soon
raised again into a flourishing condition. His two
daughters have married in Russia; his son assists him
in the management of the business, so far as a disease
of the eyes, with which he is unfortunately afflicted,
allows. Charles's own health has been quite restored
since quitting England. He himself, as well as the
firm under his management, which is now chiefly
occupied with arrangements for electric lighting and
transmission of force, hold a highly esteemed position
in Russia.

The youngest brothers Walter and Otto both died
in Tiflis, and rest in the same grave. Walter died,
as I have already stated, in consequence of a fall
from his horse. He was a fine stately man, with
pleasing ways, which quickly made him popular in the
Caucasus; to us brothers he always showed the greatest
attachment. Otto succumbed some years later to his
feeble health, of which he had not always been suf-
ficiently mindful. He was a highly gifted man of sterling
worth, but did not always possess the requisite self-
control and strength of character, and has therefore
often been a cause of anxiety to us older brothers.
When he had contracted a serious lung disease in
London, where he was to be prepared under William's
guidance for a technical career, we sent him for a
voyage round the world in a sailing ship, in the hope
that this would effect a cure. He arrived in apparently

25

386 BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

good health in Australia, could not however resist the
temptation to join an expedition, which was about to
cross the continent, to seek for traces of the lost
traveller Leichhardt. But the fatigue was too much
for him, and he nearly perished in the desert interior
from the effects of a haemorrhage. When after a series
of further adventures he returned to England, we sent
him to the Caucasus, which had often proved bene-
ficial to consumptives. In truth a rather long stay in
Kedabeg seemed to have perfectly restored him. At
Walter's sudden death he entered upon the latter' s
functions. In the house of Prince Mirsky, governor of
the Caucasus, he made the acquaintance and became
enamoured of the widow of General Prince Mirsky
- a brother of the governor - - who had fallen in
the Crimean war. Unhappily his death after a few
years severed the union of the happy pair.

Our sister Matilda, the wife of Professor Himly,
died at Kiel in the summer of 1878, mourned by us
as an affectionate and faithful sister. Sister Sophia
unhappily lost many years ago her husband, who at
the time filled the office of advocate to the Supreme
Court at Leipzig.

With regard to my own life in the last few years
it only remains for me to mention that since the be-
ginning of 1890 I have left the business management
of the firm of Siemens & Halske at Berlin, Charlotten-
burg, St. Petersburg, and Vienna to the former active
partners, my brother Charles and my sons Arnold and
William, and am now only a sleeping partner in the

CONCLUSION. 387

firm. It is a great joy to me to be able to testify
that my sons have shown themselves fully equal to
their grave and responsible position, nay that my
retirement has manifestly given to the firm a fresh
impulse. This is the more deserving of recognition
as my old assistants in the technical management,
Messrs. Frischen, von Hefner, and Lent, are also no
longer in the firm, the first named being unhappily
taken from his labours by death. It is with com-
mercial houses as with states, they need from time
to time regeneration in their administration, in order
themselves to remain young. The London business
and my private undertakings were not affected by my
retirement from the firm of Siemens & Halske, and
thus continue to give me sufficient technical occupation.
My children by the first union are all happily
married. My first-born, Arnold, married the daughter
of my friend von Helmholtz, and has already, as well
as his brother, provided for a continuation of the
lineage by two grandsons.

When at its close I survey my life, and search
for the determining causes and impelling forces, which
carried me over all hindrances and dangers to a po-
sition which brought me outward recognition and
inward satisfaction, and superabundantly provided me
with the material blessings of life, I am bound to admit
that many fortunate circumstances have co-operated

and that altogether I owe a large debt to fortune.

25*

388 CONCLUSION.

It was a lucky coincidence that my early "years were
passed in a time of rapid progress of physical science,
and that I devoted myself especially to electrical en-
gineering, when it was still quite undeveloped and
therefore formed a very fertile ground for inventions
and improvements. On the other hand however I have
also frequently had to contend with very unusual mis-
fortune. This continual struggle with altogether un-
expected difficulties and unlucky accidents, which in the
commencement usually hampered my undertakings, but
which I mostly by good hap succeeded in overcoming,
William Meyer, the dear friend of my youth and faithful
companion, very forcibly described in students' slang
as: »Sau beim Peck" (bad luck coupled with astonishing
flukes).>j^-i must admit the correctness of this view,
but still do not believe that it was only blind fate,
when the wave of happiness and unhappiness, on
which our life is tossed, carried me so frequently to
the desired goals. Success and failure, victory and
defeat, often depend in human life entirely on the
timely and right use of the opportunities offered. The
quality of quickly making up one's mind in critical
moments, and of doing the right thing without long
reflection, has remained tolerably faithful to me during
my whole existence, in spite of the somewhat dreamy
life in which I frequently, I might almost say usually,
was plunged. In innumerable cases this quality has
preserved me from harm and rightly guided me in
difficult situations. Undoubtedly a certain stimulus
was always necessary to give me full control of my

CONCLUSION. 389

mental qualities. I needed it, not only to be snatched
from my own meditative life, but also as a protection
against my own weaknesses. Among these I especially
reckon an excessive benignity, which made it uncom-
monly hard for me to refuse a request, not to fulfil
a known wish, nay in general to say or do anything
to anybody that would be unpleasant or painful to
him. Luckily this quality, very inconvenient especially
for a business -man and master over many people, was
neutralized by another, that of being easily provoked
and excited to anger. This anger, which was always
easily aroused, when my good intentions were mis-
understood or abused, was ever a relief and outlet
for my feelings, and I have often declared that any-
body, with whom I had unpleasant dealings, could
never do me a greater service than by giving me
cause to be angry. For the rest this irascibility was
usually only a form of mental excitement, which never
got beyond my control. Although in younger years I
was often nicknamed by my friends "curly head",
wherewith they would hint at a certain connection
between my curly hair and "curly" mind, yet my
easily roused anger has never led me to actions which
I had afterwards to regret. For a manager of great
undertakings I was also in other respects but indif-
ferently suited. I lacked the good memory, the
orderly sense, and consistent, unbending strictness.
If notwithstanding I have founded large business con-
cerns and managed them with unusual success, this is
a proof, that industry coupled with energy often over-

390 CONCLUSION.

comes our weaknesses or renders them less harmful.
At the same time I can say on my own behalf that
it was not desire of gain, which impelled me to devote
my working power and my mind in so great a degree
to technical undertakings. In the first place it was
usually the interest for technical science which led me
to my task. A business friend quizzed me once with
the assertion, I let myself always be guided in my
undertakings by the public benefit they would bring,
but that ultimately I always found my account thereby.
I admit this remark to be correct within certain limits,
for such undertakings as further the general weal com-
mand a wide interest, and thereby present greater
prospects of being successfully carried through. How-
ever I will not undervalue the powerful influence, which
success and the consciousness arising from it of doing
something useful, and at the same time of giving their
bread to thousands of industrious workers, exerts on
man. This gratifying consciousness has a stimulating
effect on our mental qualities and is doubtless the
foundation of the otherwise somewhat paradoxical
German proverb: "To whom God gives an office, He
also gives understanding".

A main reason of the rapid growth of our fac-
tories is, in my opinion, that the products of our
manufacture were in large part results of our own
inventions. Though these were in most cases not

o

protected by patents, they yet always gave us the
start of our competitors, which usually lasted until we
gained a fresh start by new improvements. This could

CONCLUSION. 391

certainly only have lasting effect in consequence of
the reputation for great solidity and excellence, which
our productions enjoyed throughout the world.

Besides this public recognition of my technical
achievements marks of honour have been so abundantly
conferred upon me personally both by the rulers of
the larger states of Europe and by universities , aca-
demies, scientific and technical institutes and societies,
that hardly anything remains for me to desire.

I began the writing of my recollections with the
biblical aphorism "The days of our years are three-
score years and ten, or even by reason of strength
fourscore years", and I think I have shown that also
the close of the sentence, "yet is their pride but
labour and sorrow", has held good in my case. For
my life was beautiful, because it essentially consisted
of successful labour and useful work, and if I finally
give expression to the regret that it is approaching
its end, I am only urged thereto by the pain that I
must be parted from my dear ones , and that it is
not permitted me to continue to labour for the full
development of the Age of Science.

APPENDIX.

1 have in the foregoing reminiscences frequently
had occasion to make some explanatory observations on
my technical papers, which are described in the second
volume of the collection of my ' 'Scientific and technical
papers" published in the years 1889 and 1891 by
Julius Springer*). I have called attention to most of
my earliest scientific writings, as they have had great
influence on my career, and as they have probably
remained unknown to the younger generation of physi-
cists. I feel however the need of making also some
critical remarks, accompanied by an estimate of results,
on my later scientific work, which in many points
diverges from the accustomed paths of the prevalent
physical theories and has therefore found no general

recognition.

In several papers written in the years 1860 to
1866, and published in Poggendorff 's Annalen, I in-
vestigated the question of the electric conductivity of
metals, and proposed the first and up till now only
method of obtaining an empirical reproducible standard
of resistance. I showed that my method made it
possible to determine exactly the resistance of an

*) English edition published by John Murray.

396 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

approximately prismatic space filled with pure mercury
to within a ten thousandth of its value , and thus
solved the question of an absolute unit of resistance,
i. e. one resting on a definition , with an exactness
corresponding to the fineness of our measuring instru-
ments. By these means exact and comparable electric
measurements were first rendered possible.

In the course of this investigation I confirmed the
proposition, already laid down by others, that solid
alloys always exhibit a greater resistance than corre-
sponds to the resistances of the several component
metals; I showed however that this does not hold good
for fluid metallic combinations, which retain in the
fluid state the resistance of the single metals unchanged.
This behaviour of the metals I showed could be
utililized for the determination of the specific resistance
in the fluid state of metals not readily fusible. Further
I discovered that the resistance of metals is considerably
enhanced by fusion, and that at the same time the
latent heat effusion increases the resistance in a higher
degree than the sensible heat of a solid or liquid con-
ductor. I found too that the increase of resistance by
fusion does not occur discontinuously, but that the
resistance rises continuously within a certain range
of temperature and joins without break the resistance
curve of the fused metal. Hence I concluded that
the physical processes of fusion and solidification
essentially consist in the absorption and liberation of
latent heat, which take place within a definite range
of temperature during liquefaction.

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS. 397

In a later essay on the dependence of the electric
conductivity of carbon on temperature I have confirmed
Matthiessen's assertion, that the conductivity of carbon
increases with rising temperature, and have shown the
objections of Beetz and Auerbach to be erroneous.
In explanation of this surprising behaviour of carbon
I advanced the hypothesis that the different states of
carbon — charcoal, graphite, diamond - - are allotropic
states of "carbon devoid of latent heat" not occurring
in Nature, and are essentially distinguished from one
another by the qitantity of absorbed latent heat.

This hypothesis was further confirmed and deve-
loped by an investigation of the property of selenium,
discovered by Willoughby Smith, of being a better
conductor of electricity in the light than in the dark.
I found that besides the selenium, which is changed
by a slight enhancement of temperature from the
amorphous non-conducting into the crystalline con-
ducting condition, there is still a third modification,
which is produced by heating amorphous selenium a
long time till near its melting point, i. e. to about
400° F. Both these modifications of the electricity-
conducting selenium are essentially distinguished from
one another by this, that the former conducts electro-
lylically, i. e. like the electrolytic fluid conductors,
better at a higher temperature, the second, long and
highly heated, on the other hand metallically, i. e.
like the metals worse at a higher temperature. In
this behaviour of amorphous selenium, rapidly cooled
from the fused condition — viz. when heated to over

398 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

180° F. of losing indeed a great part of its latent
heat of fusion, retained in rapid solidification, and of
becoming electrolytically conductive, but with longer
continued and higher heating in the vicinity of its
melting point, of giving off more latent heat, and
then of becoming still better conductive and that
metallically - - I found a confirmation of my previously
suggested hypothesis, that the electrical resistance of
a body is an equivalent for the quantity of heat stored
up in it in the sensible as well as in the latent state.
Further it seemed to prove that latent heat has a
greater power than sensible heat of causing resistance,
and that bodies without allotropically latent heat con-
duct metallically, and moreover in such a way that
the resistance increases uniformly with the temperature
reckoning from zero, whilst the resistance - causing
influence of allotropically latent heat decreases with
rising temperature.

According to this theory all simple bodies, which
are not an allotropic modification of their original
metallic primitive state, in which heat has become
latent, must conduct metallically, and it is probable
that the so-called active state of bodies is nothing else
than this state devoid of latent heat, termed by me the
metallic, which in semi- and non-metals can only occur
in chemical combinations without passing immediately
into an allotropic modification, heat becoming latent.
According to this hypothesis we have therefore to
imagine, that the molecules of all non-metallic solid
bodies can assume different positions of stability, corre-

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS. 399

spending to definite quantities of work, which have
been used up for constituting them. Only metallically
constituted bodies can enter into chemical combinations.
Latent heat therefore forms an obstacle to chemical
combination, and if such nevertheless occurs heat must
at the same time become sensible. Conversely a body
becoming chemically free must be constituted metalli-
cally, is therefore in the active state at the moment of
becoming free. Left to itself heat becomes latent by
absorption of sensible heat, if it is a semi- or non-metal,
whereby its electric conductivity is then partially or
wholly destroyed. Heightened temperature makes the
molecular arrangement, which corresponds to the heat
absorbed, less stable, enhances therefore the electrical
conductivity and at the same time the chemical affinity.
Since heat becomes latent when metals form alloys, the
conductive resistance of such alloys does not increase in
proportion to the absolute temperature, as with the
simple pure metals, but the latent heat of combination
of the alloy forms a disturbing element, which further
increases the resistance and thereby nullifies the pro-
portionality of the same to the absolute temperature.

I succeeded in employing also technically the
metallically conductive modification II of crystalline
selenium, discovered by me, for the construction of
a selenium photometer.

In an older paper I furnished the proof, that the
dielectric becomes heated by repeated charge and dis-
charge, and thereby found an experimental confirmation
of Faraday's molecular induction theory.

400 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

In the year 1875 an opportunity occurred of
bringing into use my modified method, proposed in
1845, of measuring the velocity of propagation of
electricity in suspended wires. The experiments, which
were instituted with a double iron wire, 7 '8 7 miles
long, yielded a velocity of propagation of 150,300
miles, a result which satisfactorily agrees with Kirch-
hoff 's calculated result, regard being had to retardation
by the condenser action of the wires and to the self-
induction. Before the performance of these experiments,
very carefully carried out by Dr. Frolich, I inclined
to the opinion that the actual velocity of electricity
in conductors would be immeasurably large, as an
experiment, which I made with a caoutchouc tube
more than a hundred feet long filled with water, did
not show any perceptible difference in position of the
spark marks. The velocity of propagation of electricity
could accordingly not depend mainly on the specific
resistance of the traversed conductor, and I regarded
it therefore as probable that the very different values
found by Wheatstone, Fizeau, Gounelle, and others,
had only been expressions for the retardation by the
charge of the conductors employed. This doubt was
removed by the experiments described, for the further
prosecution of which I have unfortunately never found
time and opportunity.

I was led into a sphere of inquiry entirely new
for me by an observation of the activity of Vesuvius
in May 1878. It struck me that from the brightly
glowing opening, at the apex of the lava cone, which

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS. 401

had risen in the interior of the large dark crater,
explosion-like eruptions occurred with great regularity
at intervals of several seconds. More exact observation
showed that each explosion was followed by an ab-
sorption of air, so powerful, that the opening often
sucked in at the same time even ejected scoriae or
stones, which were again precipitated in its vicinity.
Inflammable gases, evolved continually from the earth's
interior, must have become mixed in the upper vent
of the crater with atmospheric air, which had been
absorbed by the rarefaction of the air caused by the
preceding explosion, and thereupon exploded, to pro-
duce anew a rarefied space. This observation led me
to a consideration of the process of the formation of
the earth and its present condition from a physico-
mechanical standpoint, the results of which differed
considerably from the prevailing opinions.

Two diametrically opposed views have hitherto
been advanced in geology, that of the pure geologists
and that of the mathematicians. The former mostly
adhere to the old view, already to be called historical,
that the earth was once in a molten state, whilst air
and water formed the likewise still glowing atmosphere,
that then with progressive refrigeration and after forma-
tion of a solid crust the seas were disengaged, and with
the help of frequent partial elevations and depressions
of the crust deposited the vast sedimentary strata, which
now cover almost the whole surface. These elevations
and depressions were said to be produced by internal
volcanic forces, which still to this day give evidence of

26

402 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

themselves in volcanoes. English physicists, among
them Sir William Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, have
opposed this basis of the theory of the earth's formation
with weighty arguments. Lord Kelvin has declared
that the whole terrestrial body must be more solid than
glass -hard steel, as calculation proves that its surface
would otherwise participate in the tidal movement
produced by the attraction of sun and moon, conse-
quently an independent ocean-tide could not then occur.
J. Thomson has supported this calculation by a physical
consideration, which o*oes to show that the fusing tern-

' O o

perature of bodies, which expand on solidification, is
lowered by pressure, but of bodies, which contract
on solidification, is heightened by pressure. Now since
the silicates, as he infers, contract on solidification
about 20°|0, the pressure increasing with the depth
would not allow the rock masses to fuse in spite
of the heightened temperature, but make them still
more solid.

It is remarkable that these diametrically opposed
views on the nature of the earth's crust should have
been before the world for years without giving rise
to violent controversies, although the question at issue
affects the very basis of practical geology. The
geologists, as already mentioned, for the most part
maintain the theory of a crust floating on a fluid or
gaseous nucleus, and the mathematicians cling to Lord
Kelvin's theory of a solid nucleus, without troubling
themselves much about the difficulties in the way of
explaining the actual formation of the surface!

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS. 403

I have tried to solve this contradiction by showing
that considerations having reference to actual facts op-
posed the physical foundations of Thomson's calculation.
The chief of these is that Bischof s statement, that sili-
cates become about 20 °0 heavier in passing from the
fluid to the solid state, is incorrect — as follows at once
from the well-kown fact, that solid silicates always
float on the fused ones, when they have nearly assumed
the temperature of the latter. Further I called attention
to the point, that Lord Kelvin's calculation takes no
notice of the time required by the viscous terrestrial
mass to assume the form, which is every moment pre-
scribed to it by the deforming tendencies of the at-
traction of the sun and moon. As in these changes of
form we have to do with dislocations of masses, which
stretch continuously over the whole body of the earth
from molecule to molecule, and therefore require a con-
siderable time to take place, no universal tidal wave
could be produced, advancing uniformly with the earth's
rotation, and altogether such an one could only arise
to a very slight degree. A refutation of these objec-
tions to the mathematical necessity of a solid core is
still wanting, and we are therefore entitled, in dis-
cussing the formation of the earth's surface to assume
a viscous or gaseous state of the interior.

o

As regards the formation of the earth's surface
the local elevations, the formation of the stratified
diluvium covering almost the whole surface, earth-
quakes and volcanoes, have also a special interest for
the non- geologist. I have tried to give an explana-

f OF THE ^

(UNIVERSITY)
°F '^

404 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

tion of these facts resting on a physico - mechanical
basis, which satisfies my own desire to get at the
cause of things, but which frequently runs counter to
the traditional geological views, and therefore has re-
mained almost unnoticed. Of these traditional views I
am compelled to declare untenable the one underlying
all the rest, that there has been a period, when the
earth was in a molten state and surrounded by an
atmosphere, which contained the permanent gases and
all the water in the form of glowing vapour. The
reasons which influence me will become clear, if we
go a step further back to the period, when the ter-
restrial mass assumed the globular form. Its elements
must then have been uniformily commingled, and thus
been condensed into a magma by mutual attraction in
the gaseous state. A segregation of the more volatile
bodies could only occur at the point of solidification,
when the gaseous state passed into the fluid and
solid. A separation of the more volatile bodies in
the gaseous state could then take place according to
the progress of this solidifying zone. This separation
from the molten interior could however only proceed
very slowly, as inferior specific gravity was the only
existing force, which could drive to the periphery
conglomerations of specifically lighter masses. How
great such a difference of density is in the earth's
interior cannot be determined, since our knowledge of
the behaviour of bodies subjected to such high tempe-
ratures and pressures, as prevail in the interior of the
earth, is still too slight. It appears however clear

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS. 405

that the segregation of our atmosphere and our seas
from the terrestrial mass was the work of many geo-
logical periods and is not yet completed, as the still
active geysers and hot springs testify. We shall be
compelled to assume a "Geyser period" as a special
geological period, which followed the formation of the
solid crust, and in which volcanoes and geysers ejected
at innumerable places of the solidified surface the
specifically lighter masses, especially water and air,
and with the help of the varying currents of the sea
formed by them deposited the stratified sediments. The
assumption too of the upheaval of mountains by internal
pressure does not agree with the assumption of a molten
or gaseous interior, on which the solid crust floats.

o 7

They can only be tangential forces, which have elevated
mountains and are still elevating parts of the earth's
surface. These tangential forces are supplied by pro-
gressive cooling of the interior, since the vault, formed
by the solid covering of the earth, would collapse
through gravitation, if the vanished fluid interior no
longer sufficiently supported it. The phenomenon of
volcanic eruptions does not necessitate the hypothesis
of an internal pressure, which is stronger than corre-
sponds to the weight of the solid crust. When we con-
sider that the more recently cooled layers of solid rock
must, with progressive refrigeration, be liable to rents,
which we feel at the surface as earthquakes, it is clear
that such rents may affect also the contiguous cooler
crust, already frequently ruptured in former geological
periods, and thereby bring about direct communications

406 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

between the fluid interior and the surface. The still
fluid terrestrial mass must then penetrate into these
cracks, and as it is hot and therefore lighter than the
superincumbent rock, it must burst forth and form a
mountain, with a height corresponding to the difference
of the specific gravity. As with the diminution of the
pressure, exerted on the hot fluid ascending in the
fissures, the gases and vapours contained in the magma
must be set free, the bubbles of gas in the column
of fluid rock will still further considerably diminish
its specific gravity, and the height to which the fluid
interior is raised in volcanoes is thereby explained,
without the necessity of assuming a mysterious pressure
in the interior overbalancing the hydraulic force.

It is surprising that professional geologists have
left these views, modifying in such essential points the
foundations of their traditional doctrines, unnoticed and
unrefuted for now more than a decennium.

In an essay "On the luminosity of flame" I de-
scribed a series of experiments on the problem of the
radiation of light of gaseous bodies, which I partly
instituted in the large glass furnaces, provided with
regenerative heating, of my brother Frederick in Dresden
and in conjunction with him. It appeared from these
experiments that permanent gases, if entirely free of
dust, are not luminous even at a very high temperature.
As they at the same time possess a remarkable power
of radiating heat, it is doubtless to be assumed, that
with further increase of heat they must nevertheless
at last begin to be luminous, because rays of light and

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS. 407

heat are only distinguished from one another by the
greater number of vibrations of the former, and be-
cause the radiating power in general seems to decrease
with the number of vibrations. At any rate the power
of radiating light appertaining to dust-free pure gases
is so exceedingly small, that the luminosity of flame
must be specifically different from the luminosity of
the gases heated by the process of combustion. Apart
from the luminosity of the solid particles separated by
combustion or suspended as impurities in the gas, the
luminosity of flame can only be an electrical process,
which is connected with the chemically shifted position
of the molecules of the burnt gases. The light of flame
would according to that be just as much electric light
as the light of the ozone tube or of the Geissler tube.
The interesting controversy, in which my deceased
brother William became involved with the astronomers
through his work "On the conservation of the solar
energy"', led me also to the sun and occasioned my
paper "On the admissibility of the assumption of an
electrical solar potential and its importance for the ex-
planation of terrestrial phenomena". As the known
ways of producing electrical phenomena always depend
on a separation of positive and negative electricity, we
must assume that this holds good for the sun also, that
therefore an electrical solar potential can only exist, if
the one electricity is carried away from the sun. The
theory set up by my brother, that solar matter is
flung off and diffused in the universe in consequence of
the sun's rotation, makes therefore the supposition of a

408 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

solar potential admissible. The objection of the astro-
nomers that interplanetary space cannot contain the
smallest quantity of matter, because then the period
of the planets would be increased, I sought to refute
by the consideration that the matter itself, expelled
from the sun, must rotate round the sun with plane-
tary velocity, that it could not therefore impede the
course of the planets. I also supported my brother's
view that the solar light arises from the burning solar

o e>

mass in its ascension, although I could only to a cer-
tain extent assent to his view that the combustible
atmosphere resting on a fluid or solid solar surface,
which is flung off in the burnt state and then again
dissociated by the sunlight in space, and in this state
again attracted by the sun, was the cause of the solar
rays. I could only assent to it so far as the participation
of the whole gaseous mass of the sun in the combustion
was concerned, and could assign to the flung-off mass
only a secondary importance in the thermal economy
of the sun, but on the other hand considered it decisive
as regards the question of its electrical charge.

Ritter's admirable and still insufficiently appreciated
works remove all doubts as to the sun's gaseous state,
with which the existence of a special solar atmosphere
is incompatible. We must therefore assume that the
whole solar mass is undergoing a continuous process
of combustion, but which can only actually take place
in the outermost layer of the body of the sun, where
the solar gas is already so far cooled by expansion
that chemical combinations can be formed. These

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS. 409

then occur with formation of flame and enhanced tem-
perature at the whole solar surface, whilst a flinging
off, such as my brother assumes, can only be possible
in the equatorial zone in a very limited degree. A
general descent of the burnt mass cooled by radiation
must follow the general ascent of the uppermost layers
of the sun, in consequence of their combustion and
heating beyond the diabatic temperature corresponding
to their expansion. This takes place in innumerable
descending streams, which give to the solar surface
its scaly appearance, or in the mean solar latitudes
also assumes the form of colossal descending vortices,
which are darker than the rest of the solar surface,
since the descending products of combustion indeed
nearly recover, by their compression, the temperature,
which they possessed at the beginning of the ascent,
but are thereby also dissociated and correspondingly
cooled. For this reason and on account of the absence
of flame these descending vortices appear as dark sun-
spots. Certainly this combustion -theory is still op-
posed by the circumstance that the existence of
oxygen in the sun has hitherto been spectroscopically
proved only at the bottom of the sun-spot funnel - - but
the greatest argument for it is, that the sun possesses
a composition essentially the same as the earth, that
therefore oxygen cannot be wanting.

I have tried to support this solar theory, which
admits the origin and preservation of an electrical solar
potential, by the proof that the latter would explain
many hitherto unexplained terrestrial phenomena. With

410 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

the colossal dimensions of the sun in comparison with
those of the earth the sun's potential will call forth
by electric distribution a terrestrial potential of nearly
half the amount, if we assume, that the electricity,
becoming free at the earth's surface, and similar to
the solar electricity, is absorbed through radiation
and neutralization by the electricity of the oppositely
electrified matter, proceeding according to brother
William's theory from the sun in the direction of the
sun's equator. That this high electric tension is not
observed at the earth's surface is a consequence of
the size of the earth's radius. Now by the rotation
of the earth the electricity bound to the earth's surface
by the solar electricity is carried round the earth, and
thus produces the effect of an electric current circling
round it. which makes it magnetic. Just as the earth's

o

magnetism, so also the terrestrial currents and polar
lights find their explanation by the electrical solar
potential, and similarly the reaction of phenomena in
the sun, such as the occurrence of sun-spots and
coronae, on terrestrial phenomena becomes explicable,
if we conceive them intimately connected with changes
of the sun's potential. Atmospheric and lightning elec-
tricity likewise find their explanation through the
electrical solar potential.

Under the title "Contributions to the theory of
electro -magnetism" I communicated two dissertations
to the Berlin Academy in the years 1881 and 1884,
in which the theory of magnetism was considerably
extended, and parts of it, that had hitherto remained

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS. 411

obscure, were cleared up. I arrived thereat by ex-
periments with tubular e]ectro- magnets, which gave
the looked-for result that iron exerts no, or at any
rate no appreciable, protection against magnetic action
at a distance, and that the magnetic maximum of iron
is independent of the direction of the magnetism. From
this it follows that the magnetism called forth in iron

D

by a magnetizing force is diminished by a simultaneous
magnetization in another direction. The maximum
magnetization occurring in ring -magnets even with
feeble magnetizing power shows that the strengthening
magnetizing effect, which magnetized iron molecules
exert on their neighbours, considerably outweighs direct
magnetization. This led me to the modification — al-
ready previously adopted by Stefan, as I afterwards
found - - of Weber's electro-magnetic theory, according
to which the assumed elementary solenoids must be
double solenoids, which as such move about freely in
space, and are directed by a magnetizing force acting
upon them, and then rotate round one another in a
scissor-like fashion. If we suppose the whole universe
to be filled with such double solenoids, which after
the theory of Father Secchi and Edltmd might be con-
ceived as ether -vortices, and that iron and the other
magnetic bodies were distinguished from the non-
magnetic by the ether -vortices pre-existing in a unit
of volume being more numerous in the former than
the latter and in empty space, magnetic action at a
distance might also be regarded according to Faraday's
suggestion as an action proceeding from molecule to

412 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

molecule or from space-element to space-element, and
we should then be warranted in applying the laws for
the molecular transference of heat, electricity, and elec-
trostatic distribution to magnetism also.

This theory on its side compels us to assume,
that magnetism, like the electric current and electric
distribution, can only exist in closed circuits, in which
the magnetic i "moment" is inversely proportional to
the resistance of the circuit. This consideration leads
therefore to the introduction of the notions "resistance
to magnetic distribution" and "magnetic conductivity"
of space and magnetic bodies. According to this, only
so much magnetism can be produced in an iron rod
by an electric current circling round it as can be
conveyed from one to the other pole, or absorbed by
the space surrounding the iron rod. My experiments
have confirmed this view, and their result shows that
the magnetic conductivity of soft iron is approximately
500 times as great as that of non- magnetic matter
and empty space.

Accordingly in the construction of electro-magnetic
machines Ohm's law may be applied for ascertaining
the most suitable dimensions, which will in many cases
be useful to the electrical engineer. The notion first
introduced by me, so far as I know, of magnetic con-
ductivity has meanwhile often been employed and
further developed in technical works - - without any
reference however to my priority.

The attempt described in my work on the sun's
potential, to refer certain meteorological phenomena to

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS. 413

disturbance of the indifferent equilibrium of the at-
mosphere, had convinced me, that in meteorology the
requirements of mechanical equilibrium and the prin-
ciple of the conservation of energy had not hitherto
received proper attention. Recent meteorology, in its
endeavour to deduce all the phenomena of atmospheric
motion from its extensive material of observation, has
too much lost sight of the causes of these movements.
Scientists were generally content to be able to refer
the aerial movements to the observed maxima and
minima of the pressure of the air and its movements,
and were satisfied with pointing to local influences of
temperature and the earth's rotation in explanation of
the causes of theses maxima and minima. In my paper
"On the conservation of energy in the earth's aerial
ocean" I have set up and defended the principle, that
every motion of the air is exclusively to be ascribed
to the unequal heating of the air by the sun's rays,
and that the earth's rotation can produce no new
motion of the air, but only change the direction of
the motion produced by solar influence. One direct
consequence of this principle is, that the sum of the
vis viva stored up in the rotation of the aerial ocean
on the earth's axis must unalterably be that, which
this ocean would have, if no meridional motion of air
were produced by solar influence, and the air every-
where had the rotatory velocity of that part of the
surface, on which it rests. In consequence of the
accelerating equatorial ascent of the overheated air,
streaming to the equator in the trade -winds, a back

414 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

current takes place in the upper regions of the at-
mosphere towards the poles, which however only in
a small part can reach polar latitudes. The reason
of this is that, owing to the narrowing of the upper
and simultaneous expanding of the lower stratum -
in consequence of the decrease of the latitudinal circles
on approaching the poles - - a partial passage of the
upper poleward moving current must continually take
place into the lower current towards the equator. It
is the inertia of the upper poleward travelling current,
which carries back the air in the lower one to the
equator. By this circulating current, continued for
untold thousands of years, the air of the higher lati-
tudes is intimately mixed with that of the lower ones,
and the whole aerial ocean must therefore rotate with
the mean easterly velocity of the earth's surface. The
westerly course of the trade -winds is thereby ex-
plained, as well as the mean easterly direction of the
aerial currents in the intermediate and polar latitudes.
The maxima and minima are essentially concomitant
phenomena of the alternation of temperature and of
the velocity of motion of the upper equatorial air-
current, and always depend on disturbances of the
indifferent equilibrium of the overlying air - strata.
When an aerial current, which has a higher or lower
temperature than corresponds to its altitude in the
adiabatic curve of temperature, breaks into the highest
regions of the aerial ocean, the indifferent equilibrium
of the whole aerial column is thereby disturbed, and
neutralization must take place by ascending or descend-

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS. 415

ing motion of air, according as the invading higher
currents of air are too warm or too cold, thus also
too light or too heavy for the indifferent equilibrium.
This ascending or descending aerial motion must last
until the indifferent equilibrium of the column of air
is again restored, and the consequence then is, that
the pressure of the atmosphere at the surface of the
earth becomes as great as it would be, if the tempe-
rature of the whole column of air had changed as
much as the equatorial current, causing the disturbance,
deviates from the adiabatic temperature corresponding
to its place and its height. As the consumption of
heat during the active expansion of a quantity of air
is independent of its commencing temperature, the air
ascending at different places in the torrid zone must
retain the differences of temperature, which it possessed
before the rise. Hence it follows , that relatively
warm and cold currents of air flow polewards with
different velocity in the higher and highest strata of
air, and thereby disturb the indifferent equilibrium of
the atmosphere in its whole course. Slowly flowing,
too cold currents will give off their surplus pressure
to the lower aerial strata on which they are resting,
without ; causing important disturbances, by compressing
them, and thereby causing a rising barometric pressure
in a calm atmosphere. Air -currents, which are rela-
tively light, hot, and therefore strongly accelerated
during their ascent, will on the other hand cause to
undulate and carry with them the surface, insufficiently
weighted by them, of the aerial strata over which

416 SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS.

they pass, and will thus, with a falling barometer, cause
upward aerial movements, lasting until the indifferent
equilibrium is again restored in the whole column of
air. According to this, variations of temperature of
20 to 40° F. in the highest strata of air suffice to
produce the barometric fluctuations observed at the
earth's surface, thus also the maxima and minima of
the atmospheric pressure.

This theory has met with considerable approval,
it however received the assent of the adherents of
the prevailing views only in certain points, or is even
entirely ignored by them. I have had occasion re-
peatedly to defend and further develop it. The
papers relating thereto are entitled "On the question
of air currents" (1887), "On the general system of
terrestrial winds" (1890) and "On the question of
the causes of atmospheric currents" (1891). I am
convinced that my theory will gradually meet with
universal acceptance , as it rests on a basis of facts.
It is a necessary consequence of our system of in-
struction however, that new fundamental views, which
contradict previous doctrines, should only slowly gain
ascendency. They must first be embodied in text
books, and that can only take place, when the new
theory is worked out on all sides and the ruins of
the hitherto dominant ones are cleared away.

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