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116-593: Albert Hoser is the chairman and chief executive officer of the foundation. He established it in July 1998 to promote and support science and mathematics education in the United States. He was president and chief executive officer of Siemens Corporation from January 1, 1991, until his retirement in 1999. He had been with Siemens since 1954 and held a variety of management and executive positions in Europe, Japan, India and

232-576: A $ 100 million fund at the World Bank to support anti-corruption activities over 15 years, known as the "Siemens Integrity Initiative." Other substantial fines include a payment of ₦7 billion (US$ 46.57 million) to the Nigerian government in 2010, and a US$ 42.7 million penalty in Israel in 2014 to avoid charges of securities fraud. In 2006, Siemens purchased Bayer Diagnostics which was incorporated into

348-474: A Telex was a message sent by a Telex network, a switched network of teleprinters similar to a telephone network. A wirephoto or wire picture was a newspaper picture that was sent from a remote location by a facsimile telegraph . A diplomatic telegram, also known as a diplomatic cable , is a confidential communication between a diplomatic mission and the foreign ministry of its parent country. These continue to be called telegrams or cables regardless of

464-503: A US lawyer, as an independent director in charge of compliance and accepting oversight from Theo Waigel , a former German finance minister. Siemens implemented new anti-corruption policies, including a comprehensive anti-corruption handbook, online tools for due diligence and compliance, a confidential communications channel for employees, and a corporate disciplinary committee. This process involved hiring approximately 500 full-time compliance personnel worldwide. Siemens's bribery culture

580-453: A code by itself. The term heliostat is sometimes used as a synonym for heliograph because of this origin. The Colomb shutter ( Bolton and Colomb , 1862) was originally invented to enable the transmission of morse code by signal lamp between Royal Navy ships at sea. The heliograph was heavily used by Nelson A. Miles in Arizona and New Mexico after he took over command (1886) of

696-494: A company branch headed by another brother, Carl Heinrich von Siemens , opened in St Petersburg , Russia. In 1867, Siemens completed the monumental Indo-European telegraph line stretching over 11,000 km from London to Calcutta . In 1867, Werner von Siemens described a dynamo without permanent magnets. A similar system was also independently invented by Ányos Jedlik and Charles Wheatstone , but Siemens became

812-470: A distance of a quarter of a mile. In the 1890s inventor Nikola Tesla worked on an air and ground conduction wireless electric power transmission system , similar to Loomis', which he planned to include wireless telegraphy. Tesla's experiments had led him to incorrectly conclude that he could use the entire globe of the Earth to conduct electrical energy and his 1901 large scale application of his ideas,

928-446: A distance. This is to be distinguished from semaphore , which merely transmits messages. Smoke signals, for instance, are to be considered semaphore, not telegraph. According to Morse, telegraph dates only from 1832 when Pavel Schilling invented one of the earliest electrical telegraphs. A telegraph message sent by an electrical telegraph operator or telegrapher using Morse code (or a printing telegraph operator using plain text)

1044-473: A few days, sometimes taking all day to send a message despite the use of the highly sensitive mirror galvanometer developed by William Thomson (the future Lord Kelvin ) before being destroyed by applying too high a voltage. Its failure and slow speed of transmission prompted Thomson and Oliver Heaviside to find better mathematical descriptions of long transmission lines . The company finally succeeded in 1866 with an improved cable laid by SS Great Eastern ,

1160-469: A fine as high as $ 5 billion, the final amount was significantly less, in part due to Siemens's cooperation with the investigators, the upcoming change in the US administration, and Siemens's role as a US military contractor . The payments included $ 450 million in fines and penalties and a forfeiture of $ 350 million in profits in the US. Siemens also revamped its compliance systems, appointing Peter Y. Solmssen ,

1276-401: A legally independent company: Siemens Electromechanical Components GmbH & Co. KG, (which, later that year, was sold to Tyco International Ltd for approximately $ 1.1 billion. In the same year, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG became part of Fujitsu Siemens Computers , with its retail banking technology group becoming Wincor Nixdorf . In 2000, Shared Medical Systems Corporation

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1392-555: A message was relayed 640 km (400 mi) in four hours. Miles' enemies used smoke signals and flashes of sunlight from metal, but lacked a sophisticated telegraph code. The heliograph was ideal for use in the American Southwest due to its clear air and mountainous terrain on which stations could be located. It was found necessary to lengthen the morse dash (which is much shorter in American Morse code than in

1508-493: A modification of surveying equipment ( Gauss , 1821). Various uses of mirrors were made for communication in the following years, mostly for military purposes, but the first device to become widely used was a heliograph with a moveable mirror ( Mance , 1869). The system was used by the French during the 1870–71 siege of Paris , with night-time signalling using kerosene lamps as the source of light. An improved version (Begbie, 1870)

1624-583: A multi-national bribery scandal. Among the various incidents was the Siemens Greek bribery scandal , where the company was accused of deals with Greek government officials during the 2004 Summer Olympics . This case, along with others, triggered legal investigations in Germany, initiated by prosecutors in Italy, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland, and later followed by an American investigation in 2006 due to

1740-606: A natural rubber from the Palaquium gutta tree, after William Montgomerie sent samples to London from Singapore in 1843. The new material was tested by Michael Faraday and in 1845 Wheatstone suggested that it should be used on the cable planned between Dover and Calais by John Watkins Brett . The idea was proved viable when the South Eastern Railway company successfully tested a three-kilometre (two-mile) gutta-percha insulated cable with telegraph messages to

1856-489: A popular means of sending messages once telegraph prices had fallen sufficiently. Traffic became high enough to spur the development of automated systems— teleprinters and punched tape transmission. These systems led to new telegraph codes , starting with the Baudot code . However, telegrams were never able to compete with the letter post on price, and competition from the telephone , which removed their speed advantage, drove

1972-614: A ship off the coast of Folkestone . The cable to France was laid in 1850 but was almost immediately severed by a French fishing vessel. It was relaid the next year and connections to Ireland and the Low Countries soon followed. Getting a cable across the Atlantic Ocean proved much more difficult. The Atlantic Telegraph Company , formed in London in 1856, had several failed attempts. A cable laid in 1858 worked poorly for

2088-440: A single-needle telegraph was adapted to indicate just two messages: "Line Clear" and "Line Blocked". The signaller would adjust his line-side signals accordingly. As first implemented in 1844 each station had as many needles as there were stations on the line, giving a complete picture of the traffic. As lines expanded, a sequence of pairs of single-needle instruments were adopted, one pair for each block in each direction. Wigwag

2204-663: A substantial distance was by Ronalds in 1816 using an electrostatic generator . Ronalds offered his invention to the British Admiralty , but it was rejected as unnecessary, the existing optical telegraph connecting the Admiralty in London to their main fleet base in Portsmouth being deemed adequate for their purposes. As late as 1844, after the electrical telegraph had come into use, the Admiralty's optical telegraph

2320-418: A system for mass distributing information on current price of publicly listed companies. In a punched-tape system, the message is first typed onto punched tape using the code of the telegraph system—Morse code for instance. It is then, either immediately or at some later time, run through a transmission machine which sends the message to the telegraph network. Multiple messages can be sequentially recorded on

2436-503: A system of communication that would allow the central government to receive intelligence and to transmit orders in the shortest possible time. On 2 March 1791, at 11 am, they sent the message "si vous réussissez, vous serez bientôt couverts de gloire" (If you succeed, you will soon bask in glory) between Brulon and Parce, a distance of 16 kilometres (10 mi). The first means used a combination of black and white panels, clocks, telescopes, and codebooks to send their message. In 1792, Claude

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2552-534: A telefax machine. In 1855, an Italian priest, Giovanni Caselli , also created an electric telegraph that could transmit images. Caselli called his invention " Pantelegraph ". Pantelegraph was successfully tested and approved for a telegraph line between Paris and Lyon . In 1881, English inventor Shelford Bidwell constructed the scanning phototelegraph that was the first telefax machine to scan any two-dimensional original, not requiring manual plotting or drawing. Around 1900, German physicist Arthur Korn invented

2668-466: A telegraph between St Petersburg and Kronstadt , but it was never completed. The first operative electric telegraph ( Gauss and Weber , 1833) connected Göttingen Observatory to the Institute of Physics about 1 km away during experimental investigations of the geomagnetic field. The first commercial telegraph was by Cooke and Wheatstone following their English patent of 10 June 1837. It

2784-465: Is a form of flag signalling using a single flag. Unlike most forms of flag signalling, which are used over relatively short distances, wigwag is designed to maximise the distance covered—up to 32 km (20 mi) in some cases. Wigwag achieved this by using a large flag—a single flag can be held with both hands unlike flag semaphore which has a flag in each hand—and using motions rather than positions as its symbols since motions are more easily seen. It

2900-519: Is a telegraph consisting of a line of stations in towers or natural high points which signal to each other by means of shutters or paddles. Signalling by means of indicator pointers was called semaphore . Early proposals for an optical telegraph system were made to the Royal Society by Robert Hooke in 1684 and were first implemented on an experimental level by Sir Richard Lovell Edgeworth in 1767. The first successful optical telegraph network

3016-458: Is a telegraph machine that can send messages from a typewriter-like keyboard and print incoming messages in readable text with no need for the operators to be trained in the telegraph code used on the line. It developed from various earlier printing telegraphs and resulted in improved transmission speeds. The Morse telegraph (1837) was originally conceived as a system marking indentations on paper tape. A chemical telegraph making blue marks improved

3132-480: Is currently headed by Dr. Nina Smidt. Further foundations were established in France, Argentine, Denmark, Brazil and Columbia. This article about an organization in the United States is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Siemens AG Siemens AG ( German pronunciation: [ˈziːməns] or [-mɛns] ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate . It

3248-611: Is focused on industrial automation , distributed energy resources , rail transport and health technology . Siemens is the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe, and holds the position of global market leader in industrial automation and industrial software . The origins of the conglomerate can be traced back to 1847 to the Telegraphen Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske established in Berlin by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske . In 1966,

3364-505: Is not. Ancient signalling systems, although sometimes quite extensive and sophisticated as in China, were generally not capable of transmitting arbitrary text messages. Possible messages were fixed and predetermined, so such systems are thus not true telegraphs. The earliest true telegraph put into widespread use was the Chappe telegraph , an optical telegraph invented by Claude Chappe in

3480-447: Is that it permits duplex communication. The Wheatstone tape reader was capable of a speed of 400 words per minute. A worldwide communication network meant that telegraph cables would have to be laid across oceans. On land cables could be run uninsulated suspended from poles. Underwater, a good insulator that was both flexible and capable of resisting the ingress of seawater was required. A solution presented itself with gutta-percha ,

3596-461: Is the second largest German company by market capitalization . As of 2023, the principal divisions of Siemens are Digital Industries, Smart Infrastructure, Mobility , and Financial Services , with Siemens Mobility operating as an independent entity. Major business divisions that were once part of Siemens before being spun off include semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies (1999), Siemens Mobile (2005), Gigaset Communications (2008),

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3712-645: The Bildtelegraph widespread in continental Europe especially since a widely noticed transmission of a wanted-person photograph from Paris to London in 1908 used until the wider distribution of the radiofax. Its main competitors were the Bélinographe by Édouard Belin first, then since the 1930s, the Hellschreiber , invented in 1929 by German inventor Rudolf Hell , a pioneer in mechanical image scanning and transmission. The late 1880s through to

3828-824: The BenQ-Siemens division. Also in 2005 Siemens acquired Flender Holding GmbH ( Bocholt , Germany, gears/industrial drives), Bewator AB (building security systems), Wheelabrator Air Pollution Control, Inc. (Industrial and power station dust control systems), AN Windenergie GmbH. (Wind energy), Power Technologies Inc. ( Schenectady , USA, energy industry software and training), CTI Molecular Imaging ( Positron emission tomography and molecular imaging systems), Myrio ( IPTV systems), Shaw Power Technologies International Ltd (UK/USA, electrical engineering consulting, acquired from Shaw Group ), and Transmitton ( Ashby de la Zouch UK, rail and other industry control and asset management). Beginning in 2005, Siemens became embroiled in

3944-773: The Cumann na nGaedheal government. Siemens (at the time: Siemens-Schuckert ) exploited the forced labour of deported people in extermination camps . The company owned a plant in Auschwitz concentration camp . Siemens exploited the forced labour of women deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp ; a Siemens factory was located in front of the camp. During the final years of World War II , numerous plants and factories in Berlin and other major cities were destroyed by Allied air raids. To prevent further losses, manufacturing

4060-660: The English Channel (1899), from shore to ship (1899) and finally across the Atlantic (1901). A study of these demonstrations of radio, with scientists trying to work out how a phenomenon predicted to have a short range could transmit "over the horizon", led to the discovery of a radio reflecting layer in the Earth's atmosphere in 1902, later called the ionosphere . Radiotelegraphy proved effective for rescue work in sea disasters by enabling effective communication between ships and from ship to shore. In 1904, Marconi began

4176-632: The European Commission for price fixing in EU electricity markets through a cartel involving 11 companies, including ABB , Alstom , Fuji Electric , Hitachi Japan , AE Power Systems, Mitsubishi Electric Corp , Schneider , Areva , Toshiba and VA Tech . According to the commission, "between 1988 and 2004, the companies rigged bids for procurement contracts, fixed prices, allocated projects to each other, shared markets and exchanged commercially important and confidential information." Siemens

4292-508: The First Macedonian War . Nothing else that could be described as a true telegraph existed until the 17th century. Possibly the first alphabetic telegraph code in the modern era is due to Franz Kessler who published his work in 1616. Kessler used a lamp placed inside a barrel with a moveable shutter operated by the signaller. The signals were observed at a distance with the newly invented telescope. An optical telegraph

4408-481: The London and Birmingham Railway line's chief engineer. The messages were for the operation of the rope-haulage system for pulling trains up the 1 in 77 bank. The world's first permanent railway telegraph was completed in July 1839 between London Paddington and West Drayton on the Great Western Railway with an electric telegraph using a four-needle system. The concept of a signalling "block" system

4524-634: The Siemens-Reiniger-Werke AG (SRW), the third of the so-called parent companies that merged in 1966 to form the present-day Siemens AG. In the 1920s, Siemens constructed the Ardnacrusha Hydro Power station on the River Shannon in the then Irish Free State , and it was a world first for its design. The company is remembered for its desire to raise the wages of its underpaid workers, only to be overruled by

4640-530: The Tang dynasty (618–907) a message could be sent 1,100 kilometres (700 mi) in 24 hours. The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) added artillery to the possible signals. While the signalling was complex (for instance, different-coloured flags could be used to indicate enemy strength), only predetermined messages could be sent. The Chinese signalling system extended well beyond the Great Wall. Signal towers away from

4756-471: The 1850s until well into the 20th century, British submarine cable systems dominated the world system. This was set out as a formal strategic goal, which became known as the All Red Line . In 1896, there were thirty cable-laying ships in the world and twenty-four of them were owned by British companies. In 1892, British companies owned and operated two-thirds of the world's cables and by 1923, their share

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4872-530: The 1890s saw the discovery and then development of a newly understood phenomenon into a form of wireless telegraphy , called Hertzian wave wireless telegraphy, radiotelegraphy, or (later) simply " radio ". Between 1886 and 1888, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz published the results of his experiments where he was able to transmit electromagnetic waves (radio waves) through the air, proving James Clerk Maxwell 's 1873 theory of electromagnetic radiation . Many scientists and inventors experimented with this new phenomenon but

4988-542: The 1950s, and from their new base in Bavaria , S&H started to manufacture computers , semiconductor devices , washing machines , and pacemakers . In 1966, Siemens & Halske (S&H, founded in 1847), Siemens-Schuckertwerke (SSW, founded in 1903) and Siemens-Reiniger-Werke (SRW, founded in 1932) merged to form Siemens AG. In 1969, Siemens formed Kraftwerk Union with AEG by pooling their nuclear power businesses. The company's first digital telephone exchange

5104-544: The 1990s. In 1993–1994, Siemens C651 electric trains for Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system were built in Austria. In 1997, Siemens agreed to sell the defence arm of Siemens Plessey to British Aerospace (BAe) and a German aerospace company, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace . BAe and DASA acquired the British and German divisions of the operation respectively. In October 1997, Siemens Financial Services (SFS)

5220-492: The American division in 1979. AMD closed Advanced Micro Computers in late 1981 after switching focus to manufacturing second-source Intel x86 microprocessors. In 1985, Siemens bought Allis-Chalmers ' interest in the partnership company Siemens-Allis (formed 1978) which supplied electrical control equipment. It was incorporated into Siemens's Energy and Automation division. In 1987, Siemens reintegrated Kraftwerk Union,

5336-479: The British government followed—by March 1897, Marconi had transmitted Morse code signals over a distance of about 6 km ( 3 + 1 ⁄ 2  mi) across Salisbury Plain . On 13 May 1897, Marconi, assisted by George Kemp, a Cardiff Post Office engineer, transmitted the first wireless signals over water to Lavernock (near Penarth in Wales) from Flat Holm . His star rising, he was soon sending signals across

5452-551: The Industrial Systems Division of Texas Instruments , based in Johnson City, Tennessee . This division was organized as Siemens Industrial Automation, and was later absorbed by Siemens Energy and Automation, Inc. In 1992, Siemens bought out IBM 's half of ROLM (Siemens had bought into ROLM five years earlier), thus creating SiemensROLM Communications; eventually dropping ROLM from the name later in

5568-489: The Medical Solutions Diagnostics division on 1 January 2007, also in 2006 Siemens acquired Controlotron (New York) (ultrasonic flow meters), and also in 2006 Siemens acquired Diagnostic Products Corp., Kadon Electro Mechanical Services Ltd. (now TurboCare Canada Ltd.), Kühnle, Kopp, & Kausch AG, Opto Control, and VistaScape Security Systems. In January 2007, Siemens was fined €396 million by

5684-466: The Morse system connected Baltimore to Washington , and by 1861 the west coast of the continent was connected to the east coast. The Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph , in a series of improvements, also ended up with a one-wire system, but still using their own code and needle displays . The electric telegraph quickly became a means of more general communication. The Morse system was officially adopted as

5800-632: The Power Generation division of Siemens AG. Other parts of the company were acquired by Robert Bosch GmbH at the same time. Also, Moore Products Co. of Spring House, PA USA was acquired by Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. In 2001, Chemtech Group of Brazil was incorporated into the Siemens Group; it provides industrial process optimisation, consultancy and other engineering services. Also in 2001, Siemens formed joint venture Framatome with Areva SA of France by merging much of

5916-502: The US and Germany in what was, at the time, the largest bribery fine in history. In addition, the company was required to invest $ 1 billion in developing and maintaining new internal compliance procedures. Siemens admitted to violating the accounting provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act , while its Bangladesh and Venezuela subsidiaries pleaded guilty to paying bribes. Despite initial expectations of

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6032-510: The United States by Samuel Morse . The electric telegraph was slower to develop in France due to the established optical telegraph system, but an electrical telegraph was put into use with a code compatible with the Chappe optical telegraph. The Morse system was adopted as the international standard in 1865, using a modified Morse code developed in Germany in 1848. The heliograph is a telegraph system using reflected sunlight for signalling. It

6148-713: The United States. From 1969 to 1980 he headed various commercial departments in Germany, including the Measurement and Process Technology Group in Karlsruhe, commercial departments in Bremen, and the Standard Products Group in Erlangen. In 1980, he became president and chief executive officer of Siemens Japan, until becoming president and chief executive officer of Siemens India, Ltd in 1984. He serves on

6264-789: The board of trustees of the Center for Excellence in Education, in Vienna, Virginia. Some other internationally operating Siemens foundations were established by Siemens AG in 2008 to enhance Corporate Social Responsibility through support of natural scientific education and by initiating welfare aid and cultural programs. These foundations include the German Siemens Stiftung which operates in Africa, Latin America and Europe and

6380-402: The companies' nuclear businesses. In 2002, Siemens sold some of its business activities to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR), with its metering business included in the sale package. In 2002, Siemens abandoned the solar photovoltaic industry by selling its participation in a joint-venture company, established in 2001 with Shell and E.ON , to Shell. In 2003, Siemens acquired

6496-513: The company an infusion of cash to increase its product lines. The two companies also jointly established Advanced Micro Computers (AMC), located in Silicon Valley and in Germany, allowing AMD to enter the microcomputer development and manufacturing field, in particular based on AMD's second-source Zilog Z8000 microprocessors. When the two companies' vision for Advanced Micro Computers diverged, AMD bought out Siemens's stake in

6612-512: The company built the first long-distance telegraph line in Europe: 500 km from Berlin to Frankfurt am Main . In 1850, the founder's younger brother, Carl Wilhelm Siemens, later Sir William Siemens , started to represent the company in London. The London agency became a branch office in 1858. In the 1850s, the company was involved in building long-distance telegraph networks in Russia. In 1855,

6728-661: The company opened an office in San Jose. On 7 March 2003, the company announced that it planned to gain 10 per cent of the mainland China market for handsets. On 18 March 2003, the company unveiled the latest in its series of Xelibri fashion phones. In 2004, the wind energy company Bonus Energy in Brande , Denmark was acquired, forming Siemens Wind Power division. Also in 2004, Siemens invested in Dasan Networks (South Korea, broadband network equipment) acquiring ~40% of

6844-480: The company's activities while listed on US stock exchanges. Investigations found that Siemens had a pattern of bribing officials to secure contracts, with the company spending approximately $ 1.3 billion on bribes across several countries, and maintaining separate accounting records to conceal this. Following the investigations, Siemens settled in December 2008, paying a combined total of approximately $ 1.6 billion to

6960-438: The consensus was that these new waves (similar to light) would be just as short range as light, and, therefore, useless for long range communication. At the end of 1894, the young Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi began working on the idea of building a commercial wireless telegraphy system based on the use of Hertzian waves (radio waves), a line of inquiry that he noted other inventors did not seem to be pursuing. Building on

7076-651: The conviction of two former executives in 2007 for bribing Italian energy company Enel , a settlement with the Greek government in 2012 for 330 million euros over the Greek bribery scandal, and a guilty plea in 2014 from former Siemens executive Andres Truppel for channeling nearly $ 100 million in bribes to Argentine government officials. Siemens also faced repercussions from the World Bank due to fraudulent practices by its Russian affiliate. In 2009, Siemens agreed not to bid on World Bank projects for two years and to establish

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7192-411: The coordinates of the letter of the alphabet being transmitted. The number of said torches held up signalled the grid square that contained the letter. There is no definite record of the system ever being used, but there are several passages in ancient texts that some think are suggestive. Holzmann and Pehrson, for instance, suggest that Livy is describing its use by Philip V of Macedon in 207 BC during

7308-537: The erroneous belief that there was an electrified atmospheric stratum accessible at low altitude. They thought atmosphere current, connected with a return path using "Earth currents" would allow for wireless telegraphy as well as supply power for the telegraph, doing away with artificial batteries. A more practical demonstration of wireless transmission via conduction came in Amos Dolbear 's 1879 magneto electric telephone that used ground conduction to transmit over

7424-519: The fight against Geronimo and other Apache bands in the Apache Wars . Miles had previously set up the first heliograph line in the US between Fort Keogh and Fort Custer in Montana . He used the heliograph to fill in vast, thinly populated areas that were not covered by the electric telegraph. Twenty-six stations covered an area 320 by 480 km (200 by 300 mi). In a test of the system,

7540-623: The first commercial service to transmit nightly news summaries to subscribing ships, which could incorporate them into their on-board newspapers. A regular transatlantic radio-telegraph service was finally begun on 17 October 1907. Notably, Marconi's apparatus was used to help rescue efforts after the sinking of RMS  Titanic . Britain's postmaster-general summed up, referring to the Titanic disaster, "Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi...and his marvellous invention." The successful development of radiotelegraphy

7656-637: The first company to build such devices. In 1881, a Siemens AC Alternator driven by a watermill was used to power the world's first electric street lighting in the town of Godalming , United Kingdom. The company continued to grow and diversified into electric trains and light bulbs . In 1885, Siemens sold one of its generators to George Westinghouse , thereby enabling Westinghouse to begin experimenting with AC networks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1887, Siemens opened its first office in Japan. In 1890,

7772-711: The flow division of Danfoss and incorporated it into the Automation and Drives division. Also in 2003 Siemens acquired IndX software (realtime data organisation and presentation). The same year in an unrelated development Siemens reopened its office in Kabul . Also in 2003 agreed to buy Alstom Industrial Turbines; a manufacturer of small, medium and industrial gas turbines for €1.1 billion. On 11 February 2003, Siemens planned to shorten phones' shelf life by bringing out annual Xelibri lines, with new devices launched as spring -summer and autumn-winter collections. On 6 March 2003,

7888-791: The founder retired and left the running of the company to his brother Carl and sons Arnold and Wilhelm. In 1892, Siemens was contracted to construct the Hobart electric tramway in Tasmania , Australia , as it increased its markets. The system opened in 1893 and became the first complete electric tram network in the Southern Hemisphere. Siemens & Halske (S & H) was incorporated in 1897 and then merged parts of its activities with Schuckert & Co., Nuremberg, in 1903 to become Siemens-Schuckert . In 1907, Siemens ( Siemens & Halske and Siemens-Schuckert ) had 34,324 employees and

8004-651: The ground without any wires connecting the stations. Other attempts were made to send the electric current through bodies of water, to span rivers, for example. Prominent experimenters along these lines included Samuel F. B. Morse in the United States and James Bowman Lindsay in Great Britain, who in August 1854, was able to demonstrate transmission across a mill dam at a distance of 500 yards (457 metres). US inventors William Henry Ward (1871) and Mahlon Loomis (1872) developed electrical conduction systems based on

8120-419: The ideas of previous scientists and inventors Marconi re-engineered their apparatus by trial and error attempting to build a radio-based wireless telegraphic system that would function the same as wired telegraphy. He would work on the system through 1895 in his lab and then in field tests making improvements to extend its range. After many breakthroughs, including applying the wired telegraphy concept of grounding

8236-898: The implementation of the 1999 OECD Anti-Bribery Convention , Siemens started using off-shore accounts to hide its bribery. During the investigation, key player Reinhard Siekaczek, a mid-level executive in the telecommunications unit, provided critical evidence. He disclosed that he had managed an annual global bribery budget of $ 40 to $ 50 million and provided information about the company's 2,700 worldwide contractors, who were typically used to channel money to government officials. Notable instances of bribery included substantial payments in Argentina, Israel, Venezuela, China, Nigeria, and Russia to secure large contracts. The investigation resulted in multiple prosecutions and settlements with various governments, as well as legal action against Siemens employees and those who received bribes. Noteworthy cases include

8352-561: The largest ship of its day, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel . An overland telegraph from Britain to India was first connected in 1866 but was unreliable so a submarine telegraph cable was connected in 1870. Several telegraph companies were combined to form the Eastern Telegraph Company in 1872. Australia was first linked to the rest of the world in October 1872 by a submarine telegraph cable at Darwin . From

8468-594: The late 18th century. The system was used extensively in France, and European nations occupied by France, during the Napoleonic era . The electric telegraph started to replace the optical telegraph in the mid-19th century. It was first taken up in Britain in the form of the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph , initially used mostly as an aid to railway signalling . This was quickly followed by a different system developed in

8584-421: The line at his own expense and agreed that the railway could have free use of it in exchange for the right to open it up to the public. Most of the early electrical systems required multiple wires (Ronalds' system was an exception), but the system developed in the United States by Morse and Vail was a single-wire system. This was the system that first used the soon-to-become-ubiquitous Morse code . By 1844,

8700-526: The method used for transmission. Passing messages by signalling over distance is an ancient practice. One of the oldest examples is the signal towers of the Great Wall of China . In 400 BC , signals could be sent by beacon fires or drum beats . By 200 BC complex flag signalling had developed, and by the Han dynasty (200 BC – 220 AD) signallers had a choice of lights, flags, or gunshots to send signals. By

8816-569: The modern International Morse code) to aid differentiating from the morse dot. Use of the heliograph declined from 1915 onwards, but remained in service in Britain and British Commonwealth countries for some time. Australian forces used the heliograph as late as 1942 in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II . Some form of heliograph was used by the mujahideen in the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989). A teleprinter

8932-457: The photonics business Osram (2013), Siemens Healthineers (2017), and Siemens Energy (2020). Siemens & Halske was founded by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske on 1 October 1847. Based on the telegraph , their invention used a needle to point to the sequence of letters, instead of using Morse code . The company, then called Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske , opened its first workshop on 12 October. In 1848,

9048-399: The possible messages. One of the few for which details are known is a system invented by Aeneas Tacticus (4th century BC). Tacticus's system had water filled pots at the two signal stations which were drained in synchronisation. Annotation on a floating scale indicated which message was being sent or received. Signals sent by means of torches indicated when to start and stop draining to keep

9164-539: The present-day corporation emerged from the merger of three companies: Siemens & Halske , Siemens-Schuckert , and Siemens-Reiniger-Werke . Today headquartered in Munich and Berlin, Siemens and its subsidiaries employ approximately 320,000 people worldwide and reported a global revenue of around €78 billion in 2023. The company is a component of the DAX and Euro Stoxx 50 stock market indices. As of December 2023, Siemens

9280-419: The same run of tape. The advantage of doing this is that messages can be sent at a steady, fast rate making maximum use of the available telegraph lines. The economic advantage of doing this is greatest on long, busy routes where the cost of the extra step of preparing the tape is outweighed by the cost of providing more telegraph lines. The first machine to use punched tape was Bain's teleprinter (Bain, 1843), but

9396-513: The shares, Nokia Siemens disinvested itself of the shares in 2008. The same year Siemens acquired Photo-Scan (UK, CCTV systems), US Filter Corporation (water and Waste Water Treatment Technologies/ Solutions, acquired from Veolia ), Huntsville Electronics Corporation (automobile electronics, acquired from Chrysler ), and Chantry Networks ( WLAN equipment). In 2005, Siemens sold the Siemens mobile manufacturing business to BenQ , forming

9512-403: The speed of recording ( Bain , 1846), but was delayed by a patent challenge from Morse. The first true printing telegraph (that is printing in plain text) used a spinning wheel of types in the manner of a daisy wheel printer ( House , 1846, improved by Hughes , 1855). The system was adopted by Western Union . Early teleprinters used the Baudot code , a five-bit sequential binary code. This

9628-579: The standard for continental European telegraphy in 1851 with a revised code, which later became the basis of International Morse Code . However, Great Britain and the British Empire continued to use the Cooke and Wheatstone system, in some places as late as the 1930s. Likewise, the United States continued to use American Morse code internally, requiring translation operators skilled in both codes for international messages. Railway signal telegraphy

9744-462: The synchronisation. None of the signalling systems discussed above are true telegraphs in the sense of a system that can transmit arbitrary messages over arbitrary distances. Lines of signalling relay stations can send messages to any required distance, but all these systems are limited to one extent or another in the range of messages that they can send. A system like flag semaphore , with an alphabetic code, can certainly send any given message, but

9860-559: The system is designed for short-range communication between two persons. An engine order telegraph , used to send instructions from the bridge of a ship to the engine room, fails to meet both criteria; it has a limited distance and very simple message set. There was only one ancient signalling system described that does meet these criteria. That was a system using the Polybius square to encode an alphabet. Polybius (2nd century BC) suggested using two successive groups of torches to identify

9976-619: The system saw only limited use. Later versions of Bain's system achieved speeds up to 1000 words per minute, far faster than a human operator could achieve. The first widely used system (Wheatstone, 1858) was first put into service with the British General Post Office in 1867. A novel feature of the Wheatstone system was the use of bipolar encoding . That is, both positive and negative polarity voltages were used. Bipolar encoding has several advantages, one of which

10092-405: The telegraph into decline from 1920 onwards. The few remaining telegraph applications were largely taken over by alternatives on the internet towards the end of the 20th century. The word telegraph (from Ancient Greek : τῆλε ( têle ) 'at a distance' and γράφειν ( gráphein ) 'to write') was coined by the French inventor of the semaphore telegraph , Claude Chappe , who also coined

10208-537: The transmitter and receiver, Marconi was able, by early 1896, to transmit radio far beyond the short ranges that had been predicted. Having failed to interest the Italian government, the 22-year-old inventor brought his telegraphy system to Britain in 1896 and met William Preece , a Welshman, who was a major figure in the field and Chief Engineer of the General Post Office . A series of demonstrations for

10324-445: The two stations to form a complete electrical circuit or "loop". In 1837, however, Carl August von Steinheil of Munich , Germany , found that by connecting one leg of the apparatus at each station to metal plates buried in the ground, he could eliminate one wire and use a single wire for telegraphic communication. This led to speculation that it might be possible to eliminate both wires and therefore transmit telegraph signals through

10440-587: The unit overseeing nuclear power business. In 1987, Siemens acquired Kongsberg Offshore from the Norwegian Government, selling it on to FMC Technologies in 1993 In 1989, Siemens bought the solar photovoltaic business, including 3 solar module manufacturing plants, from industry pioneer ARCO Solar, owned by oil firm ARCO . In 1991, Siemens acquired Nixdorf Computer and renamed it Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme , in order to produce personal computers . In October 1991, Siemens acquired

10556-493: The wall were used to give early warning of an attack. Others were built even further out as part of the protection of trade routes, especially the Silk Road . Signal fires were widely used in Europe and elsewhere for military purposes. The Roman army made frequent use of them, as did their enemies, and the remains of some of the stations still exist. Few details have been recorded of European/Mediterranean signalling systems and

10672-463: The word semaphore . A telegraph is a device for transmitting and receiving messages over long distances, i.e., for telegraphy. The word telegraph alone generally refers to an electrical telegraph . Wireless telegraphy is transmission of messages over radio with telegraphic codes. Contrary to the extensive definition used by Chappe, Morse argued that the term telegraph can strictly be applied only to systems that transmit and record messages at

10788-485: Was a telegraph code developed for use on the French telegraph using a five-key keyboard ( Baudot , 1874). Teleprinters generated the same code from a full alphanumeric keyboard. A feature of the Baudot code, and subsequent telegraph codes, was that, unlike Morse code, every character has a code of the same length making it more machine friendly. The Baudot code was used on the earliest ticker tape machines ( Calahan , 1867),

10904-595: Was acquired by the Siemens's Medical Engineering Group, eventually becoming part of Siemens Medical Solutions . Also in 2000, Atecs-Mannesman was acquired by Siemens, The sale was finalised in April 2001 with 50% of the shares acquired, acquisition, Mannesmann VDO AG merged into Siemens Automotive forming Siemens VDO Automotive AG, Atecs Mannesmann Dematic Systems merged into Siemens Production and Logistics forming Siemens Dematic AG, Mannesmann Demag Delaval merged into

11020-474: Was appointed Ingénieur-Télégraphiste and charged with establishing a line of stations between Paris and Lille , a distance of 230 kilometres (140 mi). It was used to carry dispatches for the war between France and Austria. In 1794, it brought news of a French capture of Condé-sur-l'Escaut from the Austrians less than an hour after it occurred. A decision to replace the system with an electric telegraph

11136-414: Was demonstrated on the London and Birmingham Railway in July of the same year. In July 1839, a five-needle, five-wire system was installed to provide signalling over a record distance of 21 km on a section of the Great Western Railway between London Paddington station and West Drayton. However, in trying to get railway companies to take up his telegraph more widely for railway signalling , Cooke

11252-588: Was determined much of the book contained false claims although the trial itself publicized Siemens's history in Nazi Germany. The company supplied electrical parts to Nazi concentration camps and death camps . The factories had poor working conditions, where malnutrition and death were common. Also, the scholarship has shown that the camp factories were created, run, and supplied by the SS , in conjunction with company officials, sometimes high-level officials. In

11368-421: Was developed in Britain from the 1840s onward. It was used to manage railway traffic and to prevent accidents as part of the railway signalling system. On 12 June 1837 Cooke and Wheatstone were awarded a patent for an electric telegraph. This was demonstrated between Euston railway station —where Wheatstone was located—and the engine house at Camden Town—where Cooke was stationed, together with Robert Stephenson ,

11484-546: Was founded to act as a competence center for financing issues and as a manager of financial risks within Siemens. In 1998, Siemens acquired Westinghouse Power Generation for more than $ 1.5 billion from the CBS Corporation and moving Siemens from third to second in the world power generation market. In 1999, Siemens's semiconductor operations were spun off into a new company called Infineon Technologies . Its Electromechanical Components operations were converted into

11600-402: Was given the highest fine of €396 million, more than half of the total, for its alleged leadership role in the activity. Telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pigeon post

11716-552: Was invented by Claude Chappe and operated in France from 1793. The two most extensive systems were Chappe's in France, with branches into neighbouring countries, and the system of Abraham Niclas Edelcrantz in Sweden. During 1790–1795, at the height of the French Revolution , France needed a swift and reliable communication system to thwart the war efforts of its enemies. In 1790, the Chappe brothers set about devising

11832-536: Was invented by US Army surgeon Albert J. Myer in the 1850s who later became the first head of the Signal Corps . Wigwag was used extensively during the American Civil War where it filled a gap left by the electrical telegraph. Although the electrical telegraph had been in use for more than a decade, the network did not yet reach everywhere and portable, ruggedized equipment suitable for military use

11948-403: Was known as a telegram. A cablegram was a message sent by a submarine telegraph cable, often shortened to "cable" or "wire". The suffix -gram is derived from ancient Greek: γραμμα ( gramma ), meaning something written, i.e. telegram means something written at a distance and cablegram means something written via a cable, whereas telegraph implies the process of writing at a distance. Later,

12064-782: Was made in 1846, but it took a decade before it was fully taken out of service. The fall of Sevastopol was reported by Chappe telegraph in 1855. The Prussian system was put into effect in the 1830s. However, they were highly dependent on good weather and daylight to work and even then could accommodate only about two words per minute. The last commercial semaphore link ceased operation in Sweden in 1880. As of 1895, France still operated coastal commercial semaphore telegraph stations, for ship-to-shore communication. The early ideas for an electric telegraph included in 1753 using electrostatic deflections of pith balls, proposals for electrochemical bubbles in acid by Campillo in 1804 and von Sömmering in 1809. The first experimental system over

12180-575: Was mainly used in areas where the electrical telegraph had not been established and generally used the same code. The most extensive heliograph network established was in Arizona and New Mexico during the Apache Wars . The heliograph was standard military equipment as late as World War II . Wireless telegraphy developed in the early 20th century became important for maritime use, and was a competitor to electrical telegraphy using submarine telegraph cables in international communications. Telegrams became

12296-400: Was not immediately available. Permanent or semi-permanent stations were established during the war, some of them towers of enormous height and the system was extensive enough to be described as a communications network. A heliograph is a telegraph that transmits messages by flashing sunlight with a mirror, usually using Morse code. The idea for a telegraph of this type was first proposed as

12412-409: Was not new; it was highlighted as far back as 1914 when both Siemens and Vickers were involved in a scandal over bribes paid to Japanese naval authorities . The company resorted to bribery as it sought to expand its business in the developing world after World War II. Up until 1999, bribes were a tax-deductible business expense in Germany, with no penalties for bribing foreign officials. However, with

12528-455: Was preceded by a 50-year history of ingenious but ultimately unsuccessful experiments by inventors to achieve wireless telegraphy by other means. Several wireless electrical signaling schemes based on the (sometimes erroneous) idea that electric currents could be conducted long-range through water, ground, and air were investigated for telegraphy before practical radio systems became available. The original telegraph lines used two wires between

12644-500: Was produced in 1980, and in 1988, Siemens and GEC acquired the UK defence and technology company Plessey . Plessey's holdings were split, and Siemens took over the avionics , radar and traffic control businesses—as Siemens Plessey . In 1977, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) entered into a joint venture with Siemens, which wanted to enhance its technology expertise and enter the American market. Siemens purchased 20% of AMD's stock, giving

12760-433: Was proposed by Cooke in 1842. Railway signal telegraphy did not change in essence from Cooke's initial concept for more than a century. In this system each line of railway was divided into sections or blocks of varying length. Entry to and exit from the block was to be authorised by electric telegraph and signalled by the line-side semaphore signals, so that only a single train could occupy the rails. In Cooke's original system,

12876-549: Was rejected several times in favour of the more familiar, but shorter range, steam-powered pneumatic signalling. Even when his telegraph was taken up, it was considered experimental and the company backed out of a plan to finance extending the telegraph line out to Slough . However, this led to a breakthrough for the electric telegraph, as up to this point the Great Western had insisted on exclusive use and refused Cooke permission to open public telegraph offices. Cooke extended

12992-496: Was still 42.7 percent. During World War I , Britain's telegraph communications were almost completely uninterrupted while it was able to quickly cut Germany's cables worldwide. In 1843, Scottish inventor Alexander Bain invented a device that could be considered the first facsimile machine . He called his invention a "recording telegraph". Bain's telegraph was able to transmit images by electrical wires. Frederick Bakewell made several improvements on Bain's design and demonstrated

13108-404: Was still used, although it was accepted that poor weather ruled it out on many days of the year. France had an extensive optical telegraph system dating from Napoleonic times and was even slower to take up electrical systems. Eventually, electrostatic telegraphs were abandoned in favour of electromagnetic systems. An early experimental system ( Schilling , 1832) led to a proposal to establish

13224-584: Was the seventh-largest company in the German empire by number of employees. (see List of German companies by employees in 1907 ) In 1919, S & H and two other companies jointly formed the Osram lightbulb company. During the 1920s and 1930s, S & H started to manufacture radios , television sets , and electron microscopes . In 1932, Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall (Erlangen), Phönix AG (Rudolstadt) and Siemens-Reiniger-Veifa mbH (Berlin) merged to form

13340-434: Was therefore moved to alternative places and regions not affected by the air war. The goal was to secure continued production of important war-related and everyday goods. According to records, Siemens was operating almost 400 alternative or relocated manufacturing plants at the end of 1944 and in early 1945. In 1972, Siemens sued German satirist F.C. Delius for his satirical history of the company, Unsere Siemens-Welt , and it

13456-480: Was used by British military in many colonial wars, including the Anglo-Zulu War (1879). At some point, a morse key was added to the apparatus to give the operator the same degree of control as in the electric telegraph. Another type of heliograph was the heliostat or heliotrope fitted with a Colomb shutter. The heliostat was essentially a surveying instrument with a fixed mirror and so could not transmit

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