Munich-based Siemens....
In 1847 Werner von Siemens, an electrical engineer, teamed with craftsman, Johann Halske, to make telegraphs as Siermens & Halske in Germany. Although Halske left the firm 20 years later, the company name was not shortened to Siemens until 1966. The firms first major project linked Berlin and Frankfurt with the first long-distance telegraph system in Europe (1848). Siemens continued to string telegraph wires across Europe and in 1870 completed the 6,600-mile India Line runnlng from London to Calcutta. The company made the first transatlantic cable, which connected Ireland to the US in 1874.
Siemens built Europe's first electric power transmisssion system (1876), the world's first electrified railway (1879) and one of the first elevators (1880). As a rusult of Werner von Siemens's discussions with Thomas Edison (1881), the company received a license to manufacture incandescent lights. Disagreement between the 2 inventors contributed to the different electrical voltage standards used by North America (110 volts) and Europe (220 volts). In 1896 the company patented the world's first X-ray tube and completed the first European subway, in Budapest.
<<Fast forward......>>
In 1988 and 1989 it bought Bendix Eleectronics (US), Rolm Systems (manufacturing and development), 50% of Rolm Company (marketing and services) and the telecommunications business of Plessey (UK), In 1990 Siemens became North America"s #3 telecommunications supplier by combining its US telecommunications businesses with Stromberg-Carlson (a unit of GEC Plessey telecommunications, UK). In 1992 Siemens completed the purchase of Rolm Company and said that it will sell all of its telecommunications equipment iln the US under the Rolm name.
Source: Hoover's Handbook of World Business 1993 |
