William Siemens

Wilhelm Siemens;Carl Wilhelm Siemens;Sir William Siemens

1823 (Lenthe, Germany) – 1883 (London)

Siemens corresponded with Wheatstone about electromagnetic issues, and together they invented a self-excited generator. He spent two days showing Faraday around his revolutionary gas furnace in Birmingham, but when Faraday gave his lecture about it he accidentally burned his notes (Siemens later named a cable-laying ship after Faraday). Werner von Siemens was his brother and fellow engineer.