Personal recollections of Werner von Siemens

Abstract

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 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-

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