Carl and William, the younger brothers of Werner Siemens, were instrumental in establishing the telegraph manufacturing company “Telegraphen Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske”. In 1853, Carl travelled to St Petersburg where he managed the Russian branch of the firm—with great success. Siemens & Halske received a contract from the Russian government to build a telegraph network measuring 9000 metres in length. Carl proved his mettle and delivered a major boost to the fortunes of the Berlin company. Although he then spent the next 10 years in London, where he and his brother William successfully led operations to lay the transatlantic ocean cable, Carl was drawn back to St Petersburg. There he revitalised the Russian branch of the Siemens firm with new products and ventures: electrically operated railways, urban lighting systems, telegraph equipment and cables, and railway signalling systems. In reward for his entrepreneurial service to Russia, Tsar Nicholas II raised Carl von Siemens to the hereditary nobility in 1895. 

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