Emil RathenauDied 20 Jun 1915 at age 76 (born 11 Dec 1838).German industrialist and a leading figure in the early European electrical industry. In 1881, he met Thomas Edison in Paris at the international electricity exhibition. After lengthy negociations, in 1882, he purchased the rights for the economic use of Edison's patents in Germany. He founded a company to manufacture them (which became one of the two largest German electrical enterprises, Allgemeine Elektrizitats Gesellschaft (AEG)-the German General Electric Company). The product range included power stations, railways as well as electrical machines and devices. Rathenau was also the first to produce aluminium in Germany for industrial use. |
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