Early life

Karl Moritz Immisch was born on 12 March 1838 in Niederschmon, near Querfurt

Querfurt

Querfurt a town in Saalekreis district in the south of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, situated in a fertile area on the Querne, west from Merseburg, on a branch line from Oberroblingen. Pop. 12,935 .-History:...

 in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and died 20 September 1903 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Always known as 'Moritz Immisch', he was the eldest son of August Christian Immisch (a watchmaker by profession). He received a technical education in the state of Thuringia, graduating from university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 in his native country, before leaving Germany around 1860 to seek opportunities in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, particularly in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. He migrated with one of his younger brothers, Bernhardt Theodore Immisch, also trained as a watchmaker

Watchmaker

A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since virtually all watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers solely repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand...

. Both men married and settled in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

; Moritz marrying in 1876 an English lady (Emma Elizabeth Welch) at St John's Church, Marylebone, London. Twenty years later Moritz became a naturalised British citizen.

Watchmaking

Immisch found opportunities to apply his watchmaking skills, developing precision clockwork mechanisms, improving practical details and considering the further applications of the physical processes involved. From 1863 he was employed as foreman to the noted firm Le Roy & Fils at their premises on Regent St. In 1872, when already a Council Member of the British Horological Institute

British Horological Institute

The British Horological Institute is the representative body of the horological industry in the United Kingdom.-History:...

, he submitted an essay on 'The balance spring

Balance spring

A balance spring, or hairspring, is a part used in mechanical timepieces. The balance spring, attached to the balance wheel, controls the speed at which the wheels of the timepiece turn, and thus the rate of movement of the hands...

 and its isochronal adjustments' which was awarded the Institute's Baroness Burdett Coutts Prize Immisch's prize essay was published in small book form - a work which remained in print for many years.

Instrument making

In 1881 Immisch patented a remarkably small watch-shaped thermometer

Thermometer

Developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, a thermometer is a device that measures temperature or temperature gradient using a variety of different principles. A thermometer has two important elements: the temperature sensor Developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, a thermometer (from the...

, functioning on the variable expansive properties of fluid in a Bourdon tube. This metallic instrument was designed to be more robust than contemporary glass thermometers filled with mercury

Mercury (element)

Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...

 - for this reason it was first branded as an 'avitreous', or metallic thermometer. The speed of the temperature-expansion and the calibration

Calibration

Calibration is a comparison between measurements – one of known magnitude or correctness made or set with one device and another measurement made in as similar a way as possible with a second device....

 of the watch-dial indicator

Dial indicator

Dial indicators, also known as dial gauges and probe indicators, are instruments used to accurately measure small linear distances, and are frequently used in industrial and mechanical processes...

 allowed very accurate readings to be taken, and its handy

Handy

-Technology:* mobile phone, in German-speaking countries and sometimes in European English* development name for the Atari Lynx* Handy , an emulator for the Atari Lynx-Places:* Handy Cross, Buckinghamshire, England* Handy, Indiana, USA...

 size made it highly portable as a clinical instrument.

Hundreds of Immisch thermometers were tested for accuracy at the Kew Observatory

Kew Observatory

Kew Observatory was an astronomical and terrestrial magnetic observatoryfounded by King George III , located within the Old Deer Park of the former Richmond Palace in Richmond, Surrey, now within Greater London. The former royal manor of Kew lies to the immediate north...

 every year after its launch. It was awarded a Silver Medal

Silver medal

A silver medal is a medal awarded to the second place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and contests with similar formats....

 at the International Medical Congress of 1881 and received awards at the Inventions Exhibition of 1885 in London, as well as the Exposition Universelle

World's Fair

World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...

 in Antwerp and the Gewerbe und Industrie Ausstellung in Görlitz

Görlitz

Görlitz is a town in Germany. It is the easternmost town in the country, located on the Lusatian Neisse River in the Bundesland of Saxony. It is opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was a part of Görlitz until 1945. Historically, Görlitz was in the region of Upper Lusatia...

, also in 1885.

Its small size made the device very popular and it was referred to in many medical journals throughout the 1880s both in England and in the US.
Immisch himself later wrote an article comparing the merits of his thermometer with others then in use for the New York Medical Journal in 1889.

Electrical work

Immisch had long been interested in the science of electricity

Electricity

Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 and magnetism

Magnetism

Magnetism is a property of materials that respond at an atomic or subatomic level to an applied magnetic field. Ferromagnetism is the strongest and most familiar type of magnetism. It is responsible for the behavior of permanent magnets, which produce their own persistent magnetic fields, as well...

; as far back as the 1860s he understood the basic principles and measurements of resistance

Electrical resistance

The electrical resistance of an electrical element is the opposition to the passage of an electric current through that element; the inverse quantity is electrical conductance, the ease at which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual parallels with the mechanical...

, voltage

Voltage

Voltage, otherwise known as electrical potential difference or electric tension is the difference in electric potential between two points — or the difference in electric potential energy per unit charge between two points...

, and current

Electric current

Electric current is a flow of electric charge through a medium.This charge is typically carried by moving electrons in a conductor such as wire...

. In applying his mechanical skills and practical scientific approach to electro-magnetism, he entered into the design and construction of electric motors, of 'electro-motors' as they were then known. By 1880, his experiments in small dynamo-electric machines had led him to step away from watchwork and explore the new opportunities in the nascent electrical engineering

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

 industry. In 1882 he patented 'An improved electro-motor' and, together with a small number of friends and colleagues, he established a small company 'Messrs M. Immisch & Co.' with works in Kentish Town

Kentish Town

Kentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The most widely accepted explanation of the name of Kentish Town is that it derived from 'Ken-ditch' meaning the 'bed of a waterway'...

, first at Perry Road and then much more substantially at the larger premises at 19 Malden Crescent.

Messrs Immisch & Co.

The company was composed of a number of fellow enthusiasts, local businessmen and supporters. Foremost amongst them was a friend and partner, Frederick William John Hubel, who was himself formerly involved in watchwork and who became in his own description an 'electrician' in the development of the company's electrical undertakings.

Immisch & Co were established in 1882 and spent many years quietly improving the existing design of direct current motors, and finding new fields in which to apply their developing machine. They had notable success in the application of motors to mining work, and the Immisch name also came to be associated with some of the earliest electric road vehicles produced - Immisch motors, geared with chains made by Hans Renold

Hans Renold

Hans Renold was a Swiss engineer. The son of a burgher family in Aarau, Switzerland, Hans came to Manchester, England at the age of 21 and found work with a firm of machinery exporters....

 were fitted to a series of electrical carriages and dogcarts in 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890 and 1896. This work was carried out in association with Magnus Volk

Magnus Volk

Magnus Volk was a pioneer British electrical engineer. He is most notable for having built Volk's Electric Railway, the world's oldest extant electric railway. He also built the unique, but short lived, Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway, together with its unusual Daddy Long Legs...

, himself a very early electrical experimenter and engineer. News and illustrations of the 3 and 4-wheel vehicles constructed for the Sultan of Turkey, and of the award the Sultan gave to Volk brought both men to international notice.

Immisch also employed Volk as a manager in the development of the first public fleet of storage battery electric launches and charging stations available for hire on the river Thames with its headquarters at Platt's Eyot. After 12 months of experimental work starting in 1888 with a randan

Randan

A randan is a boat rowed by three persons, stern and bow using a single oar each and the central person a pair of sculls. The word is of unknown origin, and can hardly be connected with a slang term for a row or spree, which is found as early as the beginning of the 18th century and is generally...

 skiff

Skiff

The term skiff is used for a number of essentially unrelated styles of small boat. The word is related to ship and has a complicated etymology: "skiff" comes from the Middle English skif, which derives from the Old French esquif, which in turn derives from the Old Italian schifo, which is itself of...

, the firm commissioned the construction of hulls which they equipped with electrical apparatus. From 1889 until just before the First World War the boating season and regatta

Regatta

A regatta is a series of boat races. The term typically describes racing events of rowed or sailed water craft, although some powerboat race series are also called regattas...

s saw the silent electric boats plying their way up and downstream.

Electric Traction

Like his contemporary and fellow electric launch pioneer, Anthony Reckenzaun

Anthony Reckenzaun

Anthony Reckenzaun was an electrical engineer who worked in the UK and the US.Reckenzaun worked on electric tramcars and electric boats. He is probably best known for applying worm gear drive to tramcars...

, Immisch became interested in the development of electric traction for urban transport. Both men had designed and built electric motors to be fitted to tramcars for the public and light railways for industrial purposes.

Immisch motors were noted for their strong mechanical construction and light weight for the power produced..

In 1890, with hopes of a large scale expansion of electric traction on the existing horse-drawn tramways, Immisch's Company, together with the Electric Traction Company chaired by Viscount Bury, sold itself to the General Electric Power and Traction Company Limited. This new company soon foundered however due to its reliance on accumulator

Accumulator

Accumulator may refer to:* Accumulator , in a CPU, a processor register for storing intermediate results* Accumulator , an apparatus for storing energy or power...

 traction.

At the end of 1888 and during 1889 the Electric Traction Company, employing Immisch machinery and expertise, had instigated a trial of accumulator tramcars on the Barking Road section of the North Metropolitan Tramways Company's network. This small mile-long single-line track from Plaistow

Plaistow, Newham

Plaistow is a place in the London Borough of Newham in east London. It formed part of the County Borough of West Ham in Essex until 1965.Plaistow is a mainly residential area, including several council estates; the main road is the A112 - Plaistow Road, High Street, Broadway, Greengate Street and...

 to Canning Town

Canning Town

Canning Town is an area of east London, England. It is part of the London Borough of Newham and is situated in the area of the former London docks on the north side of the River Thames. It is the location of Rathbone Market...

 was chosen to prove the economy and reliability of the electric system. The 52 seat tramcars, 6 in total (4 on the road at any one time), ran daily from June 1889 until August 1892. Despite the North Metropolitan Tramways Company having obtained a Private Act

Local and Personal Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom

Local and Personal Acts of Parliament are laws in the United Kingdom which apply to a particular individual or group of individuals, or corporate entity. This contrasts with a Public General Act of Parliament which applies to the entire community...

 in 1890 to employ such electric tramcars throughout the network, the ultimate approval remained with the local authorities through whose areas the trams ran. In a time of growing municipal powers, the old contracting leases of the Tramways Act of 1870 were expiring and local authorities in the UK looked to buy out old lines from the tramway companies, to develop services of their own.

These obstacles, together with the high costs of maintaining the accumulators on such a small installation were the end of the system, and it was evident that the General Electric Power and Traction Company had, in the circumstances, been overcapitalised. It was wound-up in 1894.

Immisch continued to be involved in manufacturing work for a couple of years in the Acme Immisch Electric Works Company Ltd, but afterwards he retained an interest only as a director in the Immisch Electric Launch Company until his resignation in 1901. Having suffered from heart problems from a number of years, he died two years later.

Obituaries on Moritz Immisch appeared in numerous publications, including the Electrical Review, Vol.53. No.1348, September 25, 1903: quote -"..The world has lost one of the earliest pioneers in the development of electric power. A born inventor; his mind teemed with ideas".

Additional Links

Electric Boat Association link
Moritz Immisch Inventor web page link