Oscar Von Miller (1855-1934), pioneer in the introduction of electric light and founder of the Deutsches Museum in Munich
1934 Obituary[1]
We regret to announce the death in Munich on April 9, of His Excellency Dr. Oskar von Miller. Dr. von Miller, who succeeded the Earl of Derby in 1930 as President of the World Power Conference, was universally known among engineers as the founder of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The tenth son of Ferdinand Miller, a brass-founder, he received his education first at the Realgymnasium and afterwards at the Technical College, in Munich. Entering the Government service he visited the first International Electrical Exhibition in Paris in 1881 as Commissioner for Bavaria. While in Paris he became acquainted with the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, having visited the Science Museum in London several years previously. After his return to Munich he was the instigator of the first German electro-technical exhibition, which was held, in 1882, at the Glaspalast in that City. During a study tour of the United States he made the acquaintance of the late Mr. Edison, and upon his return to Germany, he left the Government service to take over the technical management, in Berlin, of the German Edison Company for Applied Electricity which later constituted the basis of the Allgemeine Elektricitatsgesellschaft. In 1890 Dr. von Miller returned to Munich and established there engineering office for the design and erection of electric power stations. In the following year he was entrusted with the carrying out of the international electro-technical exhibition at Frankfort-on-Main.
In 1903 Dr. von Miller’s scheme for the unification of the power stations of the Palatinate, to form a combined supply system, was carried out. A similar scheme was developed by him, during the years of the war, for a portion of Bavaria, and this was carried through to form the Bayernwerk, in conjunction with the Walchensee power plant, which was likewise designed by him. As a leading German engineer in the realm of power supply, Dr. von Miller took an active part in the work of the World Power Conference and was elected honorary president on the occasion of the second plenary meeting in Berlin in 1930. As already indicated, Dr. von Miller will always be remembered as the founder of the Deutsches Museum in Munich in 1903. In this museum, of which the large new building was opened on May 7, 1925, the works and achievements of physicists and engineers all over the world find place.
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- ↑ Engineering 11/05/1934