Johann Kremnetzky, scientist and inventor and close collaborator of Dr. Theodor Herzl, died here today. He was eighty-five years old.
Herr Kremnetzky was born in Odessa on February 15, 1850. He was educated in Russian schools and later took the degree of engineer in the Charlottenburg Technical School in Germany. As a graduate engineer he assisted in the building of Tiflis-Baku railroad line.
In 1880, he went to Paris where he became associated with the Russian inventor, Jablochoff, whose assistant he was in the discovery of the electric are light.
In Vienna, Herr Kremnetzky introduced the are light and established his own firm for the manufacture of electrical lights. Later his firm was absorbed by the Siemens-Schuckert firm and he became technical director for the German concern.
In 1908, the Siemens-Schuckert firm established a separate branch in Vienna with a factory which employed more than 2,000 workers. Herr Kremnetzky headed the Vienne division of the Siemens-Schuckert company.
He was the inventor of hundreds of electrical devices for which he held patents and which are in use all over the world.
Herr Kremnetzky was a lifelong Zionist and friend of Palestine. He was closely associated with Dr. Herzl in formulating the ideal of Zionism. He was one of the small group of five men associated with Dr. Herzl in the establishment of the Zionist movement. Dr. Herzl entrusted him with the task of organizing the Jewish National Fund to acquire land in Palestine. He was the first president of the Jewish National Fund
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