Carl Louis Schwendler (1838–1882) was a German

electrician An electrician is a tradesman, tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the ...

and one of the first proponents of the

tungsten Tungsten (also called wolfram) is a chemical element; it has symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively in compounds with other elements. It was identified as a distinct element in 1781 and first ...

based

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, also known as an incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe, is an electric light that produces illumination by Joule heating a #Filament, filament until it incandescence, glows. The filament is enclosed in a ...

. He also published an influential textbook on

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

s, and worked in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

at a senior post in the Telegraph Department. He was involved in setting up telegraphic communication between Agra and Calcutta solving problems in transmission of submerged cables. He was commissioned by the Railways to perform a feasibility study of lighting

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

stations by electric lamp. Schwendler was a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In 1867 a zoo was proposed by Joseph Fayrer and the idea was again raised by Schwendler in 1873. He helped in the setting up of this garden and offered his small menagerie (prior to his leaving India) to create the nucleus of the

Alipore Zoological Gardens The Zoological Garden, Alipore (also informally called the Alipore Zoo or Kolkata Zoo) is India's oldest formally stated zoological park (as opposed to royal and British menageries) and a big tourist attraction in Kolkata, West Bengal. It has ...

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

. The Zoological Gardens were formally inaugurated on 1 January 1876 by the Prince of Wales (

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

) and opened to the public in May with Schwendler as its first superintendent assisted by Ram Brahma Sanyal. This zoo became in 1875 the home of

Robert Clive Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the first British List of governors of Bengal Presidency, Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for l ...

's tortoise,

Adwaita Adwaita (from , meaning "one and only" in Sanskrit) ( – 22 March 2006), also spelled Adwaitya or Addwaita, was a male Aldabra giant tortoise that lived in the Alipore Zoological Gardens of Kolkata, India. At the time of his death in 2006, A ...

, thought to be the longest-living animal in the world when he died in 2006 at an estimated of age 255. A memorial to Schwendler was erected at the zoo premises in 1883.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwendler, Carl Louis German electrical engineers 1838 births 1882 deaths Expatriates in British India German expatriates in India