The Evening Star, Washington D.C., Wednesday February 14, 1934.
George N. Saegmuller, 87, Inventor and manufacturer of scientific instruments, died yesterday on the anniversary of his birth at his home in Arlington County, Va., where he had resided since his retirement in 1926.
He was the inventor of the Saegmuller patent solar attachment for engineering transits. Among his other inventions, which he manufactured in a factory located in this city, were the stardials on astronomical instruments, a governor for chronographs and many others.
Among his outstanding achievements were the development of range finders and telescopic sights used by artillery and naval guns. He perfected the tide-predicting machine which was devised by Prof. Ferrel of the United States Coast Survey.
Founded Instrument Firm.
Many instruments in use at the Georgetown and Naval Observatories also were designed by Mr. Saegmuller.
For several years he was chief of the instrument division of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, later resigning to become one of the founders of Fauth & Co., a manufacturing concern devoted to the making of astronomical, engineering and optical instruments. In 1905 the firm was merged with a Buffalo, N.Y., company and has been operated since that time in that city.
Mr. Saegmuller was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1847, a son of John L. and Babette Saegmuller. He was educated in the public schools of that country, also attending technical schools at Erlangen and Nuremberg. He later went to England and France, where he remained until 1870, when he came to the United States.
Tower Was Reproduced.
During the days when water was difficult to get in Arlington County, and Mr. Saegmuller designed a water tower along the lines of one of the towers around the city wall of Nuremberg, Germany. He had a beer mug, which also was a model of this same tower, and the mug was used as a "scale" by the masons in constructing the tower, which since has been connected with his home there.
He is survived by three sons, John L., Frederick B. and George M., all of this city.
Funeral services will be held from his residence, 500 Little Falls road,
Arlington County, tomorrow at 2 p.m.