Inventor and patent holder of the Swiss army knife: Who is Karl Elsener?

We call it a pocket knife, but it is actually a small tool bag with a size of only 10-12 centimeters, but a large tool bag with its function. It looks very Swiss on the outside with its bright red and white cross logo, but inside there is a world of goods: everything you need, from nail files to scissors, screwdrivers, and bottle openers. Therefore, NASA astronauts have been using it as part of their survival kits since 1992. Even Matt Damon, who went to Mars, had it with him, as movie fans will remember.

Karl Elsener (9 October 1860 - 26 December 1918) was a Swiss cutler, inventor and entrepreneur. Karl Elsener completed an apprenticeship as a knife maker in Zug. After some journeyman years, he opened a factory in Ibach, Switzerland in 1884 for the manufacture of knives and surgical instruments. He started production of the Swiss army knife in Switzerland in 1891 and developed his knife manufacturing company into what has become Victorinox.

With 10 talents out of 10, it is a favorite not only of movie lovers and astronauts, but also of adventurers of all ages, campers, scouts, soldiers, do-it-yourselfers, and cult object enthusiasts.

HISTORY

The inventor of this object, which is the symbol of Switzerland, is surgical instrument manufacturer Karl Elsener. The first place of production is Germany.

Moby Dick was the first to announce the idea! Herman Melville described it in Moby Dick, which he wrote in 1851: "Sheffield tools resembling an ordinary pocket knife, from which come not only blades of various sizes but also screwdrivers, corkscrews, tweezers...."

IT ALSO BECAME A WORK OF ART

Art shapes the future, needs drive production, and the entrepreneur's mind does the volleyball. In 1890, the Swiss army needed a pocket knife, just like the one in Moby Dick, to open canned food and use it to maintain their rifles, which required assembly and disassembly.

Since Switzerland did not have the capacity to meet this need at that time, the Germans took the job. The first production takes place in Sollingen. Fortunately, the Swiss Karl Elsener stepped in, added the corkscrews he bought from the French to those produced by the Germans, and “voila”! He unearths his original Swiss army knife, branded Victorinox, named after his mother. He received the patent in 1897 and registered the cross and shield emblem in 1909. The brand has been producing hundreds of different types of these knives for 126 years and provides a lifetime warranty. The Swiss army knife is not only a tool used all over the world, it has been exhibited as a work of art at MOMA, the modern art museum in New York, and has even entered the literature as a term. Instead of saying “It can be easily applied to any scenario and is very useful”, it would be enough to say “Swiss army knife”.

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Carl Elsener: Businessman who transformed the Swiss Army Knife into a global product

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/carl-elsener-businessman-who-transformed-the-swiss-army-knife-into-a-global-product-8662498.html