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A brief history of the Swiss Army Knife
The story begins in 1891 with Karl Elsener, owner of a company that made surgical equipment. He founded the Association of Swiss master cutler, to pocket knives to the Swiss Army, who were at that time with German-made ones provide. It took five years to Elsener come with what he called “Soldier’s Knife” (today in Switzerland as a “Swiss Army knife”). With input from an engineer friend, Jeannine Keller the original model had a wooden handle and came with a knife, screwdriver, can opener, and a stamp. It was actually made available to the army before 1896, but Elsener was not satisfied with the device, and finally was able to knife on both sides make with the help of a special mechanism using a single spring for both hands. This allowed him, even a corkscrew.
Elsener Victorinox, was the only provider of multi-function pocket knife to 1893. A company in the French-speaking part of Switzerland known as Paul Boechat & Cie began a similar product-market. The company was later adopted by its General Manager, Theodore Wenger and purchased renamed Wenger. Until 1908 the Swiss government decided, split the contract for knife between the two companies, some German and French-speaking to calm groups in the country, and in part of increasing competition (and lower the prices of the knives). The two companies reached an agreement on marketing, with Victorinox with the sentence “The Original Swiss Army Knife and Wenger with” The Original Swiss Army Knife “. The following year (1909), began the decoration of the Swiss Army Knife the Swiss national symbol (a white cross). Victorinox uses a sign with bilateral symmetry about the cross, while Wenger is using a slightly rounded square with square symmetry. The Swiss army knife uses a simpler bilaterally symmetrical plate.
Victorinox stainless steel blades and tools running in 1921. It is believed Wenger has virtually the same at the time, but company sources are not conclusive about the exact date. The knives were sold in PX stores on U.S. military bases von 1945 to 1949. In fact, believed that the term “Swiss Army Knife” was coined in English by American GIs in World War II because they do not could pronounce the name Swiss Army Knife.
Today, Swiss Army knife include a variety of tools, including: several blades, a bottle-opener/screwdriver/wire stripper, can opener / small screwdriver, tweezers, toothpick, corkscrew, Phillips screwdriver, nail file, Scissors, saw, hook, magnifying glass, ballpoint pen, fish scaler, pliers, keys, USB flash memory, digital clock, digital altimeter, LED light, laser pointer mp3 player and a brass standoffs into the official army model, the assembly of the SIG 550 and SIG 510 allows extended assault rifles (with the screwdriver and drill, the Messer is a holding back of the striker during the lock assembly). Wenger has a special model that all the tools to make it contains. The unit is almost twice as wide as long and retails for about $ 1,200.
The knives are also in many other colors besides the traditional red. Black, blue, white, pink, camouflage, phosphorescent yellow, and many others, both in transparent or opaque. Also, metal and wood paneling. The model is actually used by the Swiss army, in fact, aluminum and not red at all.
On 26 April 2005 Victorinox acquired Wenger company again and again the only supplier of knives to the Swiss army. The company intends to keep the brand alive Wenger sold to consumers for knives.
About the Author
Michael Carpenter operates two websites that sell Swiss Army Knives:
Army Knife Swiss (US) and
Army Knife Swiss (UK).