The Swiss Army Knife: It was already an important service on the “Mir” space station
Quelle: picture alliance / Winfried Rothermel
When the Swiss Army ordered soldiers’ knives in the German knife city of Solingen, federal cutlers felt their honor was offended. You still grab the job. It is the hour of birth of the red army knife.
WIf you are still looking for a Christmas present for children, nephews, nieces or grandchildren, you should consider whether the person you are to receive is old enough to buy a pocket knife. Because that would be a practical present – and one with a long tradition.
The oldest folding knife discovered so far comes from the time between 600 and 500 BC. The Celtic knife was found in Hallstatt, Austria and had an iron blade with a handle made of bone. “The Romans already had jackknives with multiple tools,” says Hajo Wilkes, who works in product development at the Solingen knife manufacturer Böker Baumwerk.
The history of the pocket knife is being continued in the North Rhine-Westphalian city. Böker, for example, has had a pocket knife in its range since 1869 – and still makes it by hand today. The company is one of the few that still produces in the “City of Blades”.
Source: WORLD infographic
Another, the Hubertus company, writes in its Time.news that the Solingen knife company Wester, which no longer exists, received an order from the Swiss army in the 1880s to supply a soldier’s knife. Above all, it should be equipped with a can opener and a screwdriver, with the help of which the new army rifle could be dismantled.
But the cutler Karl Elsener from Ibach in the canton of Schwyz didn’t want to let that go. Together with a good 20 other cutlers, he founded the Association of Swiss Master Cutlers and brought home the order for the soldier’s knives. “The first Swiss army knives were delivered in 1891,” says a spokeswoman for Victorinox, as Elsener’s company has been called since 1921.
Source: WORLD infographic
Soon afterwards Elsener also offered his knives for other target groups, refined pocket knife types, which he called student knives, cadet knives or peasant knives. The officer’s knife, for example, was a little lighter and more elegant than the soldier’s knife and contained, among other things, a corkscrew. The Swiss cross has adorned the red handle scales since 1909.
Source: WORLD infographic
The first soldier’s knife from Switzerland formed the cornerstone for the rise of the Swiss Army Knife – and for the Victorinox company, which is now the international leader in pocket knives or, as they say in Switzerland, “pocket knives” and still more than a third of the Makes sales with the knives.
Source: WORLD infographic
The great career of the “Swiss Army Knife” began after the Second World War, because many US soldiers brought such a knife home with them. Three US presidents ensured the ultimate fame: Lyndon B. Johnson (in office from 1963 to 1969), Ronald Reagan (1982-1989) and George HW Bush (1989-1993) each gave away thousands of knives in which their signature and the Presidential coats of arms were embedded.
Source: WORLD infographic
At NASA, a Swiss officer’s knife was even part of the basic equipment of the space shuttle crews. The Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield described Victorinox boss Carl Elsener, great-grandson of the founder, how he could not open the hatch when he switched from the space shuttle “Atlantis” to the Russian space station “Mir” in 1995. He worked on the screw connection with his pocket knife: “I broke into the ‘Mir’ with my Swiss Army knife. Never leave the planet without one. “
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