They’ve gone from opening Swiss officers’ wine bottles to becoming standard NASA equipment for space missions. But what was the event that threatened the existence of the world’s favorite do-it-all pocket tool?

In more than 20 years of service in the Army National Guard, your humble scribe came into contact with all manner of weapons and equipment. In all that time, though, the item that came into play most often, for one purpose or another, was not issued but something I’d bought at the post exchange: a Swiss Army knife.

I was hardly the only one. There was always cutting, carving, cleaning, screwing, unscrewing, punching, opening and all manner else to be done, and, more often than one could count, that pocket knife was the handiest gadget within reach to get the job done on the spot.

It has been 125 years since Karl Elsener had the Officers’ and Sports Knife patented, and although the main manufacturer, Victorinox Société Anonyme, has expanded its line of cutlery and tools to about 400, the original has not changed much — and is still a bestseller.

Elsener founded Victorinox AG in Ibach, Canton Schwyz in 1884, as a manufacturer of knives and surgical equipment. That output began to expand in 1891, with an advance in Swiss infantry weaponry. In 1890, the Schmidt-Rubin Model 1889 rifle began replacing the Vetterli Model 1869/71.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield mentioned in his book “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth” how he used his Swiss Army knife to dock the space shuttle Atlantis to the Russian Mir space station, bestowing on it the ultimate endorsement:

“Never leave the planet without one.”

Source
Jon Guttman
HistoryNet