Cognitive Slippage

The Swiss have an extensive history of producing the highest quality products globally. The Swiss Army knife is synonymous with Swiss quality and craftsmanship. First made in the late 19th century, the Swiss Army knife is still supplied to the Swiss Army today. In fact, Victorinox and Wenger, the producers of this popular pocket knife, supply the Swiss Army with over 50,000 knives every year. Its global popularity is due to its extensive variety of instruments and functions and for outlasting other popular makes of pocket knives. They have shown to be so favoured they are today utilised on expeditions to trying climates such as the North Pole, Antarctica and Mt. Everest, and are even issued as Standard issue to the crew of space shuttles.

Karl Elsener was the first person to produce the Swiss Army knife in its current form. Upon finding out that the Swiss Army were using knives manufactured in Germany, Elsener decided to make locally produced knives. He was not content with his first knife so took over 5 years to perfect the design. As an added touch, he contributed the cross and shield that is still used by Victorinox today. In 1909, K. Elsener renamed his company Victoria, after his mother who had recently passed away. In 1921, when the company started using stainless steel, or inox, to manufacture its knives, it was renamed Victorinox. Victorinox is still run by the Elsener family, with Carl Elsener leading the company today. The term ‘Swiss Army knife’ was not originally conceived by Victorinox. Its official name at the time, ‘Schweizer Offizer Messer’, was too hard to say, and thus the term ‘Swiss Army knife’ was coined.

The Swiss Army knife is produced in a variety of models, sizes and colours. Popular attachments found on most of the knives include 2 blades, tooth-pick, tweezers, corkscrew, bottle open, pair of scissors and nail file. Some more advanced models also feature a Phillips-head and flat-head screwdriver, ballpoint pen, can opener, saw, magnifying glass, wrench, scaler and pliers. The latest models, named ‘Victorinox Cybertools’ feature a digital clock, music player, optical laser pointer, altimeter, hex screwdriver and even a USB flash drive. The knives come in several sizes, with the Basic model being about 9 centimetres long and the smaller models some 6 centimetres long. ‘The Giant’, manufactured by Wenger, was the longest ever manufactured. It was upwards of 22cm long and featured 85 different instruments.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 9:21 pm and is filed under School of Products, University of Hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.