Karl Elsener (inventor) Karl Elsener (inventor) 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 invented the Swiss army knife in 1891 and developed his knife manufacturing company into what has become Victorinox. From 1912 to 1918 Elsener was a member of the cantonal parliament of the Canton of Schwyz. He was married three times. After him his son, Carl Elsener (1886-1950), and
Karl Eduard Zachariae von Lingenthal Karl Eduard Zachariae von Lingenthal Karl Eduard Zachariae von Lingenthal (December 24, 1812 – June 3, 1894) was an eminent German jurist and the son of Karl Salomo Zachariae von Lingenthal. He studied philosophy, history, mathematics and linguistics, as well as jurisprudence, at Leipzig, Berlin and Heidelberg. Having made Roman and Byzantine law his special study, he visited Paris in 1832 to examine Byzantine MSS., went in 1834 to Saint Petersburg and Copenhagen for the same purpose, and in 1835 worked in the libraries of Brussels, London, Oxford, Dublin, Edinburgh and Cambridge. After a few months as a practising lawyer