Mooring seaplane near the village of Valdez, Alaska. "The thinking was to combine two famous Swiss products in one package," Jim Kennedy, president of the company that markets Victorinox knives in the United States, told The New York Times when the product launched in 1992.Īmong the mashup accessories included on Swiss Army knife-and competitors’-models over the years: a tracheotomy blade (for choking emergencies), a wood saw, an orange peeler, tweezers, a fish scaler, a magnifying glass and a wire stripper. One discontinued model, the Super Timer, combined tools for 31 uses (fish scaler included) with a Swiss quartz watch. Like the smartphone, this mashup also continues to evolve, with subsequent models adding more features. Its popularity with soldiers led Elsener and his Victorinox company to patent the handy tool in 1897 as a gizmo that combines a blade with a bevy of other tools-from the screwdriver and can opener to scissors, toothpicks and more.Īmerican GIs discovered the all-in-one tool during World War II, translating its difficult-to-pronounce name from “Schweizer Offiziersmesser" to “Swiss Army knife.” "It was very strong but a little heavy so my great-grandfather decided to make a more elegant knife for officers which had a corkscrew and a second blade." On the other side was nothing," Carl Elsener Jr., great-grandson of the inventor tells The New York Times. "It had a large blade, a can opener, a screwdriver and a reamer all on one side. Originally designed as a simple, easy-to-carry, foldable knife for Swiss soldiers in 1891 by Swiss inventor and cutler Karl Elsener, the famed red-handled, multi-use pocket knife started out as a rather simple mashup. Multi-Tool Pocket KnifeĪn employee displays a Swiss army penknife for sale at the Victorinox AG factory store in Ibach, Switzerland. The iPhone and its competitors-from Samsung, LG and others-have continued to evolve, adding more mashup features such as built-in GPS, location services, video chat, health monitoring, stereo speakers, payment processing and more. “An iPod, a phone-are you getting it? These are not separate devices. "An iPod, a phone and an Internet communicator,” Jobs said at the rollout announcement. Touted as a combination of three products-mobile phone, personal jukebox and touch-controlled desktop-class internet communications device-Apple’s iPhone enabled users to take photos, listen to music, check email, browse the web and more in one handheld device, all with the swipe of a finger. Originally introduced by IBM in 1994 as the Simon Personal Communicator-complete with email and fax capability, a calendar, touchscreen and stylus-the smartphone took a quantum leap forward in 2007 when Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone. Considered by many to be the gold standard of mashup inventions, the smartphone revolutionized modern technology.
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