Equally loved by Boy Scouts and Astronoauts, the Swiss Army Knife, a handy tool to have for quick fixes and fast rescue, is a Design and Business Classic.

The Swiss Army Knife by Victorinox has made more timely rescues than Superman. Astronauts have used it in outer space. Adventurers have taken it to the North Pole, to the top of Mount Everest and into the tropical rain forests of the Amazon. In a pinch, it's been used to perform emergency surgery, screw down loose bolts, open tin cans and file hangnails. To Boy Scouts and "damsels in distress," the Swiss Army Knife is a handy survival tool small enough to tuck in your pocket or keep in your purse..

This ingenious pocketknife was invented in the late 1800s by a Swiss cutler named Karl Elsener. Elsener wanted to stimulate employment in the poverty-stricken district in which he grew up by crafting knives that were then being imported from Germany. He first designed a hefty multi-purpose knife for soldiers in the Swiss Army and followed it with other profession-specific models, bearing such names as Cadet Knife and Farmer's Knife. But none approached the success of the amazing Officer's Knife introduced in 1897.

Light, slender and compact, the Officer's Knife included the blade, awl, can opener and screwdriver available on the Soldier's Knife, plus a second small blade and a corkscrew. It became an instant bestseller for Victorinox (named Victoria for Elsener's mother in 1909, with the suffix "inox" meaning stainless steel added in 1921).

American GIs stationed in Europe after World War II discovered the inexpensive pocketknives in PX shops and bought them by the thousands to take back home. Americans have clamored for them ever since. Today the Officer's Knife which most people simply call the "Swiss Army Knife" is available in more than 100 different combinations. The flagship SwissChamp model has 33 different features packed into a 6.5 ounce "toolbox." Precision-engineered using 64 separate parts, the SwissChamp requires more than 450 processes during manufacturing. This quality has built consumer confidence so much so that some people have even staked their lives on it.